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[KaiserShep]

I didn't see this on a brief search through the forums, so I thought maybe I'd bring it up to see what you all thought. I'm always of two minds about the way dialogue is handled in games like The Walking Dead, where you have to respond within a certain amount of time. Part of me really likes it, because you get a different reaction for being indecisive about what to say, but of course the part of me that does get a little stumped might be frustrated when I finally decide on something, but it's too late and I get a suboptimal response from the character.

 

So, how would you guys feel about dialogue on a timer in Dragon Age?

[Allan Schumacher]

On a personal level, I don't mind timed dialogues (I really enjoyed Alpha Protocol).  That said, they are not without problems.

 

With Alpha Protocol, I lacked perspective with respect to timed dialogues for things like accessibility, including those that struggle with determining how to respond while hearing the line as it's being delivered, on top of different language support (if you're reading subtitles while hearing non-native voice over and trying to determine what response to make, it can be a challenge).

 

 

Some of the criticisms towards our standard dialogue system aren't entirely fair.  In terms of engagement, if the player is sitting there thinking about their response for 20 seconds or 20 minutes, they are still engaged in the game.  It might be boring for someone watching, but that's not the person we should worry about when designing the game.  And while things like animations and so forth are still playing, functionally the player's response still happens within an instant within the game narrative.  We could freeze frame everything to drive that point home, but I think it looks less interesting and we're asking for some suspension of disbelief from the game player here too.

 

In AP it works a bit better as you're supposed to be a quick thinking spy.  In TWD it works in large part because the timer is pretty generous (and often prevalent in all of the game systems, not just dialogues).