What do you think the best way to handle conversation in games is? I''m trying to think of a few different ways games have handled conversation in the past. There''s the Monkey Island way, where you can choose a list of typed out sentences to say. I think it works pretty good for Monkey Island, because it''s a humor game, and it let''s you laugh at the Monkey Island writer''s jokes instead of your own. There''s also the MUD way, where you type up your own sentences. I don''t like it very much, because the NPC''s you''re talking to never have the AI to understand you. Has anyone ever played Sentient? It''s a PSX game by Pygnosis. In Sentient, you get a list of topics to talk about. You can also ask people questions and give people commands using a menu system. NPC''s will also get mad at you if bug them and boss them around too much. It also goes the other way. If you give them presents, they''ll like you more. I know those aren''t the only ways to handle conversations, so I want you guys to give me some more ideas. Thanks.

Use the DeusEx system - probably the most common one to PC gamers.

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Yeah.... there''s the Deus Ex system. People ask questions and you answer them. Pretty common. I think it works good in some games, but not in ones where conversations need to be deep.

the kind of system you choose depends on the type of game it''ll be used for. deus ex''s system works well because it is appropriate for the game. if you as a designer and writer want to have fairly strict control on what the player can and cannot say to direct the story, then by all means use that kind of system. if, on the otherhand, you wanted the player to find out things on their own and/or have the freedom to say what ever and do what ever, then a mud-esque system might work better. something that might be interesting would be to have 3-5, or more choices of statements for conversations al a deus ex, each with a different degree of hostility. for example, if someone say hi to your character, the player may have the choices of "hello! how are you today" and "hey" and "shut up wiener". then the conversation would continue depending on the response choosen. if the players chooses to be rude and angry, they may not get any help from the person. or it may turn out that by harassing the npc you uncover some information that they would''nt have spilled otherwise.

that idea might work if you are looking for a good balance between control and freedom.

<(o)>

Fallout (1) used a hybrid: "select a sentence", with a button on the side that let you type in your own sentences. Of course, typing your own sentences was mostly useless, as the NPC general replied that s/he didn''t know what the hell you were talking about. And that option was dropped for Fallout 2.

Wizardry (7 I think?), Crusaders of the Dark Savant, (a great game) used the enter your own sentence method, and did a pretty good job of pulling it off..

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"What sounds to you like a big bloat of trashy old noise
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Yeah... I agree that different conversation systems work well for different games. I''m not sure if I think Deus Ex''s conversation system was the best it could be. Conversation just wasn''t a big part of Deus Ex.

Anyway, I was thinking about making a short demo-type adventure game in which conversation plays a big role. Before you start playing, you''ll be able to choose what conversation system to use. It''ll be sort of an experiment to see which ones work best. The problem is, I only want to implement 2 or 3 conversation systems in to it. That way it won''t take too long to make. It''ll probably be a console app with ansi graphics.

I''m still open for more ideas........

The text parser in Starship Titanic was supposed to actually let the NPCs interpret your writing and react on what you wrote. I have no idea how well it works, as I haven''t gotten my hands on a copy (usually a DVD-ROM, but when it came out I didn''t have a DVD drive.) If it does work as good as reviewers claimed, it would have been one nice piece of technology to have been licensed out.

What is the Deux Ex system ?
How does it work ?

You right click on somebody, and they say something. Sometimes you can respond, but it usually doesn''t matter what you say. It''s a lot like the way conversation is handled in Final Fantasy games.