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[copernickers]

Just to be absolutely clear, this isn't another thread on the relative merits of full-text dialogue options. I'm simply curious about the writing process involved; namely, whether full lines of dialogue are written first and then condensed into the paraphrases we see on the wheel, or if writers come up with shorter lines before expanding them into what becomes the voiced dialogue? Or is it a combination of the two?
I'm wondering because in DA2 I sometimes felt that the paraphrase was actually a better piece of dialogue, with the full line coming off as a little forced or redundant.

[Emzamination]

All logical sense dictates it's the former.

[Fast Jimmy]

Emzamination wrote...

All logical sense dictates it's the former.

If it was the latter, I'd say the writers had a few rungs missing. 

[nightscrawl]

copernickers wrote...

Just to be absolutely clear, this isn't another thread on the relative merits of full-text dialogue options. I'm simply curious about the writing process involved; namely, whether full lines of dialogue are written first and then condensed into the paraphrases we see on the wheel, or if writers come up with shorter lines before expanding them into what becomes the voiced dialogue? Or is it a combination of the two?
I'm wondering because in DA2 I sometimes felt that the paraphrase was actually a better piece of dialogue, with the full line coming off as a little forced or redundant.

To help with this I'll post a thing written by David Gaider on the subject.

David Gaider wrote...

This is not to say there aren't things we can do to make the system better other than simply being more rigorous with our use of paraphrases. Not being as anal about not repeating words and phrases between the paraphrase and the actual line(s) is one, but there are others... which we will discuss at a later time.

Phrasing like this does seem to suggest that they do write the full line and then condense it down into a paraphrase.

However, I would say that it is probably a combination of the two because of the writing process involved in any kind of writing, not just game writing. If you have a rough draft of something or an outline of a scene you're going to flesh out later there very well might be cases where lines in the rough draft make it into the paraphrase because it was naturally a paraphrase when you wrote it. And too, you might want the character to say something that is dependent on a callback to another scene that hasn't been written yet, so in that case there might not be a full line to draw from yet.

It is probably rare that the writers sit down and say "OK I know exactly what the NPC is going to say in the situation, and the PC will have these options to reply," because it is a group effort by the entire writers' pit, in addition to any other scene designers that might influence a dialog choice or input. An example of multiple departments working together would be at the start of the Ancient Rock Wraith boss fight during the Deep Roads Expedition. You have Varric and the PC walking into the room, the boss rises up from the ground in a fun animation, and Varric says "That can't be good." The cinematic designers would have worked with the writers in that instance.

Modifié par nightscrawl, 06 mars 2013 - 08:55 .