We like chatting… Without chatting...
Hi Circadian City Citizen,
What a week! We have been studying over NPC relations, their interactions, stories, secrets, and meaning of being a friend, an acquaintance, a dude, or what so ever. During one of the meetings, someone said: "dialogs are too long and tedious in most of the games, we need to stay away from that..." True.
After a while, we come up with an idea of chat mechanic. During the game, you can chat with almost anybody. But, as you know, the nature of chatting is easy, light… Smooth. You don't throw away your secrets, precious things in this kind of conversations. Yet, the magic of chatting is this; in time it makes you feel more outspoken and then in the middle of a sentence, you start to talk about the real you, your story, etc.
So, in our game, the more you chat with an NPC, the more you get close to learn about his/her real deals. And the best part is you don't have to waste your time reading all those daily, shallow mumbo jumbo words.
Here is what happens; when you see an NPC, if you want to chat, the game will fast-forward to half an hour, and you earn several social points for this. You also become closer to this NPC and maybe the next time you chat with him or her, perhaps s/he will tell you about his/her childhood, first love, a secret about another NPC. Only this, you will read in a dialog box!
What is next?
This precious knowledge can affect your future dialogues or your behavior towards others. Because some may lie to you (and you will know it) some may play with you (and you may fall for it). The more you get to know the people, the more you uncover the backstories.
Or
You may just live and let live; go to work, sleep, and repeat.
Cheers!