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Versalia
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Close Okay! I have a scenario to put forward, because I'm really curious about other players' reactions.
The game you're playing involves email as a major mechanic. You're actually able to open up the email screen and type whatever you want. This can range from receiving a fill-in-the-blank homework assignment from your teacher, to your friends trying to make plans with you. The emails you get from your friends (and probably other types of emails) contain obvious prompts to help you figure out what is an appropriate string. Example:
>From: A.Adaire
>Hey! Are you free on Monday or Tuesday? I want to go do a thing!
Any response containing "Monday" or "Tuesday" will work - short of checking for other strings like "yes" you could be a total jerk and respond:
>I hate you and seeing you on Monday would make me absolutely sick.
and she'll still say
>Awesome! Monday it is then!
(Note that you can turn her down but this sample string contains no negatives like "no" "busy" etc)
Conversation on this has been pretty split. The reaction at this point is pretty 50/50 amusement/bafflement. Amused: "Hahahaha, yesssss! I can say whatever I want, and be a total dick, and it doesn't impede my game!" / "Oh, that's cool! I can actually type a reply instead of clicking on/choosing premade fragments (like .hack//)."
Baffled: "Why can I just say slkfjdskjfhskjdfh Monday akjfhsjkfh and have it work? Why can I say nasty things and she'll still be okay with it? Or just reply with the word 'Monday'...?"
Well, honestly, if you just said "monday" that'd be a valid - if short - response to her question! And... that last response .. errr maybe you were just having a lot of trouble typing. But really, in the interest of keeping in-character, even though you have many different choices throughout the game to define what your exact character personality IS, would it be better to follow that format and give you prewritten responses to choose from and/or cobble together? At the very least, for replying to more open-format emails, and not for fill-in-the-blank quizzes.
Personally, I lean toward the open-format, because short of *actually going out of your way to say nasty things*, it works just fine. I was also leaning toward suggesting that a script should check for any number of defined obscenities and have people not like those responses (except for people who are also a*holes anyway :D) but that's really dependent on my sole opinion. I don't like suggesting changes to someone's actual *system* if I don't really feel they are ideal as opposed to personal preference. So what do you guys think? Pointing to .hack// as a system that used fragments to let you put responses together is a good reference, or any others I'm not familiar with...
The game you're playing involves email as a major mechanic. You're actually able to open up the email screen and type whatever you want. This can range from receiving a fill-in-the-blank homework assignment from your teacher, to your friends trying to make plans with you. The emails you get from your friends (and probably other types of emails) contain obvious prompts to help you figure out what is an appropriate string. Example:
>From: A.Adaire
>Hey! Are you free on Monday or Tuesday? I want to go do a thing!
Any response containing "Monday" or "Tuesday" will work - short of checking for other strings like "yes" you could be a total jerk and respond:
>I hate you and seeing you on Monday would make me absolutely sick.
and she'll still say
>Awesome! Monday it is then!
(Note that you can turn her down but this sample string contains no negatives like "no" "busy" etc)
Conversation on this has been pretty split. The reaction at this point is pretty 50/50 amusement/bafflement. Amused: "Hahahaha, yesssss! I can say whatever I want, and be a total dick, and it doesn't impede my game!" / "Oh, that's cool! I can actually type a reply instead of clicking on/choosing premade fragments (like .hack//)."
Baffled: "Why can I just say slkfjdskjfhskjdfh Monday akjfhsjkfh and have it work? Why can I say nasty things and she'll still be okay with it? Or just reply with the word 'Monday'...?"
Well, honestly, if you just said "monday" that'd be a valid - if short - response to her question! And... that last response .. errr maybe you were just having a lot of trouble typing. But really, in the interest of keeping in-character, even though you have many different choices throughout the game to define what your exact character personality IS, would it be better to follow that format and give you prewritten responses to choose from and/or cobble together? At the very least, for replying to more open-format emails, and not for fill-in-the-blank quizzes.
Personally, I lean toward the open-format, because short of *actually going out of your way to say nasty things*, it works just fine. I was also leaning toward suggesting that a script should check for any number of defined obscenities and have people not like those responses (except for people who are also a*holes anyway :D) but that's really dependent on my sole opinion. I don't like suggesting changes to someone's actual *system* if I don't really feel they are ideal as opposed to personal preference. So what do you guys think? Pointing to .hack// as a system that used fragments to let you put responses together is a good reference, or any others I'm not familiar with...
LightningLord2
230
There's a mechanic in some Animal Crossing games that makes people respond to your letter you wrote yourself. I'm not sure how advanced this mechanic is, but it might be worth looking into.
I'd just use pre-determined choices. What's the difference between that and entering a specific string, other than that the former takes much less time? It's fun to be a dick the first few times, then it gets old fast.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
I've seen online games that use this cleverly - You type messages into chat, and the NPCs respond as if they were players. They do usually respond to keywords in the same way as your system. However, I think it's only interesting/useful in those games because the player can also use the same chat system to talk to other players who are in the room. In a game where you're only using it to talk to NPCs, I agree that it's fairly pointless, and rather time-consuming.
Shinan
4314
Text parser things tend to be a fun gimmick to play around with for a while. But it also tends to get old fast and sometimes it can get frustrating when there's something you want to say/do but you happen to word it slightly wrong and it doesn't work and you're stuck for a while just because you wrote "leave" instead of "get out of here you piece of shit".
