I attended a session at GDC today within the Serious Game Summit called Next Gen Conversational Characters for Serious Games. If you're choking on your own boredom already, never fear: I promise to keep all the dry tidbits to myself. There was some material that got me thinking though, and I'll bet a large percent of gamers have thought about it too.
Speakers Michael Mateas and Andrew Stern created a game called Facade in which you interact with a couple who are clearly having marital challenges. How is that fun, you ask? Well, the game is bitingly funny, but what makes it even more unique it that it uses a concept called NLU (Natural Language Understanding) to allow the player to have an open-ended interaction with the characters. Instead of choosing your replies from a list of preset responses, you type anything you may want to say and the characters react in real time.
While the game certainly looks simple in appearance, I think this format of character interaction is a hidden gem. It leads me to thinking: How different could games be if they were less linear and more open ended in the way they played out? It reminds me a little bit of the Zork era, which seems all but lost. I for one have spent way too much time running around towns talking to boring inhabitants just so I could trigger some story event or clue. I could have been shaving my goddamn legs.
Are you tired of being trapped in linear structure in games, especially when interacting with characters? Or do you daydream about having interactions with game characters that you don't jam the B button to skip?
| BBcode help |
| [b]Bold text[/b] |
Bold text |
| [i]Italic text[/i] |
Italic text |
| [url]http://www.dtoid.com/[/url] |
http://www.dtoid.com |
| [url=http://www.dtoid.com/]Web link[/url] |
Web link |
|
| [img]http://www.example.com/robot.jpg[/img] |
 |
Post a comment! You can also post a photo below:
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
14 comments | showing # 1 to 14
|
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
Comments policy
Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?
Avoiding the banhammer only requires common sense: spamming, trolling, racism, NSFW stuff, and other forms of sucking will not be tolerated. If anyone is griefing please report abuse. Be good. Don't suck!
Contest:
11:29 PM on 03.05.2007
| 
If any game could reach that level of complexity and tension, I would totally mail them chunks of my wallet. I believe developers could do well to study how modern plays manage to engage with the use of minimalistic settings and sustained action.
Maybe that's why the Heavy Rain video appealed to me so much.
But yeah, anyone interested in some delightfully deep reading that has nothing to do with video games or wizards, "The Lovers" would be my pick.
Sidenote: I'd recommend using BitTornado(.com) rather then the torrent downloader they mentioned (ABC, which is outdated).
The older version (at least using the download.com mirror) is not supported on Windows XP.
-> LadyLucifer(and to whomever else it applies to): Personally I favour utorrent. Really compact, unobtrusive and fast, with most of the options of the bulkier clients.
brad_drac ---> I've tried using uTorrent, I find it hoggs the network to an extreme, a few of my friends have also found that it slows down their connections. Therefore I use BitTornado.
Also Oblivion would be a VERY fast game.
-Oh you need recommendations so you can enter the arcane university.
Me: Oh yeah, look at this 5000 gold bag, how does that sound for a recommendation?
Achievement: you have entered the arcane university!