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Less is More, When it Comes to Dialogue
By Cameron Sorden | March 20, 2008
Warren Specter, of Deus Ex fame, did an interview recently where he was talking about some of the inherent problems with telling stories in games. It’s mostly the same stuff that the bloggers (me included) rehash every time this topic gets a little fire under it. For example:
After 20 years of saying this itās still sadly true, but thereās the whole teeter-totter model of stories in games ā the more game-like you make something the less traditionally story-like it becomes and the more story-like you make it the less game-like it becomes. Thatās still true and I donāt see anybody having solved that yet.
Also, there are still a bunch of boring story communication issues, like Iām just really not satisfied that have āOK, now youāre in the game part, now youāre in the story partā ā interaction, movie, interaction, movie. Thatās just not good enough.
Iām still not satisfied, again as a player, with the quality of our actors or our interactive conversation systems which I think are required for telling stories. I think Mass Effect made some progress on that, I think Half Life 2 made some progress on that, but we still have a long way to go.
The article is a good read but there’s not much there you haven’t already heard from other smart guys. There was one thing he mentioned, however, that I thought was interesting. At the very least, it was something I hadn’t thought about too much before…
For the past couple of years Iāve been reading a lot of scripts, and what Iāve noticed is that they can communicate really complex emotions in very few words. Less is more ā and Iām the worst offender by the way, let me say that up front. But game writers really need to learn to scale back a bit. Itās almost like itās a badge of honour that you have 250,000 lines of dialogue. How about we try to communicate the same emotions in a lot less?
That got me thinking: “Wow. Has anyone else noticed how wordy our game dialogue is?” Because it is. It really is. If you think about the conversation in pretty much any RPG, everyone is ridiculously chatty. Any time you meet a new alien or talk to some random stranger, they have no greater wish than to yak your ear off for 20 minutes about the intricate customs and rituals of their people, either for the sake of background or because you absolutely need to know for the upcoming boss who will kill you instantly if you’re not intimately familiar with the mating habits of Xorgorians (and, oh, there will not be multiple choice options). Okay, so maybe I’m exaggerating a bit.
But what does really happen is that you get a lot of dialogue which tries to feed the player a little too much information instead of attempting to sound real. In an actual conversation, you don’t take turns delivering 30 second paragraphs, usually. It’s shorter, more organic, and flow is frequently interrupted with questions, comments, and tangents. An average spoken “turn” in a conversation probably lasts less than 10 seconds. If your NPCs ramble for longer every time they get the chance, you’re going to lose your player’s interest pretty quick.
Do you want me to blow your mind, and in one instant prove to you how unnatural RPG dialogue is? Okay. When’s the last time you just walked up to an NPC that your player character allegedly knows and said, “Hey. How’s it going?” and they said, “Oh, fine. Hey, I’ll catch you later… I’m a little busy right now.”? The answer is never. That conversation never, ever occurs, despite being an extremely common and natural dialogue exchange. Now, imagine if you had a game-style conversation with a real person. Say, for example, a handyman fixing your broken shower. It would go a lot like this:
You: Hey. The shower is over here.
Him: Oh, great. Hey, would you like to know all about the various tools I’ll use to fix it?
You: Um, why?
Him: Well, you never know where you might pick up a bonus mechanics point. That will come in handy no matter how boring my lengthy tool description might be– just skip it if you like. You’ll still get the point.
You: Uh, no thanks.
Him: Well, would you like to hear about the internal politics between me and my boss and the other maintenance guys?
You: … I guess?
Him: Well, there’s this one guy, Harvey, man, he’s such a jerk! When he first started working for us he seemed okay, but soon, we realized he was a real bastard. Anyway, a few weeks ago we bought a new gigamawhazzit for…
You: I’m sorry, a what?
Him: A gigamawhazzit. Look, it’s a made up thingy that sounds vaguely scientific because my dialogue writers aren’t actually scientists or engineers, but that’s beside the point. Can I get back to my story?
You: Uh, sure.
Him: Anyway, Harvey stole it! Now he’s holed up in an abandoned warehouse down the street and none of us want to get it, so my boss is offering a $500 reward for someone to take care of the situation.
You: Why don’t you just call the police?
Him: They just stand around and answer questions about the locations of things all day. You don’t think they’d actually fight crime, do you?
You: Erm.
Him: So will you kill him for us and get it back?
You: What? No! Look, are you going to fix the damn shower or not? Jesus. Talking to you is like a chore.
Him: Hey, no need to be touchy. Would you like to hear the other topics we could talk about?
You: I’m calling your boss.
I rest my case.
Topics: Random |
March 20th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
So… does this mean you’re in a better, or worse, mood today?
Brenda Brathwaite made a similar observation a few days ago as well; might go hand-in-hand with yours, along with our previous posts on overall story-telling.
March 20th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
I do agree, although the memory of playing through Planescape: Torment with all its text shines as an example that I’ll find exceptions to almost everything … if the game is good enough, of course.
Some people disliked Planescape: Torment, saying that it wasn’t a video game but a book, and I do see the point. Seemed you spent more time reading than just about anything. But hell, it’s one of my absolute favorite games of all time and I found the story/dialogue/textual stuff brilliant. I have to say, though, I fell in love with the game when I found out that stats like wisdom, intelligence, and charisma were hugely more important than strength — and that you could actually use your brain instead of your fists to get out of something.
March 20th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Why can’t a game character ever simply shrug, raise an eyebrow, grin mischievously, scowl angrily, spit on my shoes, and so on? Much can be said without saying a word, right? Why do designers always think of body language as acting to words, and never as complete and self-contained communication?
What’s really strange is that we didn’t need good graphics before silent expression could be viable. When Pac-Man was released over 20 years ago(!), our pie-eating friend could easily have been animated with a wink, a scowl, or stars in his eyes. Games have always been capable of using non-oral language more powerfully and comprehensively.
March 20th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
That was supposed to say “in addition to words”, not just “to words”. And now I see my italics ran amok.
That’s my punishment for considering putting that reply on my own blog so I could avoid a post for the day. =/
March 20th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
I’m not a fan of excessive dialog, myself, which gets my finances in trouble when I’m paid by the word. I will never be another Dickens, though. I actually wrote a blog post with a similar message, though the emphasis was on scope vs. quality: http://writerscabal.wordpress.com/2007/04/25/quality-vs-scope-in-game-writing/
March 21st, 2008 at 11:24 am
Only slightly off topic (and not a plug, I just found it entertaining on NPR the other day): Smith magazine editors recently released a book “Not quite what I was planning: six word memoirs by writers famous and obscure”.
From their site: “Legend has it that Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in only six words. His response? āFor sale: baby shoes, never worn.ā
I don’t think all our npcs need to speak only in haikus but successive bouts of prompted monologue does little to foster immersion.
March 21st, 2008 at 11:36 am
The all-haiku MMOG could be interesting, actually.
Do you seek monsters?
There are orcs near yonder hill.
Go forth and slay them.
Need ye epic arms?
The lich-king holds the great hoard.
Slay him for his loots.