Gamasutra has a fun essay up from Ben Schneider, formerly of Iron Lore Entertainment and currently narrative designer at Big Huge Games, on dialogue in games — and the challenges of getting it right. Schneider isn't calling for a removal of longer dialogues, but pointing out that short dialogue can function better than its longer cousin in many situations: creating ambiance in the background or delivering information (without interrupting or hindering gameplay) when in the forefront. Short dialogue should be like poetry, and poetry is 'a powerful thing':

The key, of course, is to keep dialog short where it counts. And the hard part is in knowing when that is. Dialog that's in the environment, tied to gameplay mechanics, or that plays during game action really needs to stay short, clear, and direct. But that is never an excuse for lower standards of writing.

Very short dialog (under six seconds, averaging two) is critical for information that needs to be digested instantaneously. Merely short dialog (let's say as long as 15 seconds, but averaging closer to eight) has the flexibility of carrying a lot more information and character, but can't reliably be used while the player is fully engaged in intense, focused play.

Obviously, the pressure is off when you've got the player's attention and they are largely passive, such as in cinematics, dialog trees, and when they can safely listen to narration over their current task — that is, for untimed puzzles and nonverbal, visually centered challenges (as in Portal, for example). Still — I would argue that there are precious few cases where a single line of dialog should run over 20 or so seconds.

He pulls out some good examples of what works and what doesn't in many situations, and it's a nice meditation on the role of those short little snips in games — pretty necessary, but pretty hard to get right at times (pedantic prose is, after all, easier to write than compelling poetry).

Ode to Short Dialog: Reconsidering the Sound Bite [Gamasutra]

Over at Gamers With Jobs, Julian Murdoch looks at the craft of writing about games — and how being a gaming journalist has improved his relationship with games. While I've found writing about games has significantly cut into my time I can spend playing games — and there's a difference between playing for pleasure and playing for pay — I'll agree with many of Murdoch's thoughts in regards to going into situations with a new perspective, one that is frequently quite positive:

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GameSetWatch has reprinted a post from Adam Maxwell complaining about the status of writers in the game industry, claiming that games don't need writers, and they frequently just complicate the process:

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As the Writers Guide of America strike continues to eek its way toward a very unhappy holidays, Variety has put together a little list of things striking writers can do in their spare time.... no they didn't include playing through BioShock. They did include writing video games though.

While the WGA has made no secret that it would like to eventually cover vidgame writing, it hasn't pushed the issue yet and is allowing members to work on games during the strike.

"It has been an interesting shift," says one tenpercenter who focuses on vidgames. "The literary agents are now saying, 'Why don't we get our clients over there during the strike?' even though in the past they thought the money wasn't good enough or the work is too demanding."

While the article says that the pay isn't that good comparatively, they list the typical fee as $US 50,000. Man, maybe I should change jobs. The article has a lot of other interesting insights into the process of writing the story for a video game, like how long it takes and how disjointed it can be.

This pen's for hire [Variety]

Voting time! We've got five (count 'em) finalists for our TGS schwag contest in which readers wrote about their favourite TGS post. What are we giving away? A fistful of TGS fans - including a Flynn used Metal Gear Solid 4 fan. What's more, we're throwing in a Japanese Halo 3 T-shirt, an Adventure Island shirt signed by Takahashi Meijin and a program on which he scribbled a pyramid describing the current market. There's a bunch of VERY RANDOM things as well. Remember, we're not looking for flattery, but rather, sharp writing and/or insight. Hit the jump for the finalists!

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