"Ever since choice-based games moved away from dialogue options in which you see exactly what your character will say before they say it in favor of little blurbs that try to sum up the general vibe of what you're going to say or do before you watch it unfold on-screen, there's been a loss of clarity between what we think we're about to say and what we actually end up doing in video games."
"BioWare uses emotive icons to communicate an emotional intent with different options, or has even started adding small pop-up windows to lay out exactly what you're going to do alongside your dialogue option. However, games like Dragon Age: The Veilguard have the advantage of pausing dialogue to let players consider their actions before moving forward."
Choice-based games increasingly replace explicit dialogue lines with vague blurbs that convey a general vibe rather than exact speech, creating a gap between player intent and character action. This trend ties into a cinematic approach but represents a game design problem when choices poorly communicate outcomes. Some studios mitigate the issue with emotive icons, pop-up descriptions, or pausing dialogue to allow deliberation. Timed dialogue systems preserve flow and urgency but limit options for clarifying text. Clear, direct dialogue options remain the simplest solution to align player decisions with on-screen results. Episode three of Dispatch presents this tension with a crew culling scene.
Read at Kotaku
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