Gossip is a hard-coded mechanic!

You can actually open a screen with another player or NPC and share gossip and rumours so that fame and reputation can be affected by these. It is possible to talk about recent events and things you have seen, other gossip you have heard, and even things that might not be 100% true.

Whether that will work with your Bard example I am not so sure. We don't know enough about the music mechanics there. But we do know that social factors are important and are a part of the game.

What information do we have on this gossip system? From what you're saying it sounds like you open a window with preconstructed options to "gossip" about which then cause different reactions in that npc. This makes me think normal chat such as /say or whatever will be used for talking to those around you won't have any effect on npc behavior or player fame.

Just theory crafting here, but chances are it's structured like darksoul messages. Stringing together keywords to make sentences.

This is still just a shot in the dark, but with high social skills, we can probably fabricate our own rumors/gossip from scratch at increasing levels of complexity and persuasiveness.

Chances are that the rumors/gossip system is how courts will work. When you see a crime, it automatically creates a "rumor" for you to testify with.

The more I think about it the less I find this gossip system being possible, other than as preconstructed sentences based on events in your character's life. I don't think you could make the npc ai smart enough to register a sentence a player types out and then take that information and form their own sentences to tell other npc or players.

The best I could hope for is it registers key words strung together and then repeat a default sentence like "I heard that (player name/beast/npc) (killed/helped/found) (the king/farmer bob/an ancient artifact)." Anything more complex seems beyond what ai is capable of in video games.

I honestly expected communication with npcs in CoE to be similar to how it worked in EQ where you would have to use the highlighted word in your own sentence to trigger the next line of dialogue from the npc, except that the word wouldn't be highlighted. So if they mention their dog is missing and then you say something with the word dog in it they would start telling you about their missing dog and where they last saw it, creating a quest opportunity.

I'm starting to think it will be even more difficult to have communication with npcs affecting fame of players because of how limited its capabilities will be.