Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 2: The Conversation Wheel

[chinangel]

why all the hate on the conversation wheel? I think it's great! In Dragon Age 1 there were enough instances where I would say something and people would LITERALLY IGNORE IT!

that bothered me immensely, aren't I the protagonist? Shouldn't I have some kind of weight to throw around here? My advice or comments should at least be acknowledged by the NPC's. The only time they would look at me is when I'd say something outragous.

 

[Saris Kai]

I hate the conversation wheel because I would rather have 10x more dialog in the game and read it all than have less that I can listen to but I'm an old school gamer like that.

 

[Woodsey]

When you count up the responses you get on a conversation wheel compared to the old way of doing things (list with every word you say written out), its basically the same.

And whenever you had multiple ways of saying the "good" reply (for example) the other character's response was always the bloody same anyway, so you're really not gaining anything.

The only issue with the conversation wheel is that it can be a little obscure at times, but really, all that's needed to fix that is to sometimes have 4 words representing an option instead of 3.

 

[Caligulove]

After playing through the Mass Effect games and the Dragon Age II demo, it's definitely solidified as a very intuitive mechanic for keeping dialog flowing and more seamless. Compliments a vast amount of voice acting very well. Teaches the player after awhile to know different tones of responses based on their position in the wheel.

Left usually prolongs a conversation with more detail or questions or investigation, while Right sided moves the conversation along, while NE is usually lighter in tone, more friendly or helpful- even jokingly response and SE is more aggressive, annoyed, sarcastic and such. East or default direction is the more neutral or otherwise basic response.

Gets to the point where the player may not even need to look and read at the shorthand summarization text and can, instead, make conversation choices based on impulsively moving the right stick to the direction.

 

[Irridium]

I like the old way because I like knowing exactly what my character is going to say. Rather then play "guess whats going to be said". Its just really, really annoying. However DA2 does the wheel much better then ME2. Thats for sure.

Also, it just makes "morally hard" choices simple by breaking your responses up into "Top = good, middle = neutral/just leave, down = bad". It would be better if they mixed up the choices so the top wasn't always the "good" choice.

Still, I wish more would do what The Witcher did. Have our option be exactly what Geralt will say, and have him speak it.

Bam, everyone wins. Bitchy fans like me don't have to guess what our character will say, and everyone else can hear their character speak. Add in DA2's "tone" feature that displays how you'll say something and put the symbol right in front of the lines, and you got yourself a perfect system.

 

[josh797]

i just wish the conversation wheel had more variety. they could do with some options that arent good bad or nothing. seriously, its too cut and dried. just add some more dialogue options that are in the gray spectrum.

 

[DVS Storm]

I prefer the dialogue wheel because it makes the conversations more interesting and fluent. You also can hear your protagonist saying something. And yes I know that it has less options than the old system but basically it has the same options: the good, the bad, just move with it already and I want to know more options. Still I would like to see more variety in the convo wheel. Nothing is perfect.

 

[Adam28]

I like how KOTOR did it but loved how Mass Effect did it...

Both are great but I see the conversational wheel as an improvement, conversations flow more smoothly that way, there is less pausing and having to read all the available responses.

 

[6unn3r]

I like it...nuf said really.

 

[Baby Tea]

When you count up the responses you get on a conversation wheel compared to the old way of doing things (list with every word you say written out), its basically the same.

And whenever you had multiple ways of saying the "good" reply (for example) the other character's response was always the bloody same anyway, so you're really not gaining anything.

I really agree with this.
Very very few RPG have each extra line of dialog leading to a new direction. It is, 90% of the time, just cosmetic fluff. And I'm not one for RPG placebos. I really enjoy the conversation wheel in terms of keeping things moving along. I don't have an ass-load of responses to read and try to pick out. I've got a simple selection designed to keep things going. In a character driven game like DA2, where you're a specific character who ends up doing, no matter what, a certain thing (Like Shepard saving the universe in ME), this is just awesome.

Now if the game was a bit more open ended story-wise (If not event wise), like Baldur's Gate, then I want the multiple options to look over. Because I'm defining a character, which in turn defines the story. DA:O worked like this (A character based story), and it was great. I wouldn't want the convo-wheel in DA:O, but it works great in DA2 (A story-based character).

 

[MiracleOfSound]

I like the wheel in Mass Effect as Shepard is a very defined character, however I liked being able to project myself in Dragon Age and I'll miss it.

 

[kuyo]

I think I should be entitled to know what I'm about to say before I say it. Just knowing that It's sarcastic doesn't tell me everything I want to know. For example, I want to know if what I'm about to say is completely insane.

 

[Coratto]

I like this

 

[Hoplon]

It worked well in Mass Effect 2... it also kinda fit there, but I'm often finding myself with a horrible lack of options and whenever I choose something it's more like a "conversation carousel"...

"Will he say something completely retarded/insensitive/contrary to what I wanted to actually say again?"

I got that when we had the whole thing written out. you are never going to always agree with the options, all the wheel removes is the pretence of that.

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

What I don't like about the conversation wheel is that I, as the protagonist, don't know what I am going to actually say. That is disruptive for me. It is also makes me - the protagonist - display personality attributes that I - the player - did not assign to myself. As a role player who enjoys giving my characters personality I don't like being led to believe I can do that - by say, making my character and picking some background elements - and then have certain things imposed on me in every single play through, no matter how I may want to change up my actions to match a different persona.

Granted, the lines of text to choose from system does some of that - but you can read exactly what will be said, in total, and make a more informed decision about how close that response approximates who you think your character should be.

I don't like the truncated comments the wheel presents - they are not representative a lot of the time of what the character is actually going to say - and then you hear them say it and immediately think "I didn't want to say that" but it's done and you're committed to it now, so its restrictive.

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

I like the wheel in Mass Effect as Shepard is a very defined character, however I liked being able to project myself in Dragon Age and I'll miss it.

I do agree with this - when a character is fairly defined already you can be more intuitive about what is actually going to come out when you select an option, and you're building on a base that is pre-existing. So, yes, it worked for Mass Effect better, but was still a little... unfulfilling.

For Dragon Age, especially with the precedent the first game set for how customizable your character's personality was, it just doesn't work.

 

[veloper]

No wheel UNEQUALS no voiced protagonist.
Many games have full written lines and full VO.

In older Bioware games clicking a different quote within a dialogue (after a reload) will often get you the exact same npc reply in return.

In Mass Effect, clicking a different a different part of the wheel (after reload), will make your character speak exactly the same, followed by the reply by the NPC.
Sometimes in that game, all the choices on the wheel lead to exactly the same thing!

All the dialogue wheel does is hide information as you get only minimal clues about what you're telling your character to say next (if there is any difffence at all).
Way to hide lazy writing efforts.
So shit then.