One Thing i hate about most MMOs is that the NPCs are reduced to Automats. Hit the Button, grab the Ticket, head off to kill the Mob - hit the Button again, get a Reward that doesn't make Sense.
To me, every little step up the Interaction-Ladder is very welcome. EQ2 for Example has actual Conversations ! Granted, most of the Time you have exactly two Options, where one is "Go on" and the other "Good Bye". Yet sometimes, rarely, you can ask about Specifics, or act either gruff or friendly. Again, granted, it never makes a Difference for the Quest or even further Conversations, but at least it feels more like actual Interaction.
Naturally i'd love MMOs to go beyond that, and allow me to speak with People about Rumors, to get a Bit of Lore, or just to say hello. Not necessarily in a very complex Way, just good oldfashioned Multiplechoicedialog.
Then, i'd think about tieing the Dialog to the Factionsystem, so that NPCs hail you differently if you've done a Lot for the Town, or speak tersely if they don't know you. That would go well with a "personal Faction" you get with that NPC alone - so if you're the Hero of the People, but have always been blunt and stand-offish with the local Tailor, he'll treat you less kindly than the other Townfolk.
Another Step further, it would be great if NPCs would sometimes (rather rarely) Initiate Dialog with you, instead of the other Way around. Asking for Help because you have helped before (offering the Quest, instead of waiting to be talked to), or offering Goods they don't normally sell (rare Drops at hefty Prices) - or just asking if you know News about some remote Place of the World (probably referencing a Quest).
It starts to move from Extrawork for the Devs to real Problems once you try to connect NPC-Reactions with Gameplay. For Example if Shopkeepers that liked you gave you better Prices. Then how do you make it so that not everyone grinds Shopkeeperfaction and is always nice and friendly around them ? After all, you don't want Roleplayers to suffer, because they act out disliking Burians, or having a bad Day...
To me, every little step up the Interaction-Ladder is very welcome. EQ2 for Example has actual Conversations ! Granted, most of the Time you have exactly two Options, where one is "Go on" and the other "Good Bye". Yet sometimes, rarely, you can ask about Specifics, or act either gruff or friendly. Again, granted, it never makes a Difference for the Quest or even further Conversations, but at least it feels more like actual Interaction.
Naturally i'd love MMOs to go beyond that, and allow me to speak with People about Rumors, to get a Bit of Lore, or just to say hello. Not necessarily in a very complex Way, just good oldfashioned Multiplechoicedialog.
Then, i'd think about tieing the Dialog to the Factionsystem, so that NPCs hail you differently if you've done a Lot for the Town, or speak tersely if they don't know you. That would go well with a "personal Faction" you get with that NPC alone - so if you're the Hero of the People, but have always been blunt and stand-offish with the local Tailor, he'll treat you less kindly than the other Townfolk.
Another Step further, it would be great if NPCs would sometimes (rather rarely) Initiate Dialog with you, instead of the other Way around. Asking for Help because you have helped before (offering the Quest, instead of waiting to be talked to), or offering Goods they don't normally sell (rare Drops at hefty Prices) - or just asking if you know News about some remote Place of the World (probably referencing a Quest).
It starts to move from Extrawork for the Devs to real Problems once you try to connect NPC-Reactions with Gameplay. For Example if Shopkeepers that liked you gave you better Prices. Then how do you make it so that not everyone grinds Shopkeeperfaction and is always nice and friendly around them ? After all, you don't want Roleplayers to suffer, because they act out disliking Burians, or having a bad Day...
Wilwarin
Cadet
I like the idea of personal faction. You could have an NPC in a town who may originally treat everyone around them with disdain, like a beggar who is always making rude comments to you as you pass, until one day, you find out that he is actually an integral part to some quest, in which you later find out that there is more history to him than meets the eye. After you complete the quest, perhaps righting some wrong that has befallen him, your faction standing with him changes, and you suddenly become the one person in town he smiles and nods to as you pass.
To that end, do you think the NPC should remember if you have completed their quest? If so, it might make it weird if you try to do the quest again...
I'd personally say it's worth it, just so your image with the NPC's could evolve based upon what you have actually done for them. If you want to do the quest again, there could be a way, but it wouldn't change their view of you after the first completion.
HJ-Dune Walker
Cadet
Oddly enough, in a good number of the games I've seen which have interesting NPCs with strong stories behind them and interactive communication, I tended to always find at least a significant portion of the player base who complained about how the game made you waste all your time talking to people when you wanted to be out killing or whatever.
In my own personal experiences, I cannot possibly tell you how many times I was questing in a group in WoW, on one of the oldest and most populated RP Servers, and the people I was with would ask me what the basic quest parameters were. It's right THERE! In your quest log! It's maybe two paragraphs of story text! And if that's too much, typically floating above that is YOUR OBJECTIVE in simplified terms. Now I admit, some quests lacked obvious objectives, and some quests did require you to read the text to actively figure it out. But when it actually DOES happen to be handed to someone on a silver platter and they still can't be bothered to take interest, that's mind boggling.
Now, I'd like to expand upon this, and related concepts such as NPC systems across the board, and to either confirm and/or deny some possibly maybe not non-existant hypothetical aspects and/or non-aspects of potentially not the non-game that isn't not Hero's Journey. But I'll have to check in with a few hypothetically actual and not at all imaginary people probably first. Possibly. Maybe.
~Perhaps Dune, Perhaps A Bowling Ball Dreaming It Is a Plate of Sashimi~
In my own personal experiences, I cannot possibly tell you how many times I was questing in a group in WoW, on one of the oldest and most populated RP Servers, and the people I was with would ask me what the basic quest parameters were. It's right THERE! In your quest log! It's maybe two paragraphs of story text! And if that's too much, typically floating above that is YOUR OBJECTIVE in simplified terms. Now I admit, some quests lacked obvious objectives, and some quests did require you to read the text to actively figure it out. But when it actually DOES happen to be handed to someone on a silver platter and they still can't be bothered to take interest, that's mind boggling.
Now, I'd like to expand upon this, and related concepts such as NPC systems across the board, and to either confirm and/or deny some possibly maybe not non-existant hypothetical aspects and/or non-aspects of potentially not the non-game that isn't not Hero's Journey. But I'll have to check in with a few hypothetically actual and not at all imaginary people probably first. Possibly. Maybe.
~Perhaps Dune, Perhaps A Bowling Ball Dreaming It Is a Plate of Sashimi~
HJ-Dune Walker
Cadet
Well, in this case the spelling mistake in unintended. Largely because I do not yet know whether I can freely discuss what I had hoped to, and thus alternative measures are unneeded, or not. *winks*
~Dune~
~Dune~
