Dialogue improvement

Dialogue improvement

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Raven.1524

Raven.1524

So, I have been taking a break from gw2 and playing the old Soul Reaver games. Gameplay aside, I was impressed by the writting done on that game.
Yeah the gameplay kinda sucks, but I was thinking… If GW2 were to gradually improve their languages on future updates, wouldn’t the game be far more memorable with it’s current artistic background?

For example, here are some quotes from soul reaver: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0247477/quotes

I am not by any means a good writter, but it would be amazing if the dialogue could improve to a point where some quotes would be more memorable than any cutscenes or gameplay mechanics.

Dialogue improvement

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Posted by: Amineo.8951

Amineo.8951

Not fair, the Legacy of Kain series have the best narration I’ve ever seen, it wouldn’t even be possible for them to achieve something like that.

Dialogue improvement

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Posted by: Raven.1524

Raven.1524

Not fair, the Legacy of Kain series have the best narration I’ve ever seen, it wouldn’t even be possible for them to achieve something like that.

OK! Let’s kidnap some devs from Crystal Dynamics and Silicon Knights, to make them play GW2 lol xD

Dialogue improvement

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Posted by: Donari.5237

Donari.5237

Maybe it’s just that I haven’t played or even heard of those games, but the bare text you linked seems plenty corny. Perhaps it comes out better in context with voice acting to give it inflection. You say the gameplay wasn’t great — but I bet it provided the “feel” that made those quotes resonate for you.

Dialogue improvement

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Posted by: Hashar.6082

Hashar.6082

Maybe it’s just that I haven’t played or even heard of those games, but the bare text you linked seems plenty corny. Perhaps it comes out better in context with voice acting to give it inflection. You say the gameplay wasn’t great — but I bet it provided the “feel” that made those quotes resonate for you.

It does, very much so. In fact, LoK has the best voice acting I’ve ever heard, and the dialogues’ style is extremely appropriate to the characters, who commit some pretty cynical and/or atrocious actions while discussing them in a very lofty manner.
Plus, you simply can’t appreciate quotes like my favorite “I would choose integrity” without context.

On the subject of gameplay, well, in my opinion it did its job really well when it comes to the actual soul reaving; to making the player see in-game humans and other living (or undead) beings as sources of vital energy which must be obtained, through their death and oblivion, if you’re to continue your quest. That, and every game makes you feel at least somewhat personally responsible for what happens during its plot, since it was technically you who did everything your character did. Both of these things are pretty important, of course, but no, the “resonance” you mentioned is not solely, or primarily, due to them. If LoK were a movie or a book, it would still remain, albeit in a slightly different form.

However, I don’t believe it is reasonable to expect the same level of quality and detail in dialogue when it comes to MMORPGs. First, it’s basically impossible to create a truly impactful story, and thus a truly impactful dialogue, in a world which cannot be irreversibly altered by your character’s actions and where every single step of the plot can be endlessly repeated by other players. Second, it is even more impossible to create a consistenlty meaningful (voiced) dialogue without a set playable character. Third, the majority of the players simply aren’t that interested in meaningful dialogues. They are here for gameplay, and an interesting personal story might be nice to have (or it may be completely ignored), but it’s not why they are playing the game. Thus, it is far more reasonable to spend time and money on something that would convince them to continue playing.