Investigation into Conversation

The last week or two I've been pondering the question of conversation mechanics in video games.  So here are my thoughts and what I plan to do next.


With one of my units next term involving a big game design project I was kicking around various ideas.  Most of the issues I ran across were trying to find something that would be something new, exciting and different but could also be finished by a group of random students who might not really be interested in my mad outpourings of intriguing game mechanics.

Before I continue further into this story I should mention that I'm a game mechanic nut. I love to consider why some mechanic works this way and not that and how this part fits within the greater design.  For me a game begins at its core mechanics and everything else is just nice window dressing on top of this essential set of components.

Anyway back to the story at hand.

I considered doing clones of various existing games with some kind of novel twist.  Something simple, easy to explain and easy to write pages and pages about.

The safe and boring option.

That, I'm thinking, would be a waste of the unique opportunity before me.  With no publisher, budget or other demands other than finishing in the time limit, why not pick something on the edge.  With no expectations to build this beyond a demo, why not push the boat out a bit.   As future employees of the games industry we are bound to have our fill later of making the same bland game, so why not roll the dice a bit when we have the freedom to do so.

Considering my whiteboard for the moment and my games collection, I started to think about known mechanics that could do with a shakeup.  Top of the list was conversation.

Conversation (and social dynamics in general) as a mechanic in games has rarely been brilliant.  In any game which mixes combat and conversation, it is inevitable that combat will take precedent, leaving all of conversation hanging on a few bare skills.  Much of these skills and testing on them rarely includes many of the things that we include in any conversation in reality.  Let's take as a blunt example, when was the last time that a player chose to wear an outfit that the target would find appealing, or even more crazy, outfits in certain combinations that would help you in you persuasion attempts.

Okay so Social Dynamics is perhaps lacking, what to do about it?  I did what any self respecting mechanic nut would do, try and make my own.

Easier said than done..

Conversations, relationships and emotions, combined with the flow of all the information between entities is not easy to simplify without losing a major parts of what makes conversation exciting.  Reducing the whole thing to a series of math equations is not a simple task.  Unlike physics, there is no handy math for it and perhaps worse harder to gloss over without making it look to incomplete.  Dropping air resistance might be a simple choice but what part of conversation can you afford to simplify or drop without a noticeable impact.

Looks like its time to investigate some recent games who have journeyed into this territory of making conversation/social dynamics/relationships exciting.

Expect to see some initial reports soon, wish me luck.