RPG Codex dialogue interview

T

Tannhauser

Venerable Relic of the Wastes
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RPG Codex has an interesting interview all about dialogue in RPGs, with Brian Mitsode (VtM: Bloodlines - Jeanette/Therese/LaCroix), J.E. Sawyer (Icewind Dale 2 - Maralie Fiddlebender), Scott Bennie (Fallout - Dr. Wu), and David Gaider (KoTOR - Carth/HK-47/Jolee Bindo) taking part.<blockquote>What is the role of dialogues in RPGs, in your opinion? What do they add (or suppose to add) to the overall gameplay experience?

Brian Mitsoda: This is a tricky question because it depends on the game. In some RPGs, it’s to prompt you to hit the “A” button really quickly so you can get back to power-leveling. In some it’s to figure out what path the designer wants you to go down to get the best reward, probably by being sycophantic to Whistlin’ Bilboo the Street Sweeper. In the few that take reactivity into account and allow the player interaction to change up the dynamics in the relationships between the characters and even affect the character’s fate and the story, these dialogues serve to enhance the roleplaying aspect and just possibly make the player a bit more interested in the plot because they can get involved. Adequate to good dialogue (and story) motivates a few players to continue playing and finish the game and hopefully makes the characters and world more real, completing the necessary illusion for a zesty bit of escapism.

J.E. Sawyer: Character dialogue helps define characters, mood, and setting. Like many aspects of design, it gives a sense of style, time, and place to what's happening. In its most blunt application, it conveys rudimentary information, but I think that's using very little of its potential.

Player-selected dialogue helps the player express and define the personality of his or her character. Again, it's often used to reveal basic information, but I think that sells it short, especially for RPGs. If that's really what it's being used for, it doesn't need to be a player-driven event.

Scott Bennie: Well, you have to give the players directions somehow. I think dialogue is as important a defining element as any in an RPG. It's also a key to mood. A game has three tools to produce mood: dialogue, sound, and art. Of those three, dialogue is the easiest to adjust in the design process. </blockquote>Link: "The dialogue interview" at RPG Codex.
 
Not as moving as I thought it could have been or would be...
But it was still pretty good...
I think Dialogue is one of the top 3 most important things in an RPG... cause how fun would it be if it was in a language you didn't understand :wink:
 
Dialogue in Zelda 2 was quite sparse, but they managed to make it fun to play anyway.

zelda2error$5B1$5D.GIF
 
I think a significant problem with dialogue, narrative or any sort of flavour writing in games - including many RPGs - is that it's not being done by writers. Some designers are also good or at least mediocre writers. Many aren't. There are areas in Icewind Dale II that had me thinking, How could this person not have been weeded out from this position? How could a producer or lead designer gloss over this and not say, "Sorry, we can't use this, do it over again or we'll find someone who can"? When people speak of the writing in Torment or Fallout they forget that those games also had areas which were poorly written and edited, dialogues that were poorly structured etc., because the people on those projects with real writing talent could only do so much on their own.

Until writing is given as much care, attention and weight in the production chain as any other aspect of computer games, until poor writing is seen as unacceptable, this discussion will to a large part be entirely pointless, because it's just talking around the fact that the right people aren't on the job. It's like talking about how designers should work to improve graphics without bringing up the suggestion of hiring some competent artists. Try to imagine for a second that people actually did that.
 
I don't know Per. A number of big name games have brought in big-time writers to their side and blew goats. Immediately coming to mind is Advent Rising with Orson Scott Card on the bill.

Of course, good writing does not make a good game if the rest of the package is flawed, so I'll go with you on this one as well (since you're point is correct... just trying to introduce some interesting counterpoints).
 
What was O.S. Card's involvement in the development of the game?
Wikipedia on the matter said:
The game's overall story was created by Donald and Geremy Mustard. The dialogue and screenplay, however, was written by Orson Scott Card and Cameron Dayton. Card's influences are noticeable in the terminology which has been carried over from Ender's Game. The terms "vids," "Buggers," and "ansible" are all references from his critically acclaimed novels (though the term ansible was coined by Ursula K. Le Guin, and was not actually added to the script by Card himself, but by Donald Mustard. See Card's comments on the matter). It is widely agreed upon that the story is the most celebrated feature of the game, with a cliffhanger ending meant to inspire interest in the future games in the series.
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It seems like they gave him a plot, he worked it into a screenplay and sent it back. That isn't a high level of involvement in the project, they basically outsourced it to him.

I agree with Per about the gaming industry's lack of thought about qualified writing.
 
SimpleMinded said:
I don't know Per. A number of big name games have brought in big-time writers to their side and blew goats. Immediately coming to mind is Advent Rising with Orson Scott Card on the bill.
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I'm not really talking about bringing in extremely high-profile authors, though of course that's an option if you have some money to burn and Patrick Stewart isn't taking your calls. As I understand it, during the making of Fallout Mark O'Green was brought in specifically to write a limited selection of important dialogues, and the result is amazing; even MCA rightly worships the man. There's no reason why every single person assigned to write for a game shouldn't have at least the potential of reaching comparable heights. On a more basic level it's just about recognizing and acknowledging when even a single patch of hackneyed characterization, contrived plotting or stilted writing is hurting a product's quality, and whatever editing and QA work is available within the given parameters of slam dunkage isn't able to compensate. Letting an untalented writer contribute text to a text-based game should be regarded in exactly the same way as hiring an artist based on a half-assed portfolio; you just don't do it, however agreeable this person might be and however good he might be at other things. You keep him doing those other things. This still leaves a lot of questions open for discussion, and to be honest I was hoping for a few more reactions, if only from some member of the IwD2 team telling me I suck.
 
Well, you're probably getting very few reactions because you're largely right: half-assed writing can kill a game, and more attention should be payed to the writing and dialogue.

There are a few games that get it very well. Pretty much all of the games that Douglas Adams was involved with (Hitchhiker's Guide, Bureaucracy, Starship Titanic) have tremendous writing.
Valve hired Marc Laidlaw for Half-Life, which worked very well.
MCA has always been a pretty good dialogue writer, which is what prevents his quest designs from becoming too generic (based on what I've seen of his work so far).

Some people just shouldn't be allowed near a pen, though. I probably couldn't write a convincing dialogue if my life depended on it, and apparently many designers in the video game industry can't either. Some people will burn me for this, but Hideo Kojima's stilted dialogue and over-the-top screenplays had a tendency of ruining at least part of the great Metal Gear series, especially the later installments. Baldur's Gate had some absolutely atrocious writing, as did Baldur's Gate 2 (although to a much smaller extent).
Neverwinter Nights was absolutely horrible. There's just no excuse for it.
Knights of the Old Republic's dialogue was decent at times, ridiculous at other times. The same goes for the second installment.
And what to think of STALKER, or the Gothic series? Pretty terrible dialogue at times, again. With STALKER it almost felt as if the translators or designers had done this on purpose.

Quality writing, though, can still be found in some MUDs abound. The Discworld MUD has some excellent writing, for instance.
 
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