Editorial The Principles of High-Level Writing

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: Obsidian Entertainment

Sometimes I get the impression that writing about gamedesign is way more popular than actually doing gamedesign. Of course I could be wrong. Anyway, Josh Sawyer, working at Codex' favorite developer Obsidian Entertainment, <a href="http://forums.obsidian.net/index.php?automodule=blog&blogid=3&">shares some insights with us.</a>
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<p style="margin-left:50px;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-top-color:#ffffff;padding:5px;border-right-color:#bbbbbb;border-left-color:#ffffff;border-bottom-color:#bbbbbb;">At work, we have a lot of rules for how to write. These range from punctuation (single-spacing after terminal punctuation) to spelling ("all right" vs. "alright") to structural (where a "goodbye" response should be relative to a "start combat" response and where that should be relative to a "friendly" response). Every project has a document (or documents) on the specific guidelines for that project. In spite of all the details, there are certain high-level principles that tend to be common. Okay, maybe it's just in my mind, but here are principles that I believe are important for writing player-driven dialogue in choice-heavy RPGs.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.rpgwatch.com/?rwsiteid=1#14541">RPGWatch</A>

 

[PlanHex]

* Never give false options. Do not create multiple options that lead to the same result. It insults players' intelligence and does not reward them for the choices they make.

Oh, pshaw.
He obviously needs to learn at the feet of the greats before making such an irrational claim.
Does he not see the cash Bioware is raking in?

 

[Hoaxmetal]

insults players' intelligence

This won't be a problem in era of dumb gamer.

 

[shihonage]

I agree with all of his insights. If New Vegas follows them, it will be an astronomically better game than its predecessor.

 

[Cassidy]

tl;dr "Do what I say, don't do what I do".

I'm pretty sure Tabitha will be a NPC with very High Level writing dialogue trees. .

 

[WanderingThrough2]

Is "what can change the nature of a man?" a false choice?

 

[Jaime Lannister]

I'd like to know what's going on here, jackass.

every renegade/dark side option ever