What does it tell you that haters have become SUCH irritants to the field that companies can't justify making new great games and must instead outsource innovation to smaller outfits with less to lose?
You're mixing up issues. Lucasarts wasn't making new adventure games because of changes in publishing policies around 2000 that made them focus on Star Wars and outsourcing, thus getting rid of their developers.
The current comeback is due to yet another policy change brought by a new president, but as a result Lucasarts has no experienced adventure developers and thus they allowed Telltale, with their rich experience in the field, to license Monkey Island.
But outsourcing innovation, you say? Meaningful dialogue choice was an innovation all right back then. But instead making the choices irrelevant? That's a step back, on two levels. I'm not even talking about the fact the spoken and chosen lines aren't identical here.
I'm talking about how for example the first spoken conversation with nipperkin is the exact same no matter what you choose. One of the great pleasures of the old LA adventures is you could choose to make idiotic comments and even if all you'd get in return was a blank stare, that choice and the ensuing blank stare were there.
The other comedic aspect was that occasionally, the game would indeed make the choice not matter, but in that case it would always be because Guybrush spoke a line that was in clear contrast with the choices offered, or was interrrupted by someone else.
Both processes were used to essentially make you feel like the part of Guybrush that speaks his mind, while his conscience, manners and/or the world at large were occasionally getting in the way of your input. That was a comedic process and a meaningful part of MI-style dialogue.
Here because there's only one occasion where this contrast is used (When your tentative first mate interrupts you) on all other occasions it just feels like a cheap way of making you believe you're having choice while skimping on dialogue recording.
Do check the E3 video on Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UDrXP3qM2Q
Listen to how much they wanted the classic spirit of game to stay in the game.
Dialog, feel, scenery and detail wise.
I agree to a degree about the dialogue, its what makes MI so great. That being said the new monkey island has a different edge and direction going about it and feels much more exciting to play than the last, i would like more stupid guybrush dialogue to say and Guybrush to say what i ask
Yeah it is right tho, i must say in the end, i just randomly picked a line within 1sec, because when it doesnt matter, and he says the same, its kind worthless and bland, and it just makes the game so much faster to complete, either more difference in what he says or there isnt any reason to have the illusion of you actully having a choice.
Huh? What's all the fuss about ? I figured they had forgotten to record the other choices for the Nipperkin dialog. It was a bit weird choosing (a) and hearing (c) but I've survived... yeah!
Helps I didn't play the original MI I suppose, heh...:)
I'm disappointed about it too as it one of the things I enjoyed about monkey island. whats the point of having multiple choice answers if he just says the same thing, might as well not have it at all.
I was a little disappointed on this too, and I'm surprised to find so many people vehemently denying it could possibly be considered annoying by anyone in their right mind.
The way I see it there are two separate issues - first, the problem where what Guybrush says a) is not what you chose and b) isn't funny. This only happens a couple of times near the beginning so it's not the end of the world, but it is off putting.
Second there's a more general linearity about the dialogue here compared to earlier games. You say something funny in Tales, and Guybrush swings it round to the point of the conversation at the first opportunity. In the first couple of MIs you could more easily go off onto tangents and branch out because Guybrush said your one short line, the other person replied, and then you get to choose from a new variety of off-topic questions etc. to keep the new conversation going. Tales has noticeably fewer options in that regard.
This didn't ruin my enjoyment of the game or anything like that, but I did find it marginally disappointing. Not because I necessarily wanted to hear Guybrush voice the exact line out loud, but because I wanted to hear the reply and reply to that.
Edit: I think I basically just plagiarised what LuigiHann said on page 6 of this thread, so in short - I think I agree with him.
So many opinions here, I'm sure it's been said but I'm going to share my simple view. Overall it did not ruin the game. I was getting very tired of talking to Nipperkin as it was a long dialogue and I could not really alter the outcome. Now the thing that I want when I select one of several options is to see the reaction of the character I'm talking to. Also, you can add interactions through animations that are played when choosing a certain option. I don't think the real issue here is that they get to hear exactly what is written, but more that you get a different reaction. Of course, these go hand in hand so you need to record them if you want the reactions.
