Gameplay Design Patterns for Game Dialogues

Dialogues are natural models for human communication and have also been used to model interaction within computer games. In this paper, we look at current models of dialogues from within the field of computational linguistics and explore their usefulness of games, and especially for the design of gameplay through interaction with nonplaying characters in games. This is done by analyzing several examples of computer-based games and similar playful activities, both to see which models of dialogues are used but also to suggest possible ways of expanding gameplay through using other dialogue models. Uses of existing models for dialogues within games are identified but an additional model, the Game State-based approach to dialogues, is introduced. The possible implications of the changes in gameplay are described through the use of gameplay design patterns, offering a way to encode design knowledge explicitly and link that knowledge to other gameplay design pattern collections.