Basically it will be fun to write comprehensible e-mails for maybe two e-mails and after that you just write the trigger words and never look back.
Basically it will be fun to write comprehensible e-mails for maybe two e-mails and after that you just write the trigger words and never look back.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Maybe you could have this system be the default system, but in the settings menu, let the player switch it to a simple choice response system. That way when people start to get sick of it, they can turn it off and use the faster method.
This is generally a good idea for any feature that's cool but time-consuming.
This is generally a good idea for any feature that's cool but time-consuming.
author=LockeZ
Maybe you could have this system be the default system, but in the settings menu, let the player switch it to a simple choice response system. That way when people start to get sick of it, they can turn it off and use the faster method.
This is generally a good idea for any feature that's cool but time-consuming.
That's a good point. I think that it might be a good enough balance if the truly open-ended responses were reserved for the homework assignments and fill-in-the-blank quizzes, and 'conversations' can be prechosen strings. Shinan also made a good point about misphrasing yourself. I'll have to look into Animal Crossing too.
shady_ultima
50
Ever played Hugo's Haunted Mansion? (I think that was it's name)
It's an OLD game, but it was very picky about how you said things.
For example, at the beginning of the game, you need to break a pumpkin to grab the key.
You type Break Pumpkin, it works. Just about any other response (including break THE pumpkin, smash pumpkin, etc.) Does not work. It can be very, very irritating if it is not done right.
It's an OLD game, but it was very picky about how you said things.
For example, at the beginning of the game, you need to break a pumpkin to grab the key.
You type Break Pumpkin, it works. Just about any other response (including break THE pumpkin, smash pumpkin, etc.) Does not work. It can be very, very irritating if it is not done right.
Radnen
1806
LockeZ, I'm a thinking you play Tibia.
@Versalia: I think people have the right to screw up their own game experience. I think for the rest of us responsible types, typing in anything is okay. It adds immersion I'd say. In Animal Crossing I didn't write dickish letters, I thought the better worded letters gave me better opportunities in the game. While I didn't write many letters in AC, I sure did write good ones. Writing your own letters also adds role playing to the mix (What kind of character do YOU want to be?).
@Versalia: I think people have the right to screw up their own game experience. I think for the rest of us responsible types, typing in anything is okay. It adds immersion I'd say. In Animal Crossing I didn't write dickish letters, I thought the better worded letters gave me better opportunities in the game. While I didn't write many letters in AC, I sure did write good ones. Writing your own letters also adds role playing to the mix (What kind of character do YOU want to be?).
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
I've never heard of Tibia. The idea of turning off systems that are cool at first but time-consuming and eventually boring came to mind actually due to the fact that I was playing a Fire Emblem game while writing that post.
After about the second or third battle in any Fire Emblem game, I change all the battle animations from full battle scene to quick map animations. After a few hours, I then proceed to turn battle animations off entirely, turn movement animations off, change move speed to instantaneous, and change text speed to instantaneous. When replaying the game or replaying a battle I've lost once before, I also always choose to skip all cut scenes and dialogue.
All of these things are things that only interest me the first time I see them. After I've seen them once they no longer improve the game, they just take time.
After about the second or third battle in any Fire Emblem game, I change all the battle animations from full battle scene to quick map animations. After a few hours, I then proceed to turn battle animations off entirely, turn movement animations off, change move speed to instantaneous, and change text speed to instantaneous. When replaying the game or replaying a battle I've lost once before, I also always choose to skip all cut scenes and dialogue.
All of these things are things that only interest me the first time I see them. After I've seen them once they no longer improve the game, they just take time.
Radnen makes a great point - some people really relish in that kind of feature, using it to increase their enjoyment of the game as a form of depth. LockeZ's point is also completely valid - I turn off battle scenes etc in fire emblem as well; if you've seen it ten times, you've seen it for all of freaking eternity. However, some people do choose to leave them on, which is why it's a toggle.
It's making me think you should just have either option. I have no issues allowing open-ended responses for people who want to have that kind of flavor saved in their Sent Folder in the game, but REQUIRING them is the misstep here.
YOU'VE GOT MAIL!
>Compose response
>Quick reply
It's making me think you should just have either option. I have no issues allowing open-ended responses for people who want to have that kind of flavor saved in their Sent Folder in the game, but REQUIRING them is the misstep here.
YOU'VE GOT MAIL!
>Compose response
>Quick reply
DFalcon
2141
I wouldn't mind this if it worked as well as you seem to think it will. But the immersion you're hoping to gain vanishes when you say something innocuous like "I'm busy Monday, but Tuesday is fine" and it answers "Awesome! Monday it is then!" And if either the maker or the player has to structure things to work around a braindead parser the effect on roleplaying is going to tell.
There's nothing necessarily wrong with using keywords in a text box to drive NPC dialogue. The Exile games did fine with that, to pick an example I can remember (though I think Exile 3, in which you also could click on keywords in dialogue, was an improvement). But you're not going to end up with something you don't mind conversing with.
There's nothing necessarily wrong with using keywords in a text box to drive NPC dialogue. The Exile games did fine with that, to pick an example I can remember (though I think Exile 3, in which you also could click on keywords in dialogue, was an improvement). But you're not going to end up with something you don't mind conversing with.
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