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Dialogue in video games

  • Sebastian Domsch
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Dialogue across Media
This chapter is in the book Dialogue across Media

Abstract

Dialogue is hardwired into the very matrix of video games, not only because they are an interactive medium, but because they are an active one: they react to input by players and can offer their own input. From the beginning, rule structures in video games were communicated through language. The more emphasis a game put on narrative, the more this turned into a dialogue with the player. Video games are usually at least implicitly cast as second-person narratives, hinting at or enacting a dialogue between the narrator/game master and the player. The player’s avatar also communicates within the game. This chapter looks systematically at the relationship between ludic and dialogic structures and at the various forms that dialogue has taken in video games.

Abstract

Dialogue is hardwired into the very matrix of video games, not only because they are an interactive medium, but because they are an active one: they react to input by players and can offer their own input. From the beginning, rule structures in video games were communicated through language. The more emphasis a game put on narrative, the more this turned into a dialogue with the player. Video games are usually at least implicitly cast as second-person narratives, hinting at or enacting a dialogue between the narrator/game master and the player. The player’s avatar also communicates within the game. This chapter looks systematically at the relationship between ludic and dialogic structures and at the various forms that dialogue has taken in video games.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Creating characters through dialogue
  6. Pragmatic stylistics and dramatic dialogue 19
  7. Dialogue and character in 21st century TV drama 37
  8. Look who’s talking 55
  9. All talk 77
  10. Part II. Involvement, audience design and social interaction
  11. Studying everyday conversation 95
  12. Dialogic interactions on radio 117
  13. Dialogism in journalistic discourse 137
  14. Friends and followers ‘in the know’ 155
  15. Dialogue with computers 179
  16. Part III. Playfulness and narrative functions of dialogue
  17. Dialogue in Audiophonic Fiction 205
  18. Dialogue in comics 225
  19. Dialogue in video games 251
  20. Dialogue and interaction in role-playing games 271
  21. Index 291
https://doi.org/10.1075/ds.28.13dom

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Creating characters through dialogue
  6. Pragmatic stylistics and dramatic dialogue 19
  7. Dialogue and character in 21st century TV drama 37
  8. Look who’s talking 55
  9. All talk 77
  10. Part II. Involvement, audience design and social interaction
  11. Studying everyday conversation 95
  12. Dialogic interactions on radio 117
  13. Dialogism in journalistic discourse 137
  14. Friends and followers ‘in the know’ 155
  15. Dialogue with computers 179
  16. Part III. Playfulness and narrative functions of dialogue
  17. Dialogue in Audiophonic Fiction 205
  18. Dialogue in comics 225
  19. Dialogue in video games 251
  20. Dialogue and interaction in role-playing games 271
  21. Index 291
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