I think that this idea will be doomed WHEN Toady improves conversations.
What do you mean?
I mean, Toady isn't the type to half-ass stuff and leave it all abstracted when he could...not.
Stuff like this makes you painfully aware of that distance between character and player.
Do you mean if for example you create a character with no social awareness, but like to imagine that he's suave, and then he keeps doing badly in social situations and it jars your sense of immersion? I don't think that's a problem, so it's probably not what you mean...
No, I mean if I create a character and can't hear what's being said, it reduces conversations to being just, "Can I trade with you? No? Got any quests?"
It goes with the whole "imagination" thing people like to go on about here. No computer generated random conversation can ever seem real. So a generic description lets you make it up yourself.
I mean, the goofy stuff they say in conversation really makes you painfully aware of the distance between player and character, you know? Not to mention that the character is a little @...
Again, 0.34.11 =/= 1.0.01. How can you imagine things if not given all the requisite information DF has bristling at its virtual fingertips? After all, games far less complex than DF generate acceptable conversations. Do you not think Toady could do the same?
You play a character. The character isn't you. There's no first person perspective in dwarf fortress adventures, since the skills and (soon) the personality isn't yours, but the character's. You make the choices, but the rest is the character. It's all 3rd person, as in most other RPGs.
Yes, because the game says "Urist McAdventurer slashes the goblin in the left hand and the severed part goes flying off in an arc," not "You slash the goblin in the left hand and the severed part goes flying off in an arc."
I find repetition and unimaginative replies to be far more immersion breaking than the fact that character I play doesn't represent the person I am.
Now =/= end.
Leaving room for interpretation is a big aspect of DF and I think that gives you less immersion breaking moments. It seems natural that the conversations follow the same line.
I see adventure and fortress mode differently. Fortress mode gives you tons of info and leaves plenty up to interpretation. Adventure mode is more stingy with what it tells you, but explains it better.