[Herman Toothdecay]

There is a gameplay video out now for the game Mass Effect, an RPG/RTS game for the Xbox 360 with some pretty nice looking graphics. However, I noticed while watching the video that they label "interactive cutscenes" (allowing you to choose certain elements of dialog) a "next-gen" technology. So I commented to my roommate, who doesn't appreciate the adventure games of old as much as I do, that this looks and sounds exactly like what has always been a major part of adventure games. Maybe I'm being a nitpick, but it seems kind of silly to label choosing your own response to computer characters "next-gen"

[Lucien21]

Conversation trees, although not specific to the adventure genre (RPG use them), are not by themselves "next gen".

What they are claiming in Mass Effect is a conversation system that allows you to select the responses before the other person has finished speaking allowing for a more fluid and natural conversation.

The only adventure I can think off that had a real time conversation system was Farenheit (indigo Prophecy)

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Lucien's correct. The idea behind Mass Effect's conversation system is to imbue dialogue scenes with a sense of naturalism and organic flow. Traditional adventure dialogue trees often forced you to wait til the end of an NPC's speech before offering you choices for what your character can say. One problem with this (I glean according to Bioware) is that it can disrupt the narrative (and perhaps the cinematic) atmosphere, especially when the NPC just stands there staring at your character waiting to speak because you're trying to make your mind up which dialogue option to pick.

In Mass Effect you can choose to interrupt the NPC, especially in situations where they would begin to wear out your patience. If you interrupt them too often they'll get pissed and refuse to speak to you any further, and you might miss out on some crucial information they would've freely offered otherwise.

[Dasilva]

Now thats what games should be like. I hate being bored by characters and pissing them off should be fun. lol.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

I'm wondering how deeply this whole politeness thing with the conversation system will work. For example, what if Shepard walked into a store that sells supplies like medical packs, and the merchant is really obnoxious and you lose your patience and yell at him? Would he remember you next time and refuse to sell you anything from then on? And if so could you use Shepard's charisma skills to charm the merchant back to being nice to you?

[EvoG]

I highly doubt that...as great as that sounds on paper, I dont think thats very fun. I've struggled with designs where characters behaved 'realistically' based on variables outside the convention of 'dialog' and faction, and it ends up being more ambiguous than compelling, and too much work to that affect. IMHO, broad strokes work better...you actually want some things being more black and white than gray, as its easier to understand the effects of your actions. Things like subtlety, inflection, context and such are a challenge even to people in RealLife.tm let alone a game, so imagine trying to deal with that as a designer and a player.

Anyway, you know how in KotoR2, you could choose the 'wrong' response, eventually leading to a character not liking you and even refusing to talk to you? I'd bet money that this is nothing more than that, except you dont have to wait for them to finish. I dont see any benefit to interrupting an NPC other than to annoy them, so this will make for more interesting interactions to watch unfold, but thats about it.

[Spiwak]

Might I remind you all that one can also annoy the NPC by waiting too long to speak. The point is for some realism in the timing of the dialogue, but yea I don't really think they're going to rely on realtime dialogue as the primary gimmick of the game. Should be fun, albeit a little complex for gamers (I'll admit I'm the type to sit on a dialogue choice for several seconds before making a decision, in some cases). BioWare has yet to go wrong, though, as far as I'm concerned, and Mass Effect doesn't look like it'll be a misstep in the slightest.

[Fop]

Look at the damn videos available, they show a bit of how it works.

[Hammerite]

should be on the pc, imo.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Nope. At least not for a while. According to MS's opinion.

[Spiwak]

Well it wasn't MS's opinion. It was Hammerite's.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Yes it was, wasn't it?

[Hammerite]

In Microsoft's opinion, we are foolish and feeble and need to be controlled... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... by a paperclip.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

I thought that was Sony's opinion?

[Hammerite]

no, sony wants a nationalist uprising.