Conversation as Gameplay (Talk)

I've been spending a lot of time thinking about conversation when it comes to gameplay.

It feels like there's a very BioWare way to do it, where you pick an option from a wheel that matches a general tone. You pick the Paragon or Renegade option if available, you have a positive, neutral, and understanding response, and sometimes there's an option to drill down for more information. You only get the gist of what you're going to say before the character says it.

Then there's what I think of as a more Interplay method, where you're delivered a block of text and you pick a single sentence from a short list to follow up with. Maybe it's a statement that lets you loop back and pick another, offering more knowledge, or maybe it's just a reaction to what the speaker said.

Those are very standard, if only because they're how AAA RPGs are handled.

I've been thinking about conversation itself as the game. Talking to another character or characters is an option. Text messaging lends itself well. While I was looking for inspiration I came across this talk by Emily Short. She is a luminary when it comes to this stuff, so I appreciated that she'd gathered some inspiration.

It's a cool talk, and you should give it a read if you're interested in conversations as more than content delivery.