Why Dialogue Trees Stink

According to The Game Reviews' Jeffrey Matulef, dialogue trees are just an exercise in breaking video game pacing, and the freedom of choice is not worth the trade-off.

[NeverforgetNES]

OH snap. Interesting take on this.

[italianbreadman]

Jeffrey needs to play Indigo Prophecy. NOW

[tehk1w1]

What he said.

[JeffGUNZ]

I love how Mass Effect did it. Most the games I play are shooters like TPS or FPS, so it's nice to have a more intimate feel when playing. I enjoyed it in Mass Effect.

[ThaGeNeCySt]

I like them... they are smooth in Mass Effect, I can multitask (listen) and pick where i want the convo to head without it impeding the flow of the actual convo... but he does have a point

[shoinan]

I think what BioWare did with Mass Effect is the way forward, not what this article suggests. I just think a little more creativity is needed with that system, and less statis during the conversation.

[Canary]

The problem with dialog trees is that they rarely resemble "trees."

Last time I checked, you don't end up back at the base of a tree's trunk after you move past the last leaf or twig.

[SlamVanderhuge]

Well, some games do resember "choose your own adventure books" but I agree that Indigo Prophecy and Mass Effect have nailed the formula pretty well. I would like to see ME be the model.

[Sangria]

I just like dialog trees. In Mass Effect's case, it's greatly integrated with a nice pacific/aggressive integration, even if it doesn't really influence the rest of the story. If the dialog contain mostly informations, then you can select any choice without losing the others.

In Rise of the Argonauts, there is the same system, where each answer is affiliated to a god, which gives points to spend on powers. But the game itself was a crap so it was kinda lost potential.

My main hope is that the next iteration of Fable will include REAL dialogs and not a mute hero. Dialogs like acts can have a huge influence on a character's alignment and that kind of dialog trees in Fable would greatly improve the game.

So to me, dialog trees is a good way to give even more interactivity to a game, and even if for some games it's not totally natural, there are games (like Fahrenheit / Indigo Prophecy) where the system is ingenious and give more natural dialogs.

[A HiFi]

Agree with what everyone has said. They are the future!

[mr durand pierre]

Mass Effect was definitely a step in the right direction with the mo-capping and voice-acting, but then it's even more jarring when you go back to the previous branch or hear dialogue repeated. I do need to play Indigo Prophecy, though I may just wait for Heavy Rain.