Weskerr wrote...
I guess it's a stupid question if you want to dumb down the game. Who wants to think about what tone a particular piece of dialogue will communicate when the game can tell you, right? While we're at it, why not include an icon next to every piece of dialogue that will tell you beforehand, just like the tone icons, how an NPC will react to it?
This isn't about dumbing down the game! This is about providing important information to the player. Do you think making the paraphrases clear dumbs down the game because the player isn't left guessing what the hell the paraphrase might actually have your character say?
Because that's the argument that you're making. And it's stupid.
Again, bother to read my points. I never take issue with paraphrasing.
Bother to read mine. Because your argument as to why the tone icons dumb down the game
is an argument for making the paraphrase misleading, so the player can "think" about what the PC will say.
Granted, choosing a piece of dialogue soley based on the tone icon will not always work out in your favor.. The problem is that many times it does. Meryll, for example, usually responds well to sarcastic and diplomatic dialogue choices. Rarely, if ever, does she respond well to aggressive ones.
Merril responds well to diplomatic choices, sometimes. She responds well to humour, sometimes. But not always. Humour dialogue can get rivarly. You have to think about it.
Aveline is indeed an example in which the player cannot rely on the tone icons alone. These examples are few and far between, however.
And they disprove your BS point. Whether or not the tones always lead to the right result has nothing to do with the fact that they have crucial information for the player.
I'm glad you cited a specific set of dialogue choices from DA:A. Notice
how all the dialogue choices are laid out in no particular order. There
is no top right, middle, or bottom right, so you have no idea how the
Warden would deliver any of the lines - that is, until you start thinking about it. See how the dialogue wheel would cut that thinking part out?
There's absolutely
no need to think about it. Again, what the hell sort of thinking do you need to do between:
"Miss your little kitty, do you?"
"You had a cat?"
More importantly, Bioware often used that format to
hide which questions were investigate questions from you. Are you going to tell me that randomly having the conversation advance is "intelligent", and it requires the player to think about what questions the designers gated to advance the conversation?
Of course, there are no tone icons either. So far so good. The player
needs to read each line and think about how the line might be delivered
to Anders, and how Anders would react.
What the hell? No. Unless the player has a serious mental deficiency, it requires very little thought to figure out how Anders would react.
It's a conversation about a cat.If you need to take the time to think about how Anders will react to a cat, woe be to you when you encounter the dangers of an untied shoelace.
You've designated the effect each line would have if picked. As you
know, the player has no knowledge of this. He or she still has to
carefully consider which dialogue option to choose. However, put in the
dialogue wheel with the tone icons and careful consideration can take a
back seat. Now say hello dumbed down dialogue system.
It's a conversation about a cat. What is there to think about?
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