As I see it, the conversational interface in an adventure game or RPG should be judged on how well it accomplishes certain ideals: Usefulness: Obviously, the system needs to impart information where it is necessary to the flow of the game. Extensiveness: The ody of dialogue should be large enough that the game has a rich backstory for the player to explore, should she so wish. The other side of this coin is the player spending hours clicking through every possible dialogue option. Ick. Responsiveness, and discretion: The player''s thoughts should drive the dialogue, not the other way around. There should always be a way for the player to say what she wants to; and the player should never get new ideas from the dialogue options presented to her. What are some ways games have or could accomplish this? Natural Language Processing (NLP) is far, far away from being usable in a game. Is directly choosing from a list of questions and statements, which seems to be the dominant paradigm, the best solution? Is only being able to ask about inventory items or other objects (or, in the case of Return to Zork, photographs) better? Also, is the exhaustive clicking of all possible dialogue a good or a bad thing? It seems uncomfortably similar to the clickfests often associated with many graphical adventure games. Perhaps characters that got impatient after players talking to them for a protracted period of time about random topics? Or maybe just having a large enough library of dialogue is enough to dissuade players from exhausting it.

quote: Extensiveness: The ody of dialogue should be large enough that the game has a rich backstory for the player to explore, should she so wish.

Remember this backstory doesn''t have to be presented through dialog (although it helps when dialog refers to it, and obviously it has to be consistent with it). You can also do it through a little short story in the manual, the intro sequence, or in-game objects (such as books, signs, gravestones) that you can examine.

quote: Responsiveness, and discretion: The player''s thoughts should drive the dialogue, not the other way around.

I agree with this. Obviously you are very limited until AI picks up significantly, but at least organise the conversation into some sort of branching tree-structure so that the player can ask about what they find interesting as it suits them, not in some predetermined order. And where the player''s choice affects the plot in a major way, the available responses should be verbose and clear, so that there is no confusion about what ''option'' you are selecting.

quote: Also, is the exhaustive clicking of all possible dialogue a good or a bad thing? It seems uncomfortably similar to the clickfests often associated with many graphical adventure games.

I agree. At least a branching system with keywords lets you (a)quickly see when the character has nothing new to say, and leave the conversation early, and (b) allows you to just see the parts you want to see again, in the event that you go back to an NPC to refresh your memory.

I think a search engine style system would be interesting. Basically you have a huge list of keywords that the character has learned, representing objects, characters, events etc. The player would type in a keyword and the game would return a list of objects that the player could select. The objects would represent detailed information. This system could be used to give other characters information, ask for information or give characters commands.

Impossible,

Your idea sounds similar to the conversation engine I''m working on. I think the technical term for how I''m getting input is called a reverse-parser. (I''ve heard the term mentioned once or twice in passing, but I''m not sure if that''s what I''m doing). To ask for information from an NPC, the player starts to type the the name of either the resource or character the player is asking about (after choosing the "ask about.. " option). The game analyzes the input character by character and compares the input string as it is being built to all of the resources and characters the PC is aware of. As soon as the input string can uniquely identify a resource/character, the name is completed for the player, and a search is made of all of the NPC''s information which relates to the name. The player may also use the TAB key before automatic completeion (i.e. before there is a unique match) to cycle through the list of all names which start with the input string, and hit enter to select the one he''s looking for.

This does differ from your suggestion in that the player needs to know the name of what he''s asking about (or at least what letter it starts with) and that detailed information is not provided as he inputs the name. But the player will have the option of collecting his thoughts (meaning he can see the list of everything his character knows) just before asking his question of the NPC.

I''m not sure how I''m going to implement the PC sharing information with an NPC. One way I am looking at is to have the player bring the information node he wants to share with the NPC to the tip of his tongue (just meaning the player runs through his info list until he finds the node he wants to share) and then have him select a "share info on tip of tongue" option. This would be completely point-and-click, but the easiest to implement. The other way I am looking at would be to have the player choose a "relay info" option and then use the reverse-parser (if that''s what it is) to select the resource/character he wants to talk about and then present him with choices as to the detail of the information.

