The days blurred together for quite some time, but then something interesting happened. As so many other days began the door opened, and where I expected to find him, I instead found the other. It seemed as though the other was confused by this change of events as much as I was as they walked over glancing back and forth looking for someone else.

“Hey, where's the usual boy at?”

I should have been confused, yet there was dialog for this. “Welcome to Mirana Guild Hall, Alfred is asleep, so I’m taking this shift. How can I help you today?” I replied just as easily as any of my other lines.

“Wait… you have names?” The other replied.

“Well, of course, I’m Milly.” I replied. And for the first time, I knew my own name. At least, I could only trust that it was my name. Could I really call it my name if I didn’t even know it before this moment? I suppose that was possible, after all, If I knew anything at all, it was that I knew very little.

The other eyed me up and down. Before sighing, “Well whatever, Sell.”

I thought that our interaction was over as they turned away from me. But instead, they turned back around and glanced at me, “Hey, you know Terrance right?”

I had seen that word before, it usually followed him around. So was that his name? I nodded my reply.

“When you see him next time tell him to jump off a cliff.” This person said, I glanced up to find the words, and noting that they said “Mira” I nodded my reply again. Then Mira left.

The doors opened again and Mira returned. She frowned at me, then left once more.

When next the doors opened I was greeted by him once more, the one that was named “Terrance.”

He approached me as always and so I said, “Welcome back to Mirana Guild Hall.”

He nodded at me, “Quests.”

So I began to list off a number of options.

I understood what I was supposed to do, but it seemed a difficult task to say something that wasn’t related to my dialog.

So it was that days passed with him coming and going, all not so different from the last. Until finally he came up and didn’t speak to me. I wasn’t sure why at first. He just stood there, then he spoke with another. This wasn’t Mira. This was someone else, I glanced at their tag and noticed that it said “Kervick” Now there were three. They chatted back and forth before me.

“You’re new to the guild right?” Terrance said.

“Yeah, I found Basons had left a note for people who wanted to try guild stuff out that he was doing free invites..” Kervick replied.

“Ah...” Terrance said laughing, “Yeah, if it wasn’t for the free room and simple services I’m not sure it’s even worth it. Even if I did help pay to start it.”

Kervick looked sheepish at that, “Still it's pretty cool everything you can do, even if it's all pretty limited in the alpha I can really see the direction that they want to take long term.” Kervik replied.“Maybe, it's generally only skin deep. Still not sure the guild hall was worth it. But maybe they’ll patch in some extra features at some point.” Terrance replied.

“What do you mean skin deep?” Kervik replied.

“Well it's still a game, and so much of it ends up feeling gamy when you look a bit closer. Like... For instance who's at the counter right now?” Terrance asked.

Kervick glanced over at me, “It's a girl with blond hair, she's in a cute dress. Why?” He said, glancing back at Terrance.

“Talk to her.” Terrance replied, “You’ll see.”

Kervick walked over to me, “Hi.”

“Welcome to Mirana Guild Hall, How can I help you?” I replied. I could see Terrance’s expression shift as I spoke, not sure as to why it happened.

Kervick however continued, “So what quests do you have?”

I continued reading two quests line by line.

Kervick nodded, “Thanks.”

“Have a good day.” I replied as he turned around to continue speaking with Terrance.

“Yeah, I guess it's nothing special.” Kervick nodded, “But the quests are more interesting than the town NPCs in any case.”

“Hang on a sec…” Terrance said, making his way over to me.

“Welcome back.” I replied glad to see that his attention was on me after talking with Kervick for so long.

“You just talked to him, didn’t you?” Terrance asked.

I glanced over to Kervick and nodded my response.

“How many times have we spoken?” Terrance asked.

I couldn’t help but be not sure how to answer that, certainly, there was a number for it, though I couldn’t have identified it based on any information I had at my disposal, and even attempting to determine them based on my own memory was a lost cause as each time was so blurry from one to the next. So it was that I instead just stared back at him, unable to answer.

Terrance sighed, “What was I thinking…” He clapped his hand to his head and shook it, “Geez, for a second there I was sort of impressed.”

It was the longest conversation I’d ever had in truth. They were usually so short. Maybe if they kept talking I could instead find a way to convey the message I’d been given.

Terance glanced over to Kervick, “Yeah, see? Gamy.”

Kervick nodded, “True, but I guess you can’t put millions into every NPC right?”

Terrance chuckled, “True enough.”

They continued to speak as I tried to find a way to do what Mira had asked.

Kervick waved goodbye and walked outside leaving Terrance leaning against the countertop. He glanced back at me, “Too bad really.” then took a step as though he was going to leave.

“I- I have a message for you.” I somehow managed to say.

Terrance glanced back at me, “A message? Was that a thing?”

“It's from Mira.” I wasn’t quite sure how I was doing it, but the words were stringing together just like the other dialog and coming out.

“Huh, it’s been a bit since I blocked her, What is it?” He said with his lips a thin line.

“Jump off a cliff.” I spoke, glad that I was finally able to complete my task.

Terrance raised his eyebrow at me, “What?”

“That's what she told me, to tell you. To jump off a cliff.” I reasserted.

Terrance snorted, and then briefly laughed, “Yeah, well the next time you see her tell her to suck your dick.”

“Mine?” I clarified. It seemed strange that I would assert anything about myself since Terrance was the one providing me with the task.

Terrance looked at me again, “Yeah. Yours.” Then he proceeded to laugh to himself.

Well as long as I understood the task that's all that really mattered, I nodded my reply glad to have another task. “Thank you, come again.”

Terrance slowly finished chuckling to himself and he took a step backward, “Right…” then opened the door and walked out.

Email: RE: NPC Limitations

The dev team has made several attempts to improve communication between NPCs and players, however, there's a large issue with player dialog. Most of them treat NPC interactions as boxes to be ticked rather than conversations to be had.

We’ve had some success with cross NPC dialogs being more engaging, but the limitations placed on player dialog quickly start to show there as well.

We need to think of a better solution than simply preventing NPCs from asking all but the most basic questions. We’ve tried with limited success to use a weight system, where terms are used to prevent questions, but when we tested a larger sample size and observed results the NPCs just started to appear like children than the adults they are supposed to represent.

Besides that, we’ll never create a proper terminology mapping for the evolving player base. When you consider the issues with that, as well as player dialog, being so heavy on game-focused elements a lot of our early plans just don’t hold up. Perhaps we should consider a closed Role Play alpha? Where we’ll select specific players and institute heavy moderation to ensure that the players don’t attempt to introduce external terminology into the system? Perhaps we should just use employee-based training?

Caleb Jennings - NextVGX Dev Team.