Does The Dialogue Wheel Dumb Down Fallout 4?

The storytelling in Fallouts largely relies on dialogue. There is little in the nature of cut-scenes, except some end-game sequences. Storytelling includes everything from the main story arc, to simple things like the context for a side-quest, or the story behind a town (Rivet city, Megaton). All of this information makes Fallout a compelling, and immersive experience.

After one of my concerns with the direction of Fallout 4 was addressed in a previous blog(the confirmation of First-Person dialogue), I will raise another concern. Ultimately, I felt to write about the camera perspectives during dialogue as I felt it (option of first person dialogue) was a minimum which needed to be maintained.

My next concern more closely targets the dialogue itself: The (confirmed) implementation of a dialogue wheel. I feel that the dialogue wheel presents many problems/conflicts with delivering much of the information that I earlier described as compelling and immersive. By reducing dialogue to 4 buttons (sometimes 3 and a "goodbye"), it reduces the directions that the dialogue could develop, compared to the previous games.

Some have already theorized that the buttons simply represent a pattern. 4 options: A positive (respectful) response, a negative (rude) response, a nuetral response, and a clarification/question response. Which, in theory is very similar to what was offered before. However, it is very simplistic compared to before. Fallout 3/NV had multiple different areas you could take the dialogue, all to learn about your surroundings. Now it seems there will only be 3-4, and that once you engage in any of them, it will return to the simple positive/negative/nuetral or clarification system. Much of which serves similar purposes. All of them simply "advance" the dialogue rather then choose where it goes.

Finally, the dialogue wheel presents a huge problem in that dialogue options are needed to be represented by short 1-4 word options. Naturally, there will be many who have different perceptions of the options paraphrasing, and witness an outcome/dialogue they did not intend. In other words, the paraphrased dialogue options does not always capture the essence of what is actually said. Whereas the dialogue list system in the previous games did not run into this problem - the lines of dialogue were there to choose from. In Fallout 4, lines of dialogue are paraphrased into short labels on the dialogue wheel. It's inevitable there will be a break in immersion somewhere along the line.

All of this is to incorporate the decision to have a voiced protagonist. So far, I would say a voice protagonist, and simplistic dialogue are far from the essence of last generations iterations of Fallout. The voiced protagonist itself represents, to many people who enjoy fallout, a major break in immersion. How do you project your own character onto a character that speaks in a predetermined way?

Ultimately, all of these inclusions carry inherent problems and conflicts. These design choices indicate a "dumbing down", a "casualization" of the fallout series. Choices aimed at a even wider player base, and by consequence, a narrowing of its own player base. Choices aimed at "improving flow", and cinematization, of a game which, arguably, shouldn't need it.

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For more on this concern, and the problem of projecting your own character on a voiced character, there is an excellent page discussing it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fa...

(Please take note that I deliberately did not include Fallout and Fallout 2)

[sullynathan]

It wouldn't be the first time Bethesda dumbed down or casualized something

[gyggyg]

Certainly. Plenty were disappointed with how shallow Skyrim was, compared to previous games. I don't think it's impossible for all the changes to not dumb the game down, I just think it will be very hard to make them work.

[Roccetarius]

I think the dialogue wheel has secretly bothered me in other games, because as it's said, you're only shown simple words. More often than not, the character may say something different, instead of what you imagined it would be.

[gyggyg]

Agreed. And would you think those instances where something different is said then what you imagined breaks (atleast momentarily) immersion for you?

Thank you for reading!