Bioware on Writing for Digital Actors

[Volourn]

"I hope that they just not stick with pure verbal options, but also options which will involve physical actions like grabbing someone at the collar and shake the info out of him"

 

One of the main examples is of the main character pulling out his gun, and sticking it in the face of the bartender as he demands answers.

[Llyranor]

And it's really cinematic ^_^ ^_^ ^_^

[Colrom]

Has anyone played the adventure game Bladerunner which is based on the movie?

 

The game allowed you to choose the tone which would be used by your character. The choice was made at the start. I think you could change it mid course if you wanted to. This choice didn't effect what your character intended so much as how that intention was expressed.

 

I mean you can say:

*Hey sweetie get me a cup of jo would ya. :D

*Yo, bitch, coffee, here, now!

*Cup of coffee, please.

 

Big difference in delivery. Same explicit intention. "

 

You would only see options appropriate to your selection of tone.

 

Providing different dialog options for different character types could really provide alot more entertainment.

 

Especially when tone effects the gameplay.

 

That's a selection I can make up front. I don't need to see the separate options for tone each time. But I do need to see the exact wording of the options for intent.

 

I don't think I like the option to select from paraphrase descriptions each time and be suprised by actual delivery each time that much.

 

Perhaps they are trying to save money more than they are trying to make good games. Sort of a good enough solution for them to the complexity of dialog. Only I don't think their solution is good enough for me.

Edited September 9, 2006 by Colrom

[alanschu]

I am actually starting to see the rationale behind this. To me it seems like their goal is to have the game fully voice acted, including the PC, and from that perspective it actually makes sense.

 

I know I don't want to listen to my character say something I already know it's going to say (as if I had already read the dialogue options). As for actual implementation, there's no way of sayin it'll be good or bad until I can actually play the game (which is something  may never do since I won't get a 360 anytime soon).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

That's another thing too. I was discussing it with my roommate (who, incidently, things the idea is great, because he's one of those people who doesn't care for extensive reading), and the first thing he said was "What's the point in having your character speak the line if you already know what he's going to say?"

[Judge Hades]

My response to that is "Because you don't know how the NPC would react on what you have just said."

[Colrom]

But do you want to listen to your character say stuff in a completely wierd voice you could never imagine for yourself?

 

Especially if the delivery is completely different too!

[alanschu]

My response to that is "Because you don't know how the NPC would react on what you have just said."

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Errr, people won't skip what the NPCs say.

[Judge Hades]

Some people do.

[alanschu]

Not sure what your point is.

 

I wasn't talking about the NPC dialogue.

Edited September 9, 2006 by alanschu

[Judge Hades]

 

I don't think there was one.

[alanschu]

But do you want to listen to your character say stuff in a completely wierd voice you could never imagine for yourself?

 

Especially if the delivery is completely different too!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

If you don't like the idea of the PC having full voice, then Mass Effect is not for you. That's just the way it is.

 

If you're planning on having the PC have full voice, the explanation makes sense.

[Judge Hades]

It just seems to be a very bad idea.

[alanschu]

I don't see why.

 

Especially if they are aiming at making it a cinematic experience.

[Llyranor]

A bad idea, it may be, but Hades is eventually going to buy ME anyway.

[Morgoth]

I've no gripe with having full VO. I felt in love with JC Denton (no, not literally) in Deus Ex, Garret from Thief and many others.

Then there're counter examples like System Shock 2 where pure actions form your charcter - that's you. No need to talk to zombies either, so it worked perfectly.

It's a no-brainer that ME needs full VO in order to go for the cinematic Action RPG route. Why else would Bio invest so much effort into their new technology to portray digital actors just to let them stand there like dorks that nod occasionally? (Kotor style?)

Edited September 9, 2006 by Morgoth

[Llyranor]

I've no problem with (good) VA when it doesn't mean reducing the amount of words/content the game can have in order to meet budget demands. In that sense, I like NWN2's two-pronged approach with two dialogue 'modes'.

[Morgoth]

I don't care so much about the amount of words/content, more about the meaningfullness, that's more important to me.

Sheldon Pascotti for example (Lead writer on Deus Ex) did a pretty good job. The characters in Deus Ex were natural (no Shakespeare drama lines or any other overused romantic elements), but just people how you'd roughly expect them to talk in the given situation/setting. I.e. Bums speak like Bums (no

Edited September 9, 2006 by Morgoth

[metadigital]

I don't get how you "hardcore" RPG guys can defend dialogue choices over Oblivion's wheel-of-fortune thingie. If you want to roleplay, you'd probably want to be able to choose exactly what your character was going to say. With dialogue choices, you can only choose one of the choices presented to you. In most cases (for me) noone's even close to what I would want to say. With an Oblivion wheel thingie, you can at least provoke forth the response your own message would produce, even though it doesn't use words.

 

To me, dialogue options is as far from roleplaying as is possible.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't think it's that stark, between dialogue options and the wheel.

 

Also, I do think that (faults and all) the Oblivion conversation wheel was a brilliant meta-game innovation (despite whether it was actually fun or not). :D

 

Well, take a look at a book. Do all people interpret it the same? No. At high school they try to teach you what the 'author intended', but a lot of what they teach you really isn't what the author intended, just what others thought of his work. There are always great diverging theories on just what the author intended - meaning that nowadays, in true postmodernist sense, it is accepted that a single text, or a single scene, or a single line of dialogue can have different meanings for different people, and rather than misinterprtion it is a wealth of interpretion.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That, I believe, is the strength of writing as a medium for conveying ideas. I frequently notice that there are layers of subtexts that are quite beyond the conscious awareness of the author. After all, life is rarely black-and-white, and ideas are as complex as the environment they are reviewed in.

[Nartwak]

It's a matter of the collaborative relationship between the author and the reader, the dynamic which I consider separates literature from, for lack of a better word, pulp. Though I agree that one could say much of literature is an unintended allegory.

 

Except Moby Dιck.

It was about a whale.

 

 

What would you say about alternate reality games?

[Tigranes]

Wahey, a reply.

 

That, I believe, is the strength of writing as a medium for conveying ideas. I frequently notice that there are layers of subtexts that are quite beyond the conscious awareness of the author. After all, life is rarely black-and-white, and ideas are as complex as the environment they are reviewed in.

 

Absolutely. And that's why, as I said, it's a pity - probably more for me than most other consumers - that ME is taking this approach. I really really like reading all the dialogue options and considering each one of them - although I admit that with NWN and JE I didn't have patience to spend more than 2 seconds on each choice due to its horrible writing. (All my opinion, disclaimer, disclaimer, yada yada). Still, I am just as fond of visual, cinematic delivery (hell, I played FF when I was a kid), so we shall not lose all hope.

[Azarkon]

None of the mediums used for artistic expression can be considered concrete, but writing is probably the least concrete of them all. Whereas with music and art there exists the visceral qualities of tone and color, and with film the recorded act, language, taken down to its principle roots, is simply a collection of symbols with no inherent meaning or worth. This abstraction, in turn, allows expression at a higher level, which is necessarily ambiguous.

 

What this has to do with game writing, I've yet to figure out.

[Colrom]

Except Moby Dιck.

 

A "wicked" book.