Yes indeed. Talking is for pussies and [censored]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS1TQKe_D18 What more dialog does one need.

You forgot the Vault-Tec guy.

Still too long. "Lelk moooting!"

Ah yes, figured I'd miss one. 4 instances of the dialogue system then.

Adding to this:

Dialogue between PC and Codsworth:

Codsworth: As I live and breath - Mr. Howard? Is that really you?

Howard - "You're still here?": Codsworth? Y-you're still here! So, other people could still be alive, too.

Codsworth: It's worse than I thought. You're suffering from hunger induced paranoia. Not eating properly for 200 years will do that I'm afraid.

Howard - "That's Impossible": No...no that's not possible I wasn't out for that long!

Codsworth: That means you're two centuries late for dinner. (Laughs) Perhaps I could whip you up a snack? You must be famished.

Howard - "Get Food": What? Food? U-uh yeah, sure, I...I need a minute to think.

Codsworth: Then I'll be right back.

Dialogue between PC the Dog

Dog:

Howard: Hey boy, what are you doing out here all by yourself?

Dog:

Howard - "Let's Go": You wanna come with me, pal?

Dog:

Howard: Ok then, let's stick together...

Dog:

-----

I can totally see where the pessimists are angling from. The potential to have a deep, existential conversation on the meaning of life with the dog was a lost opportunity here. Bethesda should just fire Emil and hire Bo Goldman from "Scent of a Woman" to write this passionate, long-winded, 10 minute speech that ultimately leads to the dog following the player around.

Yes, Mr. advlt, more pew pew is the best.

No talk! Shoot!

Hey at least we know we can finally play as a proper low intelligence character now.

motsie your on fire today lol

So you're saying "You're dumb because you care about a different aspect of the franchise than I do"?

You inadvertently highlighted a huge problem here. This is an awful case of the dialogue option having a totally different meaning than what is actually said.

Being surprised that Codsworth is still there is not remotely the same as being a moron who thinks that means others are still alive.

No not at all. It is however stupid to totally freak out about an aspect of a game we have yet to experience. If you like talking to npc's for a sense of immersion more power to ya. Just don't go blowing things up because of what you saw in a demo.

Sure bud.

Not the point. This is a bad misconception to start spreading around. This is about about possible simplified dialogue across the board.

Too early to tell. With the advent of more choices in the game (at least according to Howard), I would rather have a meaningful, short conversation rather than a deep, pointless discussion.

Oh no, it is a problem indeed. I've been saying this whole time that they need to ditch the current UI dialogue design and implement Deus Ex's dialogue presentation. "It just works ^tm"

Based on what?

Well, this thread is all about
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38HKZLpifhU
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=goc8dN_huNs#t=33



Lot's of laugh on those ones Off-topic, but where is that Mr. House image replacer from?

+1

Well, he's not exactly wrong there either. I interpreted it as, "Wow, OK, so maybe I'm not literally the last living thing here. There could be more people." And keep in mind that this was JUST before he learned he was out of it for 200 years. For all he knew, he was only out of it for a couple of months.

[censored] Dentata?

Uh, I hope you don't know what that means, because I wish it wasn't in my language.

Oh trust me. I looked up the definition years ago.

Wish I hadn't.

*shudders*

This one will need brain bleach.

Dialogue is a tool. Dialogue is a gameplay element. Dialogue can be fun.

These are the premises that best describe the way to approach most game mechanics. Rules and options. Apply them wherever needed.

Why are players bored by dialogue? Why the comparison to essays? Because it's true. Dialogue doesn't live up to it's potential. I don't mean that games like Witcher or what ever have bad writing or uninteresting dialogue.

But a problem I generally see with dialogue is that it's primarily used as a tool for information, world and quest exhibition. I would like to see dialogue used as a tool for interaction. I would like flexible dialogue, which means some characters have next to nothing to talk about with you (because not every person is interested in conversation), while others have extensive amounts of writing invested.

I think dialogue is something many developers feel has no interactive self purpose and thus completely avoid the creative opportunity. These are the masters of dialogue:

1. World exposition

2. Quest exposition

3. Character exposition as a subset of world exposition

4. Intense emotions or philosophical insights

Seriously, this is what film does. Games offer interactivity and so they should grasp that opportunity first and foremost with all gameplay elements that appear frequently and throughout, including combat, dialogue, character development aka specialization. Some few choices in dialogue are there. But I've yet to see organic dialogue as in a fluid conversation with the player having significant influence.

One of my favorite characters in all of Fallout is First Citizen Lynette. She makes dialogue a challenge. Now she's clearly quest structured, but her personality makes the conversation quite unique. She has power and she knows it, an old dinosaur would describe the dialogue as a 'minefield'. It's straightforward and your choices matter mostly because of the one goal. You win or you have to find another way, a binary choice in the end, not exactly organic. It's great nontheless.

But there need to be other concepts in order to create diversity (especially in characters) and thus immersion.

I expect Fallout 4 to use dialogue as a vehicle again. They prefer to reduce dialogue in general in order to circumvent any immersion problems in the first place. That doesn't mean Bethesda can't learn, some people even enjoy their [censored] writing and lame dialogue. I see Bethesda coming to the conclusion that dialogue and story in general need to be as dynamic and player-driven as exploration, settlement building and weapon modification soon. Not to forget combat, which profits greatly from good rules (AI!) and options and thus should be fleshed out.

What are rules by the way? They are the amalgamation of narrative- (technology-) and mechanics-driven designs. Options are results of rules and interactive freedom.

After starting up Mass Effect just to try out the backwards compatibility I can say that 60 minutes of dialogue with 5 minutes of gameplay isn't always the best balance. It's also a safe bet that Bethesda didn't show all the initial dialogue in the gamplay trailer from E3.

Diversity and pacing are extremely important, but that's the thing, why is dialogue not even considered gameplay? Because it's boring.

To you, maybe. For me it's more fun than the pew pew.

It's a close call between the two for me. Both are sometimes fun but mostly don't live up to their potential.