Wait, replacing chat between _players_? That seems like it would really restrict conversation within the game. o.O I mean normally in an MMO, whether on region chat or in guild or party chat, you discuss all sorts of things from strategy for a dungeon to who can craft something for someone else, to external topics like homework, relationships, hobbies...

Quote:Original post by Eyra
If chatting was present, however...

If chatting isn't present, everyone will either a) play a different game, or b) use an external chat solution.

As I see it, MMOs are at their heart about communicating with other players, and you don't want to screw too much with the method of communication.

Maybe don't give up on this just yet.

I'd be curious to know if people put much effort into breaking the Alliance / Horde language barrier in World of Warcraft. If not, that's at least one place to start in that you have factional identities which people could easily circumvent but choose not to.

I think you have to not think of this as player affecting NPC as in SP RPGs with a human in the role of NPC. If you duplicate something they can already do, but make it more cumbersome and limited, then they won't do it. There needs to be a gameplay reason.

You could offer regular chat but then, in keeping with your world's lore, offer "the trade language" or "the royal language" which in effect is a kind of spellcasting, in that the purpose of using it is to cause effects in the larger world. For instance, let's say you want to kill a tavern owner. Rather than sneaking up on him, you decide to start a ruckus in the tavern. In order to do this, you decide to commit sedition, angering the loyal locals. So you go into a crowded bar and start discussing the illegitimacy of the king. Players and NPCs alike who are aligned with the king get rage bonuses, a huge fight ensues, and you use the cover of the battle to get rid of your target, who may or may not be an NPC.

I think if you do this it can't be a substitute for conversation, though, it has to provide something that players could not get accomplished any other way.

People do like to use emotes to talk to each other, either the kind where your avatar gestures or the kind where a smiley appears above your head and in chat. If you want people to use your dialogue options to talk to each other, maybe you should implement them as emotes, but giving npcs the extra ability to understand and be affected by them.

One point in strong favor of pre-canned conversations and phrase options (possibly not as restricted and instant limited as most RPGs) is that of internationalization.

If I am always clicking options to form my communications, then it doesn't matter who I'm talking to. It could be someone down the road from me, or it could be some Chinese person who doesn't know a word of English. But I can still communicate with them.