If i want to read dialogue, I'll read a book. If I watch to listen to dialogue, I'll watch a movie or anime.
Dialogue should be as short as possible and only explain the bare minimum, while the gameplay explains what you should be doing.
I consider dialogue to be a last resort when you can't explain to the gamer what to do via game mechanics.
Voice acting is cancer that should only be used for short voice quips to convey tone when an NPC says something. Full voice acting limits the dialogue options to what the studio can fund, what you can fit on a disk, and if they want to go back and change something they have to bring the actor back in and rerecord it. None of these are issues in games without voice acting.
Also voiced protags are awful in RPGs because they severely limit what your character can be.
Agreed, that way you can convey the characters emotion in their tone and subtitle it like Ico when you need to understand what they are saying, which is much easier for translation.
One of the biggest drawbacks to the dialogue wheel is the fact that they have to write a three word summary of what that choice actually is and they fucking suck at it. So you select 'Go home, friend' hoping to bid your longtime travel companion a fond farewell after a great and glorious adventure and thanks to Bioware's exquisite writing skills, you gut him on your sword and send him straight to hell.
Depends what kind of game it is, really. I've been playing Morrowind for the first time for about a week, and I do sort of enjoy the 'choose topic to discuss' method. It does get a little samey and repetitive, though.
Voice clips here and there or dialogue during certain scripted scenes work pretty well, before you speed into them at blinding speed and hack them to death with your axe while they monologue while they're casting a spell.
No. It has proven itself to be inane most of the time. Seeing it in Horizon immediately pissed me off. The only time it is interesting is when you're in a tense situation and need to figure out the right thing to say, but usually the right thing to say is locked behind a speech stat or pargade points. Makimg things moot.
Depends on the VA.
No, there are cases where I'm fine with given a choice. Like in Nier where you're given a choice for your next objective or Paper Mario TTYD when you can side with the endboss and get a gameover.
By only using it where it actually matters to the gameplay.
Voice acting is not needed for 80% of games that have it outside of grunts. It's a huge money sink that can end up fucking a game finanically, see SWTOR.
When developing a game, it should be an afterthought.
wheel is pure cancer.
Multiple choice can be tolerable if done well.
It's never done well
I would improve it by stripping it down/out wherever possible instead of pretending that including more text somehow makes the game "deep".
i dont inherently mind the idea of a dialogue wheel, but when you go from coherent answers to a fucking wheel thats not good.
more detail on what youre actually saying is a good thing.
is that going to make my character execute this person or tell him to shoot somebody? this is a big deal
Witcher 3 did a pretty good job in giving an adequate set of voice acted answers. Otherwise. I think a mute protag with Planescape torment style of choices is the best since it allows you to have a strong presence as a protagonist, which is by far the most important thing in any RPG. I fucking hate silent protag who have absolutely no impact on character relationships and the events of the story itself.