Naked_Lunch said:
I can't think of a game that deserves to be purchased "solely for the linguistic virtuosity". If you can, give me some examples.
Planescape Torment?
And any CRPG that depends on its story and characters. Indeed, I'd be hesitant to buy any CRPG that did not have excellent writing if I were looking for those particular things - unless the game happened to be cinematic in nature, in which case limited dialogue is acceptable.
I might've been a bit unclear when I said linguistic virtuosity. I'm not expecting GRRM here, much less Shakespeare or Milton. However, in order for a character to be memorable, his or her state of mind must be portrayed in a competent manner. To have what might be termed depth in a CRPG (where we do not have access to the character's internal emotions), his or her language must be more than merely functional. There must be flavor, tone, and other idiosyncrasies.
That doesn't mean you've got to have characters spewing out poems and engaging in soliloquies. You can use colloquial language while retaining behavioral and tonal distinctions. I'm getting some of that from the screenshots, but they're heavily hampered by 1) certain awkward grammatical choices and 2) what seems an over-emphasis on functionality over style. But dialogue writing - at least good dialogue writing - is all about style.
Consider the following two ways of saying the same thing:
A: Hey you. Get over here.
B: Psssst, over here. Come.
Straight away, the attitudes displayed by the two speakers maybe gleaned. A is condescending. B is furtive. A sounds like a person of authority, B the near opposite.
There is great power in language, one that is especially important in CRPGs that depend on dialogue to convey personalities and stories. Consider the characters of BG 2 or PS:T, for example: *every* one of them has a identifiably different way of speaking, and this difference simultaneously distinguishes between them and develops their characters in the player's mind. When I think back to the BG characters, I don't quite remember their individual deeds - those, after all, are subsidiary to the player's own achievements. But I do remember the way that they spoke. Failing that, it's hard to consider a CRPG character memorable, at least in a medium where most of a character's personality is inferred from dialogue.
But maybe you seek to challenge that.