Well, I've been considering the idea of using Icons instead of generic dialog when conversing with unimportant characters. I've mentiond the idea in the design forum to mixed results. So I thought I would bring up the topic of generic dialog here and see what can be derived. Most games that have npc have generic dialog, but how can this be done in an interesting manor? The typical method is to have small pool of standard responses but those quickly become over used in the course of the game. So what can be done in terms of writing to make generic dialog less generic? Increasing the size of the response pool only increase the amount of development resources required with having a signficant impact of the problem. Consider this from the point of view that what the generic dialog acutally says of no real importance, only result of the interaction is important in terms of gameplay, character building, and relationship building. For instance building a friendship with a class mate to get help with your math homework and thus improving your math grade is your goal. But the player will care very little about the acutual dialog exchanged espically if conists of the 1 of the same 5 lines of dialog over and over again.