"That's what I've said"

I bet many of you have been playing games that give you several different possibilities to answer to questions or generally make replies. If you're lucky they have the “good” and “bad” answer covered with the bad answer often mainly being there for shits and giggles.

Sometimes there are several answers ready for you to use which sometimes are more just for having more answers to chose from. But here's the point, are those choices actually worth something?

Usually you could throw away most of those answers as, no matter which you choose, the next line will be the same no matter what with one maybe netting you a “best possible” and one the “worst possible” result.

However while having such “evaluated” answers seems to go that way it has one big problem. You will never really reply in a way you would have actually answered but in the way that nets you the best “reward”.

My question pretty much is “How many games that give you multiple choice answers are there where, rather than the answer that seems to get you the best reward, you felt comfortable to answer in a way that most closely resembles what you would have actually said?”

I'm willing to bet that answer is either “none” or “very few”.

Now to not just point out a flaw but also offer some “solutions”.

A problem is that at max such games have a disposition system where people either like to dislike you which in itself is sadly far to shallow to really matter. However there already are games that offer a solution.

Dwarf Fortress for example has a system in which every NPC has his own personality which is simply is kept as a %value on several scales. In a game that uses a similar system if you'd reply to NPCs in a certain way it would affect each slightly different as it gets “filtered” through their personality values.

However how to then “express” that. As said the disposition system alone it too shallow.

My suggestion is to split up disposition into several values, my suggestions would be “Like”, “Trust”, “Fear” and “Respect”.

Each of those is measured individually and changes how NPCs will react and interact with you.

Someone who dislikes you but has high respect might not want to talk to you for too long but listens to what you have to say. Or a shopkeeper who likes you might give you a discount but not necessarily trust you enough to let you wander around their store unsupervised.

Now to tie this in with the main point, conversations where you chose answers that most closely reflect what you would have actually said.

Lets take the system I suggested and say someone lost a loved one and they either don't have believes in an afterlife or their believes aren't exactly pleasant. Telling them “they are in a better place now” might seem like a jolly happy answer but to them might sound more insulting causing them to to possibly lose “like” and “respect” but not necessarily change their trust and fear values.

Also the impact of your answer can depend on your previous disposition values, if they trusted you a lot you might even get away with telling them a lie while with very little trust it would take a lot to convince them of your point, maybe more than they are willing to listen to you.

This would demand a greater level of complexity but not necessarily even to the point many people think of. There would not necessarily have to be reply strings to every possible answer, they could still net you the same or similar replies, but the disposition alterations can be calculated automatically and alter NPC behaviors accordingly.

As for the answer choices you get, it could give you a selection of “primary” answers and a possibility to “vary” your mood and “intensity” of the reply. It would take more insight into that but I'm always welcome for discussions.