Fallout 4 dialogue wheel in-depth analysis

[Janetsky]

After taking a break from Fallout and completing Bioshock Infinite I want to find a hidden meaning in everything. First I thought the dialogue wheel in Fallout 4 is too shallow, but after comtemplating it for a while, it actually makes sense. The dialogue wheel is a mirror of your mind. You don't know the exact words you are about to say. You only know that you want to say something sarcastic or confirm or deny the things being said by the other person. The exact words materialize only when you open your mouth. I don't know about you, but I often over-analyze the conversations I just had. Afterwards it is so easy to think about the clever things I could've said instead, but in reality I wasn't fully aware of my options. I only had the "dialogue wheel". I don't know if Bethesda intended it to be this deep, but I think it is unintentionally pretty amazing.

[Xyzzy]

dialog wheel is x360 buttons, A for yes at bottom, B for no at 3 o'clock, 9 o'clock is Option X and top is Option Y. [at words you think, words are like spells in magic from when most ppl could not read or write but clerics could' thats why writing words right is called spelling. also see grammar gramary.]

[Michael]

If you don't know what is going to come out of your mouth until you open it, maybe you should think before you speak. Or type, in this case. I, for one, do not think 'sarcastic' then wait to be surprised by whatever comes spilling out of my mouth. If I did that, everyone I talked to would think I was an idiot. With good reason.

[ZephyrLuxx]

I kind of agree with you. Everyone seems thrown off by the fact that the wheel is presented in paraphrases, but there is still depth to the actual dialogue. For instance, whilst talking to Valentine and Piper after killing Kellog, I was given the chance to say that I regretted it, that I'd do it again, or that I had no choice. Or, I could simply have moved the conversation along by saying "what now?" This was much more than the "yes, no, sarcastic" thing that people oversimplify all of the dialogue in this game into. And depending on what I said I could have potentially pissed off the characters that I was talking to.

The dialogue really isn't as "shallow" as people like to claim it is. You just can't be thrown off by the fact that you don't see the full sentence before you say it. But, like you said, that makes it feel a bit more realistic because every conversation seems to happen in a more organic way. It's not all perfectly planned out, you're shooting from the hip.

[Janetsky]

Originally posted by ZephyrLuxx:

I kind of agree with you. Everyone seems thrown off by the fact that the wheel is presented in paraphrasing, but there is still depth to the actual dialogue. For instance, whilst talking to Valentine and Piper after killing Kellog, I was given the chance to say that I regretted it, that I'd do it again, or that I had no choice. Or, I could simply have moved the conversation along by saying "what now?" This was much more than the "yes, no, sarcastic" thing that people oversimplify all of the dialogue in this game into. And depending on what I said I could have potentially pissed off the characters that I was talking to.

The dialogue really isn't as "shallow" as people like to claim it is. You just can't be thrown off by the fact that you don't see the full sentence before you say it. But, like you said, that makes it feel a bit more realistic because everything seems to happen in a more organic way. It's not all perfectly planned out, you're shooting from the hip.

True. Contrary to real life, in Fallout 4 it often makes no difference what you say. Like when meeting McDonough for the first time all of the dialogue options lead to him having the exactly same response.