I for one would want to see more of this in the coming episodes, and I do not see how it would ruin the game in any way. People are playing through the game again just to try out things like "did you look at the well?" just to get a new interaction experience from their favorite game. This is the same thing, only you get it while you are actually enjoying the game for the first time!
I agree completely with treebark. Im in my 30s and played the old games when i was a kid and the dialog was always one of the main reasons to those many hours spent on the games. I prefer that the dialog i choose gets a word-by-word voice-translation and on occasion only he can rephrase it to something very similar but still funny.
IMHO the dialog suffers in TOMI and it seems a bit rushed and doesnt seem like one of the top priorities really. The amount of dialog choices are fewer than usual and i generally feel like im not in control of the dialog. Too often Guybrush rephrases what i choose. Back in the old days, much of the fun was playing with the MANY different dialog options...seeing what the opposing character would reply if i chose this and this. It didnt matter if it was short answers or the answers was the same. Just knowing that Guybrush actually DARED to tell a pirate he smelled bad (just an example) was fun as hell.
On another note, I also kinda miss Guybrushes funny answers when trying to combine 2 objects in my inventory that in no possible way can be combined. In TOMI i just mostly get a "failed sound" from the combiner-machine and thats it. But in general....i miss more direct dialog.
i completely agree with the subject of this topic. I appreciate the demo so i decided to buy the whole game. 3 minutes after starting the game, i understood i made a mistake and i was still frustrated until the end of the game.
The pleasure of having a good conversation is really one of the main part in monkey island. This is what's make you try to talk to everybody and perform weird objects combination. But in this game, you are not driving the conversation, you just click on every line you see, and wait the end of the dialogue.
Then i remember that i followed the first season of sam & max, and the game was continuously evolving (the magic of episodes in fact). The first episode was cool, the third one less, but as the season continues we really see that you try to make things better (abe lincoln must die was so brilliant) so i decided to come to send my opinion to the forum, in hope the things will evolved.
PS: if you need some inspiration of what is a good conversation game, just try the zombie cow studios point & click game, i am really amazed how they catch the point about discussion and observation.
It was a pleasant surprise for me. I totally thought that when the dialogue was altered it called for more humor and laughs. I don't see why it's such a bad thing.
what's the point in having dialouge options if they make no difference? I know it's probably a cost/size/corner-cutting measure, but please! when I pick an insult, I wanna give an insult. not something completely different. so cut the options i say! just play out the scene the way the designers intended it to be ('cause that's the way it will be, apparently, options or not), get rid of those annoying pauses for "interaction", or make guybrush actually say the line that you choose.
and now, just to avoid any misunderstandings, it's actually not that big an issue to me.
bla bla bla bla bla Troll... I want attention... bla bla bla...
But outsourcing innovation, you say? Meaningful dialogue choice was an innovation all right back then. But instead making the choices irrelevant? That's a step back, on two levels. I'm not even talking about the fact the spoken and chosen lines aren't identical here.
I'm talking about how for example the first spoken conversation with nipperkin is the exact same no matter what you choose. One of the great pleasures of the old LA adventures is you could choose to make idiotic comments and even if all you'd get in return was a blank stare, that choice and the ensuing blank stare were there. bla bla bla... Troll, troll, troll... bluster, cuss, blow hot air...
You DO realize that MI and MI2 had the exact same kind of situations? What about these?
Guybrush says something dumb during his first in MI conversation with Elaine NO MATTER WHAT HE CHOOSES, and NONE of the choices are actually what comes out of his mouth. In MI2, the exact same happens in SEVERAL occasions. I personally don't know what you're complaining about. It only happened two or three times. And uh,
"One of the great pleasures of the old LA adventures is you could choose to make idiotic comments and even if all you'd get in return was a blank stare"
No. I don't think anything has changed from the old to the new besides voices and better graphics.
