What makes a good dialogue?

It always bugged me, I try to avoid it but somehow I can't, I'm trying to be careful but I can't 'see' what I'm 'fighting'. So can someone clarify this to me? I don't get bothered by dialogue that much so I don't know too many things about it.

I know avoid |33t language and cellphone short cuts like that

I got some notes, it seems like I was able to make my dialogues natural there's just some anime-only responses, haha

Verisimilitude - it means it should sound real, like real people are saying the lines and not like someone is writing them. But in special instances you can get away with being a little more poetic.  If it's a special scene it can make the dialogue better even if it's only 90% believable instead of 100%

And you should always try to minimize exposition as much as possible,  like if you have to explain a lot of stuff to the audience through two characters talking, try to disguise the conversation as something else as much as you can,  like it is a regular conversation,  but the information the audience needs to know is in there somewhere.

A great example will be FF8, it has  a good example of people speaking naturally in a game in a modern context.

I guess the trick to making good dialogue is to keep it in 'the moment'. What do I mean by this? Well, if it's set in a old fashioned world, then Shakespearian (Old English) language would suit it. In a more modern environment, then you can have them talking like we do now. It also needs to be kept realistic - don't have someone talking like they are really happy when xyz place just gone blown into a billion pieces. That's what I like to stick to when I'm writing any kind of dialogue anyway, I guess it's kinda basic..!

Since a lot of my characters are based on people I know, I just ask them what they would do and how they would react in certain situations and then incorporate that into my dialogue. Asking someone who has a personality like your character usually gets good results.

Mostly it's each character's personality, they'll have to pop out of their own rather than affected by the storyline.
That's why in some big company games, they assign a writer for each main character to write their own dialogue so
each of them stays consistent throughout the storyline.

At least that's what I think.

Guys, this one has a good discussion thread :3
http://www.gamingw.net/forums/index.php?topic=76668.0

every character should have a personality, and they should react according to it.  They key to good dialogue is to make it sound like real people are talking.  Not like dialogue changes to fit the situation.

Every character should be defined, and react in such a way that is believable, given their personality/archetype.  As Revo said, it does help to have people around who represent the characters in their own way, but when that's not possible, it helps to be able to get in the character's head.

Long and short of it.  Characters should behave according to their personalities and development, unless there is a REALLY REALLY GOOD REASON for them not to.

upon that, it should seem dynamic and be interesting, not just endless walls of text to explain things.

the good dialog starts then people have the same goal
 

the good dialog starts then people have the same goal
 

I'm sorry what?