The Decline of Game Speak
 

Just noticed actually, and made a conclusion from the Strangers Wrath game I got for christmas.

Anyone else noticed that, first you get a decent gamespeak interface in AO,
In AE you get stuff but lose stuff aswell,
By MO, you get three main phrases, hello, go get em and wait.
Lastly, in SW you merely have to press 1 button to get to hear what you want.

The decline (I use the term in its unbiased sense) of GameSpeak in Stranger's Wrath is very much intentional. Stranger acts alone, even when he's fighting on the side of a native army. He communicates with other characters primarily to extract information rather than to enlist their ongoing help with levers and fighting. Even when other characters are opening doors for him, its a scripted event. These characters aren't required to follow Stranger to the nearest button, and even if they were, they don't have enough for respect for Stranger to do so as unquestioningly as the Mudokons and Fuzzles.

This allows GameSpeak in SW to be downsized and - critically - simplified. It's also simplified in Munch's Oddysee, but not because it's being downsized. Not willingly, anyway. Two important changes to GameSpeak in MO are done intentionally. The recruiting of Mudokons and Fuzzles into effective armies is very true to the evolution of the Quintology, and the simplification of using GameSpeak (no more button combinations) was a definite aim of MO's production. "Follow Me" is very easily excised from Abe's vocabulary when you realize the 3D nature of the game precludes the same discrete-step puzzle-solving as its predecessor titles.

Unfortunately, also excised from the game is another component that would have utilized GameSpeak a lot, that of rank. The end product features characters' ranks as pretty much cosmetic traits, but the intention was to have it function as an incentive to control enemies for prolonged periods. Possessed Sligs need to be a certain rank to access an area or enlist the help of other Sligs, requiring the player to perform tasks as the Slig to earn the Moolah for promotion. GameSpeak between characters would have differed depending on the difference of rank between those characters. In this sense, GameSpeak would have been much more powerful as well as simplified.

The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot would have returned GameSpeak to its usual central position, with Fangus controlling herds of sheep creatures to his military advantage. It's hard to say how much of the "rank" idea this would have recycled, but in execution it would probably been similar to the eventual MO's.

It's a shame we never saw how this would turn out, because GameSpeak was one of the Abe games' most endearing and popular features. It undeniably contributed to the popularity of Oddworld, and its decline was a sad thing.

Edit: Wil said it first. Just jump in my grave, why don't you? Smarmy Know-it-all Cunt.

Pretty much like Will said...
But I have to agree, I want the GameSpeak to come back too!

The real question is why have you bought SW only now?

Well, I didn't know about oddworld until 2005, s oI bought AO well actually recieved it from an uncle, in 2007 I was gifted AE and in earlier this year I purchased an Xbox so I could play MO, I only got SW at xmas because well, I guess I didn't know where to find it until I got a PC a few years back and I didnt have an xbox. - My life story.

EDIT: Also thanks Max

I imagine that it would have been similar to the way that you order troops about in Brütal Legend; individual buttons for 'Come here', 'Stay and defend', 'Attack this' and 'Attack that'.

Like, "Follow me" "Wait" and "Get 'em!"

Precisely. But with a little more finesse.

The change in gamespeak also reflects the change in how games were played.
In the old days of PC gaming, every keyboard key had a seperate function.
Nowadays, we have the luxury of context-sensitive buttons.

To be honest we see GameSpeak more in squad-based games like Rainbow Six and SWAT (Thinks that a Slig SWAT game would be amazing). GameSpeak would probably work better in a third-person game or in a RPG like Mass Effect... or better yet as a Social Interaction game, like The Sims or Chatroom-style play.

I do believe there was going to be a full set of GameSpeak (even for possessed creatures and Industrialists) in MO but you have to keep in mind that they were working to a deadline and had to rush a few things.

yeh also they had to change to Xbox and ditch stuff.

Ok since I have this topic running can I put forward another SW point - don't you think they should have maybe done a quarma system? Like too many times uhit a clakker = neg rep and you get cast away or something? I think quarma reached it's apex by AE, by MO it was far too easy to get the good ending.

Actually if you hit Clakkerz too many times they will shoot at you...

True, but that's hardly any threat to you. It just makes it impossible to get information from them or enter their stores for a few seconds. The "decline of Quarma" in SW is puzzling. Especially since a sadistic streak suits Stranger a lot more than Abe or Munch.

I think SW has no Quarma because bounty hunters aren't really good or evil. They are like Sligs for hire, only less sadistic.

Stranger is kind of a rouge hero, he'll do the good thing AND smash up Pecker Heads when he needs money/is bored/they won't help. Like in Fable 2, you can be good or bad, but it still has the same ending (well, kind of).

Yeah, I heard he does lapdances for Clakkers.

Well, exactly. Telling Stranger he has to be on his best behaviour would make no sense for the character or his story.

As opposed to Abe, whose killing of Mudokons perfectly suits his character.

In no cutscene does Abe hurt a Mudokon, nor does Stranger hurt a Clakker. These are choices the player decides to make for themselves. Stranger may be an anti-hero, but he's still a HERO nontheless.

When Abe does kill a Mudokon, he says "oops" which implies it was an accident. As for leaving Mudokons, that's down to Abe's stupidity or forgetfulness ("I forgot he was blind").

Does anyone have suggestions for games today which contain a large amount of "GameSpeak". Can you make your character say much in Grand Theft Auto IV? Or is it all contextual based?

Well adventures like Baldur's Gate, The Longest Journey, Dreamfall or Farenheit usually rely heavily on player-controlled dialogue.

Except for "Oops, I forgot he was blind," and "You hear what the five fingers said to the face?"

And in SW Stranger smacks that rich guy right in the face y'no the bit about the fist sandwich

Thanks for clarifying what Max said, I just stopped listening to him about a month ago.

I really can't tell who that's a sleight on. Scrabtrapman, Sky Cart Joe is the Clakker tells the "five finger" joke to. No fist sandwich is mentioned.

Not in the English version anyway. Who knows how EA translated it.

It was something like that, he told a knucle joke, I just did that level but I completed it now

So purposely standing a mud on a trap door then pulling the lever is an accident? :D

Unless anyone can witness and say otherwise, yes it was an accident :dodgy:

I still think Stranger should have quarma. I mean, if you did enough bad things to Clakkerz and Grubbs, they wouldn't save you from D. Caste Raider and you'd be "skinned alive." And thus you wouldn't get to play the second half of the game.

but thats kind of punishing you for bad quarma, the other games didn't care, they still let you play whether you were good or bad, and even rewarded you if you killed enough mudokons

In Munch the unsaved fuzzles ambush you on entry to Vykkerz Labs.

Ah indeed, but I wasn't including that example because its very damaging to my arguement :p