Old School RPG Video Games

One thing I always wondered when playing console RPG games was what your characters said to other NPCs. I mean with the press of a button, the NPC would say inane things like "you're cute" or really secret stuff like "the king hides his treasure in his room" or some similar stuff. I mean what is that, the ultimate pick-up line?

On a more serious note, PC RPGs, on the other hand, tend to give you more options. I remember slogging through a demo of an RPG I can't remember but I was simply overwhelmed by the choices. Crap, I thought. If this was a NES or SNES, all I needed to do was press the B button. Here, I have an actual list of questions I could ask, and asking one leads to more questions! Perhaps it came to the point that talking to one NPC and asking all the questions could easily take up an hour of your time (real time!), and that assumes you're a fast-reader.

Pen-and-paper RPGs, on the other hand, required you to think logically, and sometimes out of the box. Any question was up for grabs, and the GM couldn't "accidentally" give you hints as to what the right question is.