dialogue_box ambiguity

Posted under Tags

wavedash

dialogue box has a lot of speech balloons and similar things (manga-style narration boxes and starbursts) that should probably be tagged speech bubble.

The tag name is also very similar to "dialog box" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialog_box), so there's a few posts like post #10735573 that I think would just be user interface.

Taking the name literally, posts like post #10614835 should also probably be just user interface, since the text is not dialogue or narration.

The definition of the tag says:

A pop-up message on a screen, usually at the bottom. This is typically used in a visual novel or RPG games either to narrate the story or to represent character's dialogue.

The definition is pretty close to ADV, a style of visual novel or RPG presentation. Here's VNDB's definition (https://vndb.org/g32):

In these games, the box with the text occupies only part of the screen, usually at the bottom. This is by far the most common text presentation method.

Something like adv_box would be a more precise name for this concept, and would cut down on mistagging - although a downside would be that the name is also more obscure.

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wavedash

"Adventure game" has slightly different connotations in Japanese. I would say in Japanese, it implies (though maybe not necessitates) that a story is told primarily through text. Among English-speakers, some of the most popular "adventure" games might be stuff like Life Is Strange, or more recently, Dispatch. The word also gets used in the "action adventure" genre, which is kind of meaningless.

I don't know if there's much utility in having two tags here. visual_novel_dialogue_box sounds fine to me, I guess that's what most English-speakers would call them.

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Damian0358

wavedash said in forum #417877:

"Adventure game" has slightly different connotations in Japanese. I would say in Japanese, it implies (though maybe not necessitates) that a story is told primarily through text. Among English-speakers, some of the most popular "adventure" games might be stuff like Life Is Strange, or more recently, Dispatch. The word also gets used in the "action adventure" genre, which is kind of meaningless.

I don't know if there's much utility in having two tags here. visual_novel_dialogue_box sounds fine to me, I guess that's what most English-speakers would call them.

The reason why I suggested adventure_dialogue_box was specifically to account for the inclusion of RPGs in the tag currently, and based on Japanese Wikipedia, they acknowledge this in Japan.

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Spatula22

The term "adventure game" is not used in the same capacity in the English-speaking world and in Japan. "adventure dialogue box" is pretty meaningless.

What the English-speaking community did borrow was "ADV" and "NVL" as terms to express formats of text display. That "ADV" originated from "adventure" is almost irrelevant. It's telling that VNDB doesn't use the word once on its tag page.

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wavedash

Damian0358 said in forum #417883:

The reason why I suggested adventure_dialogue_box was specifically to account for the inclusion of RPGs in the tag currently, and based on Japanese Wikipedia, they acknowledge this in Japan.

I think you could just say that some RPGs use "visual novel dialogue boxes". From a historical standpoint it's definitely a weird way to go about it, but I think most people know what a VN dialogue box looks like, so it's more intuitive.

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wavedash

nonamethanks said in forum #422712:

What are we trying to tag here? Floating dialog boxes? Just call it floating dialogue box/video game dialogue box.

Can you provide examples of what should and what should not fall under this tag?

Given the current definition of dialogue_box, I would guess around 90% of posts in dialogue_box speech_bubble are incorrectly tagged. Contrast with dialogue_box fake_screenshot.

Those two alternatives seem good to me as well. I would lean toward "video game dialogue box" - in hindsight a genre isn't really necessary. I think "floating dialogue box" would be more easily mistaken for a speech balloon.

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trapster77

BUR #56306 has been rejected.

create implication dialogue_options -> choice

unless i'm missing something this should either be implied or even aliased. the wikis say the same thing?

When either the viewer or a character is presented with more than one option for what to say. This can be a gameplay mechanic.

A prompt asking the player what choice they'd like to make. Often, the image is a fake screenshot of a fake eroge.

post #7590448 isn't dialogue options but i guess it's choice... take your pick seems to be more sexual and general so it ironically can't be used in posts you're actually prompted to pick something

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wispydreamer Knowledge Seeker Kawakijin CommentaryRequest
wavedash

BUR #56331 has been approved by @nonamethanks.

remove alias text_box -> dialogue_box
create alias dialogue_box -> video_game_dialogue_box
create alias adventure_text_box -> video_game_dialogue_box
create alias visual_novel_dialogue_box -> video_game_dialogue_box
create alias visual_novel_text_box -> video_game_dialogue_box
remove alias dialogue_box -> video_game_dialogue_box

Also just throwing this out there: using the same set of BURs as Damian has, but with video_game instead of adventure

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nonamethanks

Choice has the issue of being used for post #11079852, which is a character picking a choice, or post #7307937, which is not dialogue options.

wavedash said in forum #423933:

BUR #56330 has been approved by @nonamethanks.

create alias choice -> options
create implication dialogue_options -> options

Maybe an alternative way to connect them, that also makes it more clear that one is a subset of the other?

I guess this is the least destructive CHOICE for now until we figure out how to tag other cases.

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