A semi-on-topic question: What general kinds of catagories of information are there that the player should be able to ask about? I can''t think of any rather that these two: Owner of a resource and location of a resource/character (to varying levels of specificity)

-Sean

What about being able to ask about the current state of the character\object\location? Also my system would include a list of verbs (possible actions in the game world) that can be used to issue a command to an NPC. So you could choose command->attack->plant. When discussing objects on the screen it may be useful to allow the player to graphically select objects or use pronouns.

quote: The ody of dialogue should be large enough that the game has a rich backstory for the player to explore, should she so wish...what she wants to...presented to her.

Nice to see some inputs from the female point of view, I am assuming.

quote: Extensiveness: The ody of dialogue should be large enough that the game has a rich backstory for the player to explore, should she so wish. The other side of this coin is the player spending hours clicking through every possible dialogue option. Ick.

Having a large branch of npc dialogue to provide the player the rich backstory is not the most direct and efficent way. If the task is simply to create a background history, you are much much better off just doing it through a little short story in the manual, the intro sequence, in-game objects as Kyltoan suggested, or just plain linear dialogue. The only good solid reason to implement the multiple dialogue choices is that game would actually incoperate the npc as part of the evolving storyline and plot.

quote: Is directly choosing from a list of questions and statements, which seems to be the dominant paradigm, the best solution? Is only being able to ask about inventory items or other objects (or, in the case of Return to Zork, photographs) better?

Choosing from a list of questions work just fine for the majority of the rpg. However, if the the game is more like a interactive story, then a more adaptable system like Impossible suggested would definitely be more appropriate. It all comes down to how much info needed to be conveyed to the player.

Zork''s system may not be the best solution because there isn''t a way to ask about intangible things like what occured during 10 PM.

quote: Or maybe just having a large enough library of dialogue is enough to dissuade players from exhausting it.

Why ? a) the library will never be large enough to dissuade a curious player. b) the player would most likely to get bored of the long dialogue/story half way through it.

I think that probably the best dialogue/information interface that i have yet seen in a game (at least, in my opinion) was probably in Shenmue for the Dreamcast. I don''t know how many people have played it, and i''m sure there are some that did not like it... but here goes.

First of all, all the conversations happen with real dialogue AND text, you can configure it how you like (Dialogue/Text, Dialogue, Text) and can always stop a conversation in the middle if you don''t need to hear it.

Second of all, another issue with certain games is REMEMBERING what you''ve heard/read. It is always a hassle to travel back to a NPC or book to find out what you''ve already heard/read once, so, and other games are doing this as well, Shenmue''s main character Ryo has a notebook that he writes notes down into. You can flip back and forth, back to the very beginning of the game if you need to, to find phone numbers, times, clues, names, etc.

Lastly, there''s always the issue of finding out what you need to know that minute. We''re nowhere near being able to just hold a conversation with a computer, so you need keywords. Shenmue does it for you and Ryo always asks (and not always the same way) about what he needs to know. It doesn''t have as much freedom, but it is always a good way to keep the game headed in the right direction with as little player frustration as possible.

BTW, Shenmue also had maps posted on the street and a phone book, those were both quite handy at times, and a rather unobvious source of information, but one that the more observant gamer benefitted from greatly.


Peace out.

MrMexTaco

quote: Original post by Mooglez
Nice to see some inputs from the female point of view, I am assuming.

Nah, just breaking from the norm in pronouns... fooled ya!

The keyword-based system really seems like a good idea; able to encompass virtually any topic, without leading the player on too much (if properly implemented.... having "That guy I saw in the background for, like, two seconds, who looked like Count Burger with a fake moustache" as a keyword is probably a bad idea). What do you think of the idea of, after a player chooses a keyword, to have her select from a short list of things to say about that keyword? Some of them could be common to all ("Can you tell me anything about ?") and some would be specific ("I''d like to buy some salt .")