SE: Please tone it down a hair

[Soulfire]

Now only if I could have said that all in one paragraph instead of seven...

I shall grant your wish!

[en]

But seriously, as long as nothing from the Japanese text gets cut out I'm fine with it. You don't have to overdo the frosting on the cake, but you better serve me the whole cake. I don't pay bakers to shortcake me. I mean shortchange me.

[HiirNoivl]

Perhaps they can change the size and the font of the characters in Japanese? The thing is, Japanese and English Characters don't run 1 for 1. What matters is the number of tags, not the number of letters. So sometimes the translation has to add extra words or meaningless text just to finish filling the number of tags.

I hope that in 2.0 the dialogue boxes will be a bit more flexible so they don't have to try to squeeze and English Peg, through a Japanese Hole.

[KumaAkuma]

Sad SE seem to be being asked to pander to ADD suffers.

The one thing SE do so well and most other MMOs fail at abysmally is STORY TELLING, there are plenty of games where there's precious little text to read that's of any value and few 'stories' which are engaging in any way at all.

I guess you haven't had a frequent encounter with the Ifrit/Moogle/Garuda npc just yet. The amount of text you need to constantly skip to get a new keyitem is ridiculous.

[MStowastiqVahlshdeh]

Thank you for the very illustrative and fact-filled reply Fern. I'm one of the die-hards loving the dialog as it is and hope you keep those felines rolling their rrrrrrrs. As it is one of my favorite aspects of many in the dialogs you have provided.

Keep up the great work!

[Vingtdeux]

I'm glad you talked of pirate-speak. As someone playing the English version and not being English-speaking native, the Limsa pirates talk seems a bit overdone for my comprehension.

[Majidah]

The LOC team, however, hasn't been completely silent on this issue. We have voiced our concerns regarding dialogue length, as well as relayed to the higher-ups user opinions found in this and similar threads (the "Brevity is the Soul of Wit" post being the first to come to mind). And, while I don't believe that XIV will ever be called 'light on text,' I do genuinely believe that some changes are in store for 2.0. There are those among us who realize that while there is a place for a good, meaty yarn, there is also a place for quick, concise storytelling.

holy cow, as the poster of Brevity is the Soul of Wit and knowing how old that thread is I must say I feel like our opinions are really being listened after hearing a mod refer to such an old thread all of the sudden!

Seems like Rukkirii has some competition now as favorite community rep EVER!

[Cendres]

Wow this thread is alive and kicking, and rep makes a post and people calm the F down. *Rejoice* This in particular is worth of note and then some:

Hello all,
..............
When it comes to the overall writing style employed in the game, it looks like there's a clean split between those who enjoy it and those who find it either overwhelming or overbearing (or a combination of both).
.................
There does appear, however, to be one thing that a majority of you agree on--and that is that there is a tendency for most NPCs to fall into the trap of over-exposition, and how this can, at times, seriously bog down the game's flow.

................
The LOC team, however, hasn't been completely silent on this issue. We have voiced our concerns regarding dialogue length, as well as relayed to the higher-ups user opinions found in this and similar threads (the "Brevity is the Soul of Wit" post being the first to come to mind). And, while I don't believe that XIV will ever be called 'light on text,' I do genuinely believe that some changes are in store for 2.0. There are those among us who realize that while there is a place for a good, meaty yarn, there is also a place for quick, concise storytelling.

[Kowen]

I think a fairly simple way to get around this would be to have some really basic dialogue choices. Just start with something like "Help, Dodos are eating my crops!" and then have options like

1. How long have you been a farmer?
2. Where did the dodos come from?
3. How can I help?

where the third option will skip directly to accepting the quest, but the first two (optional) choices will give the player the exposition and lore if they're interested.

Breaking it up like that would make it easier to digest, and having to ask the questions gives the illusion of the "conversation" being less one-sided.

[Sabaku_Usagi]

I think a fairly simple way to get around this would be to have some really basic dialogue choices. Just start with something like "Help, Dodos are eating my crops!" and then have options like

1. How long have you been a farmer?
2. Where did the dodos come from?
3. How can I help?

where the third option will skip directly to accepting the quest, but the first two (optional) choices will give the player the exposition and lore if they're interested.

Breaking it up like that would make it easier to digest, and having to ask the questions gives the illusion of the "conversation" being less one-sided.

This is always something that has bothered me in FFXI, you never really know what your character says to the NPC. It's always a /yes or a /meh ... etc etc. Obviously not possible in 1.0, I doubt what you outlined is how they have revamped the speech in 2.0 but if SE does plan to make improvements to this system... I hope they seriously look at using a method like this.

[Fiosha_Maureiba]

I wanted to pop in here and point out the lengthy response from Fern on the subject, so that everyone forum wide had a chance to see it. Thanks for the insight, Ferny!


What is this, I don't even...

Something is different about you...