Panicked NPC: "Inquisitor! Demons have swarmed the Keep. The refugees are being slaughtered! What should we do!??!"
15 minutes later
*Inquisitor continues to stare into Panicked NPC's eyes*
This always pops into my head when I take forever to make a decision like that:
I agree with Stormy and Ispan...I'm just always on call for my daughter, for my cat, for my own health, which suxxors. There have been times when I'll be in the middle of a cutscene and have to push my Xbox button to pop up the 360 menu because I suddenly feel hella sick. So, timed dialogue would suck for me. I like being able to take my time and not worry about missing something because my daughter suddenly needs my attention right. now.
I would prefer it in the same way Renegade/Paragon interruption worked in Mass Effect as more of a situational approach. I would not like to have each encounter with dialogue in Dragon Age become a quick time event, basically.
I am firm believer at the mixed dialogue. Kind of like Witcher 2. In some instances you have to make a decision in given time, but when you chill at your house and play with your dog.....its not necessery.
Noooo I would hate timed dialogue. I actually really enjoy watching a companion stand there like an idiot for ages while I think of what to say. 
I love having the option to pause the game, or step away from the game and not have it progress without me, at the drop of a hat. I get irritated if there are even short cut scenes I can't pause!
The problem with making anything timed in a game is the fail state may result simply from a distraction, however necessary or unnecessary. Whether it be a cat jumping on your keyboard, or a sick daughter.
I also hate the timed quests of WoW -- like "get this item to somebody in Stormwind in 30 minutes or less". Especially because a lot of the delay in finishing the quest came from things you couldn't control, like the flight speed of gryphons. I notice they don't do those much anymore, although since MoP they have been doing "timer" type quests where you need to successfully defend somebody from attackers for a fixed period of time.
Personally, my "meta" view is that time isn't passing (in the game) when you're not (as the player) doing anything. That is, although from the player's point of view, it may have taken you 15 minutes to respond, in fact, no one noticed your character just sitting there for 15 minutes, they perceived the response as instantaneous.
You know I don't like action-rpg mechanics and that strikes me as another; while yes, I understand sometimes you need to respond to things quickly IRL, the game shouldn't be testing the player's ability to react quickly to dialogue. Why? See first paragraph. Players shouldn't fail because their cat is now on the keyboard.
Noooo I would hate timed dialogue. I actually really enjoy watching a companion stand there like an idiot for ages while I think of what to say.
I love having the option to pause the game, or step away from the game and not have it progress without me, at the drop of a hat. I get irritated if there are even short cut scenes I can't pause!
My most memorable instance of this was when Anders said "I love you," then stared at Hawke intently for the next 10 minutes while I got my crying baby back to sleep. When I returned, he was still waiting patiently and I doubt he expected Hawke to offer him a sandwich after being left in suspense for so long.
I'd be willing to risk one or two reloads for the excitement of a few instances of situation-appropriate timed dialogue. The problem with that is, if timed dialogue only shows up 2 or 3 times throughout the entire game, it could feel really awkward and out of place.
No.
I usually use dialogue breaks for snack breaks and such. Plus timed dialogue is freaking aggravating.
I wouldn't mind it if it came with the option to pause during dialogues (which could work if the pause was a black options screen) and cutscenes. Like many other people here, I no longer have large blocks of time I can devote solely to myself.
No. Timed dialouge is absolutely awful as far as I'm concerned. The one notable exception here is Telltale's The Walking Dead or The Wolf Among Us, but that is because it's a game that relies heavily on split-second decisions and uses them to pull the player into the situation at hand, often forcing them to choose the action they would have chosen in real life.
Dragon Age is not such a game, but rather one of careful consideration of the kind of character you're playing. Things might be different if DA was designed to let you play as yourself, but as things stand, timed dialouge would add nothing to the game and just end up bringing forth a lot of frustration.