May I remind you of this? Can't we just end the thread now? You've won the argument. It doesn't really matter, though. Because I'm sure that the next episode will have people who complain about *this* or *that*, making sure that they drive the developers crazy and flood the forums with complaints. It's just the way things are.
You DO realize that MI and MI2 had the exact same kind of situations? What about these?
Guybrush says something dumb during his first in MI conversation with Elaine NO MATTER WHAT HE CHOOSES, and NONE of the choices are actually what comes out of his mouth. In MI2, the exact same happens in SEVERAL occasions.
Except in Secret, the choices were all single nonsense sounds. In the Nipperkin conversation, each dialog choice is something different. The only time I can remember in Revenge where you couldn't choose anything was when Guybrush first meets zombie LeChuck, but aside from that the game largely lets you say what you want to say. In previous games, the only time you weren't allowed to choose an option is when Guybrush is nervous or when choosing a certain option would be obviously detrimental to his health (aside from a small instance with Palido Demingo). In Tales (largely the Nipperkin conversaion, the other instances are minor) Guybrush is not scared, he's not in danger, and there is no reason for the game to not give you a choice. Stop trying to pretend that what Telltale did is the same as what the old games did. It takes very little examination to reveal that it's not true.
Except in Secret, the choices were all single nonsense sounds. In the Nipperkin conversation, each dialog choice is something different. The only time I can remember in Revenge where you couldn't choose anything was when Guybrush first meets zombie LeChuck, but aside from that the game largely lets you say what you want to say. In previous games, the only time you weren't allowed to choose an option is when Guybrush is nervous or when choosing a certain option would be obviously detrimental to his health (aside from a small instance with Palido Demingo). In Tales (largely the Nipperkin conversaion, the other instances are minor) Guybrush is not scared, he's not in danger, and there is no reason for the game to not give you a choice. Stop trying to pretend that what Telltale did is the same as what the old games did. It takes very little examination to reveal that it's not true.
Comments
You're mixing up issues. Lucasarts wasn't making new adventure games because of changes in publishing policies around 2000 that made them focus on Star Wars and outsourcing, thus getting rid of their developers.
The current comeback is due to yet another policy change brought by a new president, but as a result Lucasarts has no experienced adventure developers and thus they allowed Telltale, with their rich experience in the field, to license Monkey Island.
But outsourcing innovation, you say? Meaningful dialogue choice was an innovation all right back then. But instead making the choices irrelevant? That's a step back, on two levels. I'm not even talking about the fact the spoken and chosen lines aren't identical here.
I'm talking about how for example the first spoken conversation with nipperkin is the exact same no matter what you choose. One of the great pleasures of the old LA adventures is you could choose to make idiotic comments and even if all you'd get in return was a blank stare, that choice and the ensuing blank stare were there.
The other comedic aspect was that occasionally, the game would indeed make the choice not matter, but in that case it would always be because Guybrush spoke a line that was in clear contrast with the choices offered, or was interrrupted by someone else.
Both processes were used to essentially make you feel like the part of Guybrush that speaks his mind, while his conscience, manners and/or the world at large were occasionally getting in the way of your input. That was a comedic process and a meaningful part of MI-style dialogue.
Here because there's only one occasion where this contrast is used (When your tentative first mate interrupts you) on all other occasions it just feels like a cheap way of making you believe you're having choice while skimping on dialogue recording.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UDrXP3qM2Q
Listen to how much they wanted the classic spirit of game to stay in the game.
Dialog, feel, scenery and detail wise.
Start of Curse of Monkey Island..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSZH-weE4RA
Just for reference the diffence.
Helps I didn't play the original MI I suppose, heh...:)
The way I see it there are two separate issues - first, the problem where what Guybrush says a) is not what you chose and b) isn't funny. This only happens a couple of times near the beginning so it's not the end of the world, but it is off putting.
