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[Bytyan]

I support this, because I can see it supporting non-verbal communication and lying in a much more meaningful way. Judger of intent and social awareness could tune you into cues that are hard to hamfist into dialogue that is spoken verbatim. How does that villager tell you about that vampire cult? Is he frightened, smug, shifty? these are important details that don't seem out of place in an abstract conversation.

[hermes]

Renofox agrees with Toady, citing that reading abstractions makes discussions sounds like a third party told you what was talked about. He writes a long, persuasive reply praising the raws and their possibilities, concluding that abstractions would be even more repetitive.

Haha 
Reminded me of the Seinfeld episode where George starts talking about himself in the third person.

Personally I quite like both, a mix of first and third person exposition could be pretty effective at communicating the best of both worlds - details and abstractness.

[Damiac]

Of course, the best way to do it might be as an option.  View conversation details/summary.
GWG can have the details, I can have the summary, everyone's happy.

[Aichuk]

I agree with this. I don't this breaks immersion but instead does the opposite. And still. I can't stop laughing about thinking about the possibilities.
'You ask the child if there are any nearby monsters.'
'The child tries to tell you something. You realize that he is unable to speak. He tries to use sign language, first making a punching gesture, then making fangs with his fingers and then does somersaults around the rooms and finally licks his fingers'

[DarbyMcB]

I wonder if you could keep dialogue specific, while keeping body language 3rd person, like in a script.

When asked about any local disturbances, or services:

(Urist McBeardyface leans in close as if to keep secrecy)
People may be watching...lets find someplace more private.

Also, depending on your social awareness, the body language could be horrifically misinterpreted:

(Urist McBeardyface leans in close, a little too close for comfort)
People may be watching...lets find someplace more private.

NOTE: In both, the dialogue is exactly the same, but the interpretation based on the 3rd party body language changes the whole tone of what you get out of it.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Sounds good!

[DarbyMcB]

I just think leaving out body language is going to be really difficult when you are trying to get a message across, especially when it's meant to be so intricately detailed and having real conversations can really add that connected depth you're looking for. Truth is body language is never so specific, and having it the way I proposed gives conversations a level of personal interpretation that you can't get with speech verbatim, while only having the vague abstracted conversations removes you almost entirely from the situation.

I agree with the people who said that complete abstraction will get repetitive REAL fast, and that's because there is no conversation there, I think the people who want that are probably the same people who skip most of the dialogue in Bioware games, most of it CAN be abstracted and you can still get the message, but that's because there is almost zero body language in that stuff, and they're too afraid to try and put nuance and interpretation into the dialogue.

It sucks that right now all you have to do to start is:

[enter]
find closest house with a person
[k]
SERVICE
[enter]
[enter]
[enter]
GOODBYE
[T]

I want to have interesting, weird conversations and the truth is, I'm a cashier, and I will tell you, real life greetings get repetitive, just like video games do. Don't pretend like every conversation needs to be meaningful, but at the same time, not every hello is the same either, which is why an abstracted version of body language in the game can not only add depth, but multiply it for much more FUN (with various misinterpretations as well as weird characters who simply are odd in their body language, making it more difficult to discern people who are weird from your own characters ineptitude in the social field). Obviously you wouldn't just randomly generate any body language with whatever dialogue is being said, it needs to fit on some level, but it can totally change the feel and tone of a conversation to make it much more meaningful, and much more varied.

I think Toady will find an adequate way of tackling the dialogue issue whether he uses my idea or not to be honest, I'm more concerned with the content of the quests and things like that than I am with how I get them, and whether or not I enjoyed the conversation with the person I got them from.