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[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

yes, definitely. i especially liked the story of castlevania 3, and the different endings you could get. here's not much text to it, but it's amazing how much you can imply with a few pictures and a few words. i'd say castlevania 3 had by far the best story in the series. here's a pic of one of the endings:

[tim_the_tam]

i saw this on game career guide and it made me think about text in games again. while i didnt read through the whole article the first few paragraphs made a lot of sense on the whole enriching gameplay and choice aspect of text. which i guess, is the reason why i skip text in games a lot and why i really enjoyed reading phenoix wright.

anyways check it out
 
http://gamecareerguide.com/features/782/the_lost_art_of_conversation_in_.php?page=1

[Christian Knudsen]

I think it was mentioned earlier in the thread, but the single most important thing that gets me to read dialogue text is an accompanying portrait with emotional expressions. If the face is angry, sad or happy I want to know why and thus read the text.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

ditto -- i still read text without a portrait, but reading text without a portrait loses a lot and is much weaker of an experience. there's something about looking at a person's face that gives it a human connection.

[Christian Knudsen]

Yeah, just think about how much we "decode" facial expressions and body language in everyday life. Without that a great deal of information is simply lost. In prose you can have descriptive text that allows you to imagine these things, but in game dialogue that's not an option (well, I guess it is an option, but it would probably seem odd), so if there isn't some other way to convey this information, the text will just feel flat to me. I suppose colorful typography can convey some of this, with big red letters for angry and the like, but it's still not the same as actually seeing the facial expression of the person talking.

[Seth]

I disagree--yes in some instances it can help but I also like it when dialogue isn't attached to a specific image, and in literature, there are times when I like it that a line of dialogue isn't always accompanied by a facial description.

[Christian Knudsen]

and in literature, there are times when I like it that a line of dialogue isn't always accompanied by a facial description.

Even though a character's facial expression or current demeneaor isn't always supplied in literature, I'd argue that it's most often implied. The descriptive text that literature has, but game dialogues don't have, allows readers to create a more complete mental image of the book's characters, and readers are then a able to apply their own imagined facial expressions/body language based on this. Game dialogue where there is no accompanying image is kinda like reading a play with all the stage directions missing.

[Zoggles]

I think (depending on genre of game) well written text *is* inherently fun to read providing that:

• it is well written
• it is not page upon page upon page of wall of text. It's a game not an eBook.
• it is easily readable (large enough and in a clear font without eye-straining colours)
• it is not displayed at inopportune moments
• it has simple interaction, i.e not constant clicking for each tiny piece of text - thus disrupting your reading flow
• when displayed, it does not rush you to finish reading it (a timed fade out etc). A story/text break provides a nice opportunity to go and grab a cup of coffee then come back and read it leisurely - perhaps taking a break from the any preceding action.

Many games (on first play) I have read probably >85% of the text fed to me. Playing a game through a second time though I will tend to skip through most of it (and it is highly annoying if I can't).

Good writing is paramount though and humourous dialogue definitely helps. Who didn't read almost all the text in Monkey Island games for instance? And who didn't enjoy it?

Eve Online frustrated the hell out of me with some of their text & help text on numerous occasions - for example just as you get into range of some enemy NPC, up on screen comes either a window with your mission details, or some chat window of NPC dialogue, or some help panel telling you what to do.. all the time you can hear your proximity alarms going off and that you have been target locked, but the text windows are hiding the action.. all you want to do is clear those damn windows, lock on and shoot. Very very inopportune time to show any text.

People read at different speeds. Having a tickertape style or typewriter like (characters appearing one after the other) is either too fast or too slow and either requires constant focus and speed reading, or something else to do while you wait.. like trimming your toenails or whatever.

However, I firmly believe that the second most important thing (after good writing) is the presentation. A good, readable, clean font, with suitable colours for text and background, good word and line spacing. Navigation is also important - if the 'next' button is too sensitive and you end up missing a page, then you've just killed the whole flow of the story and lose any of the readers desire to fully appreciate it (unless they can easily go 'back' a page to re-read what they accidentally skipped).

If the text is important, I would probably refrain from too much animation or action going on during it - generally I would say that most people would prefer to watch that instead of reading, especially if the scene and text plays through without prompting the player to continue when they are ready.

Lastly, while it might not make it more 'fun' you can make attempt to make more people pay more attention to the text by inserting tid-bits of information that give hints to secret areas/items/whatever in the game that might be otherwise be much harder to find. Gives perhaps some added incentive to read most it at least.

-Z-