[Malignus]

I just wrote up a little opinion piece on the value of text parsing as a tool for dialog and riddle challenges in RPGs. Check it out.

[Rainer Deyke]

I disagree completely.

I grew up in the age of the text parser, and I've always considered the move to menus as a huge improvement. The problems with text parsers, as I see it:

• You're forcing the player to remember names and keywords when the character could be remembering them for the player. RPGs have always been more about character skills than about player skills, and I see no reason why something tedious and error-prone like keeping track of keywords should be any different.
  
• Text parsers never respond to enough inputs. Let's say I'm talking to the gossip master who knows something about every single character in the game. Now let's say I ask him about a character, but I slightly misspell/mispronounce the character's name. Or let's say I use a description (e.g. the baker's wife, the short red-headed girl) instead of an actual name. Or let's say I ask about a historical figure or a deity. All sensible questions to which a real person would respond, but pretty much impossible for a text parser. Even if the text parser is programmed to respond to these specific variations, it will fail to respond sensibly to others that the player will try.
  
• When a text parser fails to recognize its input, it never responds with anything halfway sensible. A failed text parse always breaks suspension of disbelief for me.
  
• I can accept a mute protagonist as well as a protagonist who speaks in his own voice, but a protagonist who speaks entirely in keywords is a bit much for me.
  
• Just the physical act of typing is a pain when compared to the convenience of a menu selection.

In the case of a password, I would remove the menu entirely. If the protagonist has learned the password, then she uses the correct password automatically. If the protagonist does not know the password, she either guesses or replies that she doesn't know. Neither of these require any player intervention.

[Verious]

I partially agree with Rainer Deyke, text parsers that fail to respond to input in a reasonable way tend to suspend disbelief; however, most modern text parsers use phonetics matching algorithms to determine keywords/names even if they are spelled incorrectly, which makes text entry much less painful. Also, many modern text parsers provide auto-complete functionality for the user, which expedites data entry and improves accuracy. Generally the auto-complete is context sensitive and only provides suggestions for keywords/names the player's character has already learned.

With regards to passwords, I think they should be accepted automatically if the character has learned the password; however, if the character doesn't already know the password the player should be allowed to guess, instead of the character saying they don't know the password.

[Malignus]

The point I'm making isn't that we should use text parsers to force players to remember random phrases and bits of trivia in order to progress. My point is that you need something like text parsing to make a good language-dependent puzzle (unless, of course, the answer is a number, in which case we would still need a different form of input: say, a simulated combination lock or a number pad).

[Rainer Deyke]

I remember a lot of riddles in games where I had to look up the answer, not because I failed to solve the riddle, but because I couldn't figure out how to phrase my answer correctly. In one case the parser didn't even accept the correct spelling of the word. I think it's better to avoid such puzzles entirely than to use a text parser, even if the text parser is only used in that one limited context.

[Malignus]

That's a failure of implementation, though, not an indictment of text parsing as a tool in general. If you account for all plausible alternative phraseology, you should be fine. The way I'm doing it, the text box only accommodates 11 characters, which means that there are only a handful of plausible alternatives for any given use. Totally doable.

[tgramsus]

I think a text parser works pretty well for simple riddles. Having them select between different answers when they could just try again if they get it wrong defeats the purpose of the riddle, I think.

You could give them a prize for getting it right the first time but they could just reset the game to get it, unless the prize is pretty normal or the puzzle is deep in the dungeon.

I also look at it as to why would a guardian give you the right password/riddle answer between the options, unless there would be a consequence for getting the password wrong. Like getting locked up or having to fight the guardian.