Guild Wars 2

There have been numerous posts about having more custom lore for characters, based on their orders and race and whatnot. However, there’s a failry cheap and simple way to add more ‘custom’ to your character’s story.

Dialogue options.

For example, say your character is ambushed by the Inquest, and they say that the player must leave their territory to be attacked, you could have the following dialogue:

Inquest: “Leave at once!”
Player A: “Don’t tell me what I can or cannot do!”
Player B: “I am here to help the Zephyrites. Don’t you see they need help?”
Player C: “We’ll leave as soon as we can.”
Inquest: “It wasn’t a question. You’ve seen too much. Attack!”

It doesn’t require any new programming code, it doesn’t need expensive voice actors. There’s no need to track character background, order or pact-commander status. It can all be implemented using the current dialogue interface and it’ll add a sense of customization and character building without interrupting the story at all. This way, players can customize their character’s personality and reactions.

All it takes are 2 extra strings of text every now and then, and the lore/story lovers will be a lot happier.

If the dialogues are only text based, you are right.

If the dialogues are voiced over, they will need to be recorded, and the triple sound archives can make the game gain a little weight.

I suppose if that was to happen, NPC’s will react to your choices and your behavior via dialogue, no voice acting needed.

Morbridae.8607:

If the dialogues are only text based, you are right.

The idea behind this is that it’s only applied to the text dialogues (because they’re cheap and easy to expand). Maybe I shouldn’t have used the inquest as an example since it’s spoken. Basically, the idea behind it is that you get the extra depth and immersion through written dialogues in an inexpensive manner.

Avascar.9237:

I suppose if that was to happen, NPC’s will react to your choices and your behavior via dialogue, no voice acting needed.

If written well, the npcs can even give the same response no matter what choice you make. The effect applies mostly to the player (how does my character respond to this) but doesn’t change the outcome of the story. It’s customization without customization, so to speak.

I would gladly trade everything being voiced for your dialogue options actually mattering.

Baldur’s Gate/Neverwinter Nights, anyone?

They only voice the first line of a conversation and important lines, and leave the rest for the player to read.

That would be nice yes. However, with my suggestion there’s at least some variation in the character’s personality, without Anet having to come up with multiple dialogues or scenario’s. It’s not ideal, but it could be a decent compromise.