Yeah, I'm pretty much completely against this as well. I can see how in very specific situations, it might be used to introduce an element of suspense that would add the experience. But, in general, I don't need to see this in DA. And, I'm a big fan of Alpha Protocol AND the Telltale games.
I love the timed dialogue in The Wolf Among Us, but... that is a much smaller, simpler game than DA. And it's also broken up into short chapters. Much of the tension in the game is created by the timing, since it's both timed dialogue and reaction commands, whereas DA has tons of other restrictions creating the tension. I can handle carefully babysitting a game for two hours or so to get through one chapter. I do not want to have to do the same for an 80+ hour RPG where I'm already having to juggle a million other variables.
If you're letting the cats jerk you around like that, you're doing it wrong.No timed dialogue, please. I don't want to be pressured to click a dialogue option within a certain amount of time. Especially since I have lot of pets, it'd be frustrating to miss out on a dialogue and get a crappy response because I had to let a cat out of the house or something.
No...this is more actionization of the RPG genre. When I'm not playing myself I want to be able to think about how my character would respond, not throw a response that I would because I'm limited in time. If the character has nothing to say for that situation there should be a "..." option.
If you're letting the cats jerk you around like that, you're doing it wrong.
You try owning the loudest half-deaf albino cat in the world and see how quickly you open the door for it to get it to shut up.
The only way I'd want timed dialogue in my game is if it's optional as well as situational. What if I'm in the middle of a dialogue scene and need to step away from my keyboard for a while? Knowing me, I might not get back to it for over an hour, even if I only intended to step away for a minute or two.
The problem with timed dialogue is it assumes the player has nothing better to do than push on through the game. And while I agree it can make things more interesting, it can also be annoying when you realize that--oops, no, sorry, your time is up and you can't respond. Sometimes I like to mull over my dialogue decisions, even when there's about to be combat. Just because I, the player, am taking my time at thinking up what I want my character to say, doesn't mean that my character is actually taking that much time to speak in the game. What takes me a few minutes of deliberation probably takes my character all of a second or two.
If timed dialogue is an option you can enable (to increase tension/difficulty) then I'd support it. But I prefer not to have it in my playthroughs, and I know I'm not alone in that.
If you're letting the cats jerk you around like that, you're doing it wrong.
If my cat wants something and I ignore him, he jumps on top of my keyboard and demands my attention. Right. This. Minute.
Ah, cat 'ownership'.
Mine just claws stuff.
I still think I could get through 30 seconds of dialogue, though.
What?! You only have one?
Only if it's like the walking dead and your character actually fails to take action if you don't.
It would be weird and annoying if they do it like Witcher 2 and your character does or say "whatever you cursor happened to land on" just because you couldn't decide.
If my cat wants something and I ignore him, he jumps on top of my keyboard and demands my attention. Right. This. Minute.
Ah, cat 'ownership'.
When my cat wants something and I ignore her, she might summon the others, and I now have to answer to a committee.
I don't see anything wrong with timed dialogue: it works well for The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us and Alpha Protocol.
I wouldn't mind seeing it in Dragon Age as well, but maybe only in certain, really tense, situations. Not sure I would like it in all interactions.
Like so many others here, timed dialog would not work well for me. I have kids, pets and a job that requires me to be on call for about 1/3 of my life. Timed dialog would likely result in significantly reduced game time for me. I often have to stop in the middle of a dialog to help with homework, fix dinner, clean up a mess, feed critters or deal with an emergency. Sometimes I can get back to the game in a few minutes, and sometimes it is hours later. I'm not a fan of reloading an entire dialog because I missed a timed response - my first few times through a game I like to make sure that I keep any meta gaming element out of it and simply role play the character I have created. Later I might meta game to find content I missed previously - but I create a character that fits the decisions I want to make. Missing timed dialog would encourage a meta gaming play style, either by having to replay a dialog or by researching a dialog before hand if you know it contains timed dialog - thus removing the sense of urgency the timed dialog was supposed to inspire. Just my two cents.
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