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Played Brothers. Want similar NPC interaction in MMORPGs

mindw0rkmindw0rk Member UncommonPosts: 1,356

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons was a wonderful experience, but what striked me the most - the conversation system they implemented. NPCs in Brothers dont speak in english, they use gestures and jibberish language in a way that player fully understands.

I think such system could work amazingly well in MMORPG. No need to do expensive voice overs, no need to write lengthy dialogues, no need to write quest descriptions. You interact with NPC and through scripts and animation realise what happened and can decided help or not. What do you think?

If you didnt play Brothers check this video at 13:36 to understand what I mean: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5eBPz6Obmo

 

Comments

  • HelleriHelleri Member UncommonPosts: 930

    No...I don't need my game play in MMORPG's dumbed down any more then it is. Some people may find things like listening to coherent language, and reading useless. I tend to think they prove that I have an attention span and an acceptable level of intelligence. I have seen what severely autistic people have to go through...I don't want to play as one.

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  • nariusseldonnariusseldon Member EpicPosts: 27,775
    Originally posted by Helleri

    . I tend to think they prove that I have an attention span and an acceptable level of intelligence. I have seen what severely autistic people have to go through...I don't want to play as one.

    You play games to prove that you have an acceptable level of intelligence? Tell me how well that works out with your boss and peers.

     

  • Stuka1000Stuka1000 Member UncommonPosts: 955
    Nope. Voice acting doesn't need to be that expensive. Just because EA / Bioware use top Hollywood actors that wouldn't get out of bed for less than half a million dollars it doesn't mean that is the norm. There are thousands of decent out of work actors that would charge a hell of a lot less. The style in Brothers would just annoy me to be honest.
  • HelleriHelleri Member UncommonPosts: 930
    Originally posted by nariusseldon
    Originally posted by Helleri

    . I tend to think they prove that I have an attention span and an acceptable level of intelligence. I have seen what severely autistic people have to go through...I don't want to play as one.

    You play games to prove that you have an acceptable level of intelligence? Tell me how well that works out with your boss and peers.

     

    " Some people may find things like listening to coherent language, and reading useless. "

    ...That would be the highly pertinent part you omitted in order to take it out of context and make it seem like I said something I didn't.

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  • mindw0rkmindw0rk Member UncommonPosts: 1,356
    Originally posted by Helleri

    No...I don't need my game play in MMORPG's dumbed down any more then it is. 

    You call it "dumbed down". I call it smart and innovative

  • irpugbossirpugboss Member UncommonPosts: 427

    Response to OP

    I've never played that game but I've often wondered about such a voice system. I can imagine such a system would be very cost effective to use a totally alien language or even gibberish for the voice work just to add to the ambience.

    In some cases it may even enhance the immersion compared to hearing bad voice acting or inappropriate tones or phrases if an intelligently crafted but simple "language" were used. It would also add an extra layer of lore depth as some words/phrases are learned by players. 

    From that video the OP linked I can easily see such a language being used in Fantasy or Sci-Fi MMOs. It also "feels" and sounds like a real language, without overuse of text bubbles, chat screens, or drawn out dialogue. To me the video seemed to boil the conversation down elegant simplicity focusing on the setting and emotion without the burden of words.

     

    About Intelligence

    I disagree that such a system will automatically "dumb down" a game, or that reading or listening to quest text is indication of intelligence or an appropriate attention span. Whats worse is that this idea of correlating intelligence to certain game mechanics over others is too common, and is used too often. 

    I think the disconnect about games becoming "dumbed down" is people want more depth to games but not necessarily bloated or convoluted mechanics, which is a hard balance to strike. When games start to replace quests with standardized testing segments with scoring then we can start talking about such a game requiring a level of intelligence.

     

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