[Proposal] Adjustable dialogue text length

[Micru]

I'm going to leave here a suggestion, that I'd love to see implemented, TEXT LENGTH ADJUSTABLE. Which means that you can choose either a short "TL;DR" version of the dialogue, or an expanded version

[Delterius]

If trolling, 4/10;

 

If not, no.

[Micru]

If trolling, 4/10;

 

If not, no.

 

Reasons for the strong opposition?

[Jozape]

I guess you could get a wall of text, and then as a response, the PC could say "*YAWN* sorry, can you shorten that?".

 

I think that beyond that though, it's not worth it just to try and please everyone.

[Continuity]

nooooope

[novander]

Spending a lot of time writing great dialogue and then going back to shorten it for the lazy players sounds kind of depressing for the writer. I don't think this is the kind of game for people after instant gratification. If it was, I don't think Obsidian would have needed a kickstarter for it. Let's all just enjoy our walls of text.

[Fooine]

I don't think there's that big an audience seeking instant gratification here. I mean, we were all drawn to the kickstarter under the promise of a RPG going back to the roots of the IE games, and these were text-heavy. In fact, the richness of the writing is what made them great in the first place (I know I wasn't a fan of the AD&D rules, but it was worth dealing with). That's probably where the opposition comes from.

 

This is a crowdfunded project. The devs aren't held accountable to a publisher. I don't want to see them try to cater to the lowest common denominator. Giving the option to replace all dialogue with a TL;DR version would be doing that.

[Solivagant]

I appreciate the sentiment but I am sure the vast majority of backers WANT the walls of text. This isnt a game at the whims of a publisher, but rather open to our real wants and wishes. I'd love to see a return to the PS:T long dialogue with narrations, that's why I'm here.

[Delterius]

If trolling, 4/10;

 

If not, no.

 

Reasons for the strong opposition?

 

Because that would be like me asking the CoD developers to allow for a skip the shootout section because I don't like it. That's the retarded way to pursue a market.

Edited September 18, 2012 by Delterius

[SqueakyCat]

Actually, reading all the text is something I'm looking forward to and have missed with the current RPG's 'cinematic' or 'pick an emotion' style of handing conversation.

 

(However, I should probably get my eyes checked before release.... just to be sure.)

Edited September 18, 2012 by SqueakyCat

[Micru]

Thanks to you all for all the responses. I didn't inted to start any trolling whatsoever, but it is nice to hear that most of the people here agree on "the more text, the better". At least that should give some freedom to the writters/designers to write as long as they wish

[Paul D]

I think this concept is worth exploring. I suggest some gamers enjoy the Story as much as (if not more than) the Adventure Personally, I like both, and where there is dialogue I am very interested in learning more, understanding the motivations of the NPC's etc. I acknowledge developing such content takes time, but investing in the story can at times result in a richer experience than simply wandering around a richly textured and rendered world IMHO. There is a survey currently underway in the forums regarding Dialogue, and rich explanations are a stand-out winner there (last time I looked).

[Badmojo]

uh no, the wall of text is what a lot of us old rpg players LOVE about these games. We do not want them to waste time biowaring it. Also, this is not VO'd except partially. You are not going to have the text read too you and dumbing down text would be a pain because a lot of important info is in what is said. It really cannot work unless the game is fully voiced and that is not going to happen, nor do most of us want that to happen.

Edited September 18, 2012 by Badmojo

[licketysplit]

Seems like wasted effort to me.

[Nakia]

No short text for me. I am more concerned with the size of the text. Not every one who plays these games has 20/20 vision. I am one of those. I would rather have text that can be made larger or smaller depending on the needs of the player.

[Yst]

Really, I think the "skippable dialogue" phenomenon is amongst the worst things to enter into RPGs in the last ten years. By "skippable dialogue", I mean dialogue the reading of which will not substantially impact gameplay, and the reading of which is not intended to be particularly significant to the game experience, much less necessary to it. The WoW RPG design mold, essentially. At its worst, when taken single player (as it must be granted that in a multiplayer context, players may be creating their own story, rare though good multiplayer RP is).

 

Ultimately, dialogue either *is* or *is not* significant to gameplay. If it is not significant to gameplay in an RPG, an opportunity is being wasted, if indeed the game interests itself in characters or story. If it is significant to gameplay, but its significance is curtailed to allow for its being ignored, both experiences of the game (the dialogue free experience, and the dialogue-heavy experience) are cheapened, to make room for a half-way treatment of an incompatible game dynamic.

 

If a game (e.g., Limbo) chooses text-free storytelling, I will not necessarily judge it inferior for that fact, if it uses that dynamic well. If a game chooses text-heavy storytelling, as this game surely will, I will judge it for the quality of its storytelling within that dynamic. But if a game tells me it uses text-based storytelling, as its chosen mode, but it isn't all that important, I will judge it very harshly indeed.

 

A game has to choose what it wants to be, and be that thing as best it may. Choosing the worst of two worlds, and straddling the abyss in between them is no solution at all.

[Boof]

You had options like that in some of the older games where you tell an npc to skip right to the point. Guess having something like that wouldn't hurt.