Why are "chat" and "emotes" something only found in MMOs? Because NPCs are not people? They are in an RPG.

I wish I could type replies to some of the things NPCs say. I wish I could applaud after a Bard performs in a tavern. I wish I could dance and drink and carouse.

I guess since single player games have no other players in them, developers think this is a waste of resources? They just do not see NPCs as our door into the worlds they create.

What do you think? Bad idea? Good idea? Do you care?

I usually have a mod for that in Skyrim.

And i remember old Neverwinter Nights having an extensive menu for them.

I like the idea.

That would be great AIBQuirky

Well it's got better. In Skyrim you could build houses and marry ugly men and adopt children.

In Morrowind you couldn't even sit on chairs.

I yell at them all the time....you mean they don't hear it?

I think what you're suggesting was implemented in Fable 1.

Not many other RPGs allow you to be emotive towards NPCs to elicit unique dialogue and reactions. That was always the great thing about Fable.

A few games have them. I vaguely recall them in something I played recently, which would be Inquisition or Pillars, though I didn't actually use them. In Fable they made sense somehow, though you could tell that game was intended to be much bigger than it ended up. There was supposed to be this big competition-between-heroes thing which was only partially implemented.

Edit: Surely it must have been Inquisition... Why is my memory so vague...

I'd like them but if they have no actual effect I don't see it as a big deal.

Like TojKa, I use mods that add non-combat animations to my characters. I think it adds a lot to making my characters feel just a bit more "alive." I would love it if Bethesda added an option for us to play social animations in their games.

I often use emotes in MMOs when no other player is around. I do it for myself. I do it to enhance my roleplaying. I do it because that is what my character would do. It's what roleplaying is all about to me.

That's the extent of my own interactions!

Not picking on you but that is exactly my point

It has absolutely no effect on the game other than helping me feel like my character is actually in the world.

This tendency towards canned responses and wooden characters just keeps reminding me, "This is a video game."

To Tojka and Pseron, I know there are mods that help with some games, but why do we need to rely on modders? I have tried FNIS and quite a few animation mods but they just do not seem to work well for me. I usually have no clue what animations are called what.

In EverQuest, the chat box had [keywords] that the NPCs responded to. I'd love to see this kind of thing in a single player RPG. Want to know where the store is? You can type in:

"store"

"Where is the store?"

"Yo! Doofus! Where is the [censored] store?"

This is where my characters come alive, not choosing the lesser of 2 or 3 evils not quite in character.

And I wanna dance! Lots of different dances!

In the MMO Mabinogi, there are keywords (chosen from a list though, not typed) you can ask NPCs (older ones have answers for almost all keywords, while ones added latter only respond to quest relevant stuff, which is lame.) There is even a boss in that game you can type in chat and they'll respond to it while slowly circling you. Again, a feature that was only used once.

I was listening to a bard in Dragon Age Inquisition and wished after her song I could clap or something.

Exactly! So many times a simple clap or bow or dance would bring me more into the world! Even a simple eating/drinking animation

And I'm not criticising those whose imagination can fill in the gaps better than mine but if my character does something and theres no reaction from the world that reminds me I'm in a videogame.

This system is dead in the age of full voice acting, at least until actors can be replaced with computer-generated voices.
And tbh, I don't think most people would enjoy it. See, this isn't just filling the gaps in writing with my imagination, it's filling in the entire writing. This in a time when silent protagonists are generally seen as lacking personality. Now you want to take away their ability to form full sentences too?

I don't expect an RPG to allow me to act out the entire range of human personality types in every situation. I expect it to respond in different ways to a limited number I can act out, and that number to be as high as budget constraints allow. In a keyword system I might be able to imagine my character in a thousand different ways, but I can't communicate it to the game world and so the world cannot react. This feels dead to me.

Chat is something that would likely be limited to PC games due to the nature of the interface - typing using a console pad would be laborious. Although voice recognition would definitely be a possibility. However, in both cases, it would have to be a prominent enough feature in the game to be a selling point in order to justify the time and effort required.

Additionally, it would be a pretty rough approximation. Even chat bots are still awkward when it comes to holding a conversation, and they are solely dedicated to human interaction.

However, emotes are easy enough to have been done plenty of times, even on console. They worked pretty well on Saints Row 2 in the way that you describe - not much effect on gameplay at all, but NPCs did visibly react to being flipped off and the like. I'm surprised implementation like that is not more common.

sure, as long as burps and farts are included as emotes

I agree wholeheartedly! It is just that if my character can react to the world around them, it completes the puzzle for me

@Rosveen and eek:

Both are good points about "modern" games, and the main reason I dislike voice overs in video games. I like the effect of most voice over work, but despair what is lost. Consoles. ugh. I do not hate consoles, but again despair at the constrictions they place on PC games that need to keep them in mind when being created.

Of course! And nut scratching! Gotta be able to roleplay barbarians, too

Nah, just spend 5 minutes with the average mmo player.

Think how nice it would have been to shove Nazeem down the stairs from the Cloud District.

Try Fable

.... Actually.... That was one thing Fable did right! To bad they ruined it by the third installment.

Im replaying Mass Effect for the millionth time, and you always end up in a night club, or walking around the Citadel crowded with people, yet you cant say a word or do an action, its probably one of the things that really annoys me when i play, if there i may as well do something.

only if after scratching you can immediately follow up with a finger sniffing emote followed by a facial expression of choice!

The me gusta face. Seriously, I would totally hotkey it and scratch my balls everywhere.

Or...
"I need to ask you to stop. That... Farting is making people nervous."

"there's more where that came from"