Second there's a more general linearity about the dialogue here compared to earlier games. You say something funny in Tales, and Guybrush swings it round to the point of the conversation at the first opportunity. In the first couple of MIs you could more easily go off onto tangents and branch out because Guybrush said your one short line, the other person replied, and then you get to choose from a new variety of off-topic questions etc. to keep the new conversation going. Tales has noticeably fewer options in that regard.
This didn't ruin my enjoyment of the game or anything like that, but I did find it marginally disappointing. Not because I necessarily wanted to hear Guybrush voice the exact line out loud, but because I wanted to hear the reply and reply to that.
Edit: I think I basically just plagiarised what LuigiHann said on page 6 of this thread, so in short - I think I agree with him.
I for one would want to see more of this in the coming episodes, and I do not see how it would ruin the game in any way. People are playing through the game again just to try out things like "did you look at the well?" just to get a new interaction experience from their favorite game. This is the same thing, only you get it while you are actually enjoying the game for the first time!
IMHO the dialog suffers in TOMI and it seems a bit rushed and doesnt seem like one of the top priorities really. The amount of dialog choices are fewer than usual and i generally feel like im not in control of the dialog. Too often Guybrush rephrases what i choose. Back in the old days, much of the fun was playing with the MANY different dialog options...seeing what the opposing character would reply if i chose this and this. It didnt matter if it was short answers or the answers was the same. Just knowing that Guybrush actually DARED to tell a pirate he smelled bad (just an example) was fun as hell.
On another note, I also kinda miss Guybrushes funny answers when trying to combine 2 objects in my inventory that in no possible way can be combined. In TOMI i just mostly get a "failed sound" from the combiner-machine and thats it. But in general....i miss more direct dialog.
The pleasure of having a good conversation is really one of the main part in monkey island. This is what's make you try to talk to everybody and perform weird objects combination. But in this game, you are not driving the conversation, you just click on every line you see, and wait the end of the dialogue.
Then i remember that i followed the first season of sam & max, and the game was continuously evolving (the magic of episodes in fact). The first episode was cool, the third one less, but as the season continues we really see that you try to make things better (abe lincoln must die was so brilliant) so i decided to come to send my opinion to the forum, in hope the things will evolved.
PS: if you need some inspiration of what is a good conversation game, just try the zombie cow studios point & click game, i am really amazed how they catch the point about discussion and observation.
and now, just to avoid any misunderstandings, it's actually not that big an issue to me.
:cool:
You DO realize that MI and MI2 had the exact same kind of situations? What about these?
Guybrush says something dumb during his first in MI conversation with Elaine NO MATTER WHAT HE CHOOSES, and NONE of the choices are actually what comes out of his mouth. In MI2, the exact same happens in SEVERAL occasions. I personally don't know what you're complaining about. It only happened two or three times. And uh,
"One of the great pleasures of the old LA adventures is you could choose to make idiotic comments and even if all you'd get in return was a blank stare"
No. I don't think anything has changed from the old to the new besides voices and better graphics.
May I remind you of this? Can't we just end the thread now? You've won the argument. It doesn't really matter, though. Because I'm sure that the next episode will have people who complain about *this* or *that*, making sure that they drive the developers crazy and flood the forums with complaints. It's just the way things are.
Except in Secret, the choices were all single nonsense sounds. In the Nipperkin conversation, each dialog choice is something different. The only time I can remember in Revenge where you couldn't choose anything was when Guybrush first meets zombie LeChuck, but aside from that the game largely lets you say what you want to say. In previous games, the only time you weren't allowed to choose an option is when Guybrush is nervous or when choosing a certain option would be obviously detrimental to his health (aside from a small instance with Palido Demingo). In Tales (largely the Nipperkin conversaion, the other instances are minor) Guybrush is not scared, he's not in danger, and there is no reason for the game to not give you a choice. Stop trying to pretend that what Telltale did is the same as what the old games did. It takes very little examination to reveal that it's not true.
When I have a dog, I'm going to name him Larry.