Influencing Behavior Unobtrusively in Virtual Gaming Environments
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ABSTRACT DOMÍNGUEZ, IGNACIO XAVIER. Influencing Behavior Unobtrusively in Virtual Gaming Environments. (Under the direction of David L. Roberts). Virtual gaming environments mediate interaction between players within a game and/or be- tween a player and the game itself to make gameplay more enjoyable. Although game designers strive to achieve a delicate balance between content and interaction that promotes player enjoy- ment, sometimes players want to take actions that would result in this balance being broken. Many games simply prevent player actions that will put the game in an undesired state at the expense of player agency. More recent approaches attempt to accommodate player actions by adapting the game, but this solution has limited applicability. In this work, we introduce an alternative way to reduce the tension between player actions and authorial constraints by unobtrusively influencing player behavior to promote player actions that align with authorial intentions. This enables players choosing author-desired actions out of their own volition, therefore preserving player agency. Subtly influencing player behavior is also useful to make games easier or harder, and we also present examples of behavior influence techniques that can be used to alter players’ performance, effectively controlling the game’s difficulty. As an extension, we can use behavior influence techniques to inspect how player behavior changes and compare it to a known baseline, allowing authors to obtain additional insight about their players, such as determining if players are actively attentive and engaged, or if players are likely to be automated agents instead of human players. We also introduce a taxonomy that partitions behavior influence on two categories. The first category corresponds to the type of behavior being affected in terms of level of abstraction: input- level or semantic. The second category of the taxonomy classifies the motivation for wanting to modify player behavior, or its purpose: narrative, difficulty, or scrutiny. Through a series of case studies, we show examples of unobtrusive behavior influence in virtual gaming environments across both types of behavior and with all three purposes in our taxonomy. © Copyright 2018 by Ignacio Xavier Domínguez All Rights Reserved Influencing Behavior Unobtrusively in Virtual Gaming Environments by Ignacio Xavier Domínguez A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Computer Science Raleigh, North Carolina 2018 APPROVED BY: Tiffany Barnes Arnav Jhala Robert St. Amant David L. Roberts Chair of Advisory Committee DEDICATION To Sofía and Marco ii BIOGRAPHY Ignacio writes beautiful software, teaches, and conducts academic research. He likes to be around computers. Some people argue that Ignacio might be a computer himself; a claim which he vehe- mently denies by pointing out his occasional human-like emotional responses. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to begin by thanking my advisor Dave Roberts. Thank you for your guidance, mentorship, kindness and support, and for always being excited about my work. I’ve learned so much from you. I’d also like to thank my committee members Arnav Jhala, Tiffany Barnes, and especially Rob St. Amant. To my parents, thank you for providing me with all the opportunities that ultimately led me here. This accomplishment is yours as much as it is mine. I love you both very much. To my wife Desirée Romero, thank you for riding this crazy train with me for what feels like an eternity. Thank you for your understanding and patience, and for believing in me even when I doubted myself. I look forward to writing the next chapter together. Very special thanks to Margaret Heil and Robert Fornaro for their love, support, and constant encouragement. You’ve become family, and I wouldn’t have gotten this far without you. I am forever grateful. Finally, many thanks to current and past members of the CIIGAR Lab, and of our sibling lab the Liquid Narrative Group, especially to Rogelio Cardona-Rivera, Sean Mealin, Robert Loftin, John Majikes, Justus Robertson, Markus Eger (technically in the POEM Lab), Adam Amos-Binks, and Julio Bahamón. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ......................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................ x Chapter 1 Introduction .................................................. 1 1.1 Thesis.......................................................... 4 1.2 Summary of the Dissertation ......................................... 6 Chapter 2 Taxonomy of Behavior Influence ................................... 9 2.1 Influence........................................................ 10 2.2 Player Behavior in VGEs............................................. 12 2.2.1 Avatars.................................................... 13 2.2.2 Asymmetry................................................. 14 2.2.3 Dynamic Adaptation.......................................... 15 2.3 Description of the Taxonomy......................................... 15 2.3.1 Type of Behavior............................................. 16 2.3.2 Purpose................................................... 17 Chapter 3 Case Study: The Concentration Game ............................... 20 3.1 Introduction ..................................................... 20 3.2 Method......................................................... 23 3.2.1 Experimental Design ......................................... 23 3.2.2 Population and Sampling ...................................... 26 3.2.3 Description of the Environment ................................. 27 3.2.4 Experimental Procedure....................................... 28 3.2.5 Evaluation Metrics ........................................... 29 3.3 Analysis and Results................................................ 30 3.4 Discussion....................................................... 35 Chapter 4 Case Study: The Typing Game ..................................... 38 4.1 Introduction ..................................................... 38 4.2 Method......................................................... 40 4.2.1 Experimental Design ......................................... 40 4.2.2 Population and Sampling ...................................... 41 4.2.3 Description of the Environment ................................. 41 4.2.4 Experimental Procedure....................................... 43 4.2.5 Evaluation Metrics ........................................... 45 4.3 Analysis and Results................................................ 46 4.3.1 Improvement with Practice..................................... 46 4.3.2 Familiarity with Words ........................................ 48 4.3.3 Additional Analyses .......................................... 50 4.4 Discussion....................................................... 52 v Chapter 5 Case Study: The Mimesis Effect .................................... 54 5.1 Introduction ..................................................... 54 5.1.1 Narrative Roles.............................................. 57 5.1.2 Interactive Narrative Role-Playing Games .......................... 58 5.2 Method......................................................... 59 5.2.1 Experimental Design ......................................... 59 5.2.2 Population and Sampling ...................................... 60 5.2.3 Description of the Environment ................................. 61 5.2.4 Experimental Procedure