Maybe you’ve seen the Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim trailer by now. Maybe you haven’t. If you haven’t taken the three minutes it takes, I’ve embedded it here for you. The trailer inspired this post, so it’s best you see it first.

Okay, with that out of the way, I want to talk about game immersion and use that to make an argument for vocal interaction with video games. I want you to see the Skyrim trailer first, because I plan to use that game as a touchstone for this post.
Even if …

I’ve had an idea for a long time: develop a video game conversation engine for Role Playing Games (in the style of Mass Effect or the Elder Scrolls series) that gave Non Player Characters (NPCs) a method to develop their conversational content on the fly, based on a knowledge database, syntax and keywords.
I spent a decent amount of time trying to figure out the ins and outs of the idea, to offer a conversation engine design that would be easy to implement and provide players with a more immersive experience. …