Editor's note: Brittany charges modern game making with a quandary: Is it possible for top-tier titles to exclude dialogue -- spoken or written? Of course, dalliances like Bejeweled and Zuma will capture our moment-to-moment free time...but what about engrossing, full-fledged narratives? Can you do it without two people talking shop or explicit, personal soliloquies? -James

Dialogue. You can find it in any game, whether it's heard or read -- sometime it's memorable, and sometimes it's forgettable. Maybe we experience it while obliterating our friends on Xbox Live or while ghouls are chasing us down a dark hallway, with only a baseball bat for defense. Sometimes it waits, hidden in the depths of a game's menus, quests, inventories, and narration -- or as Easter eggs that we discover and enjoy. Generally, a demonstration of superb writing is at the root of any laughter, anger, or sadness that a player enjoys.

Of course, dialogue hasn't always played an enormous part in the gaming experience. In the old days, some of the the medium's greatest classics featured little -- or none. With Donkey Kong, all Pauline knew how to do was scream for help -- and you did as she asked. You climbed those ladders, jumped over those barrels, and you rescued your quiet girlfriend with her limited vocabulary. But what about your happily ever after? And why was DK so angry, anyway? Couldn't he find his own woman without resorting to theft? Short answer: The story lacked depth and dimension. Its simplicity begged for an extra something.

It called for a conversation -- with words. It called for a more tangible plot line. It required something relevant to Donkey Kong and, later on, to Zelda -- something important to Cloud Strife, to Lara Croft, or to any game character. Take Bioshock, for example: When you confront Andrew Ryan in his office, his speech changes you, as the player. "In the end," he challenges, "what separates a man from a slave? Money? Power? No, a man chooses, a slave obeys!"

And as he continues, you begin to realize that you may have been making a grave mistake all along. "Would you kindly? A powerful phrase. A familiar phrase?" It's definitely a powerful phrase, and as Andrew Ryan falls, by your hand, Bioshock tells you exactly what you may have feared from the beginning: that you are someone's pawn. The caring and dashing Atlas isn't who he seems to be -- he's been manipulating you. A series of images couldn't convey this properly, nor could a simple button input or a change in music. It's the dialogue that forces you to reevaluate your actions. It's the dialogue that makes you wince at what the main character has done, and the realization that he has fulfilled his role as a slave makes you understand that he is no longer of use.

Dialogue doesn't only concern itself with epic exchanges of emotion. Across every genre, memorable lines, profound lines, and just plain stupid lines keep the thread. Some pull together a story; others make you laugh and introduce the more lightheartednesss of a game's creator. In fact, developers make entire games that parody and poke fun at popular genres -- look at No One Lives Forever. When a guy cheesily asks the heroine, Cate Archer, for her phone number, she retorts, "I'm in the book. Under 'police department.'" The man (a contact from Berlin) breaks the fourth wall and responds to her rejection by saying, "Why must I be made to say such stupid things?" And you laugh. This game doesn't take itself too seriously, and that's a rare trait in the gaming industry.

In Katamari Damacy, text dialogue rules the story experience. You roll up tons of totally absurd items and people in to your fledgling star, and their descriptions are hilarious. For instance, if you acquire a butcher knife and go in to the Collection menu to admire it, you will find this underneath the knife's image: "If you hold this and make a scary face, people will run away." And under the heading "Chickens," you'll see: "People eat these, and their eggs, too! They have very tough lives." Katamari has a humorous sentence for every single piece of the world that you roll up, and it's an incentive to find every bit of the game. Plus, when you're finished with that, you can browse through all of the condiments, animals, toys, rainbows, and people you've turned into stars. Small touches like these turn an ordinary experience in to an intriguing purchase that people keep coming back to for a few more laughs.

Dialogue can also disseminate information about characters. In life, you truly get to know someone by speaking to them. The same is true of video games, though conversations can be one-sided. In Final Fantasy 8, Squall Leonhart often makes reference to the stupidity of his comrades in text, parenthetically. This gives insight in to his antiheroic nature. Not only does he make biting remarks about his friends, he reveals his innermost thoughts -- such as a fear of death. We would never know these things about him otherwise.

In God of War, a different take on a one-sided conversation happens. The title relates Kratos' rueful tale through the goddess of the Earth, Gaia. Kratos isn't about to sit and narrate his own adventures; he's the type of man content to forget his past. Luckily, we have a matronly presence like Gaia to walk us through the story and give us some insight in to this destructive and determined man with a mission to fulfill.

Also, let's not forget that dialogue plays an enormous part in allowing gamers to truly integrate themselves in to the story that they're playing through. In games like Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Deus Ex, and Mass Effect, speech choices have huge effects. KOTOR demands dialogue decisions -- along with the action and combat -- that determine which side of the Force you will ultimately align with. Effects like this promote replay by offering branching paths and different endings. We see these elements echoed in recent games, and such systems can only improve.

Classics like Mario and the early Zelda titles had little need for speech, but their successors clearly do. Without any kind of interchange in games to help us to understand the characters we are playing as, our gaming adventures would be akin to Pac-Man zooming around the board gobbling up the dots. Games cannot be complex without dialogue. I don't know about you, but I love that I can deliver snarky one-liners as a Jedi Knight.

What's in the future, then? We can only hope that technology and artificial intelligence will evolve to the point where our interactions with NPCs will mirror the fluidity that we now have with control interfaces. Being able to create your own character, choose your gender, race, background,and personality is a definite plus and a possible draw for non-gamers. Imagine being able to form real, emotional bonds with imaginary entities, just like you do in any other medium.