I’m all about TALK TO!
The ideal is that a game should probably tell you, or point you, towards the communication method it wants as soon as you try to communicate, or before. But there’s probably a great chunk of Inform-made games from what I’ll vaguely refer to as “the middle times” that just assume, and rely on, ‘ask X about’, ‘tell X about’. In its raw form, that’s my least favourite communication engine.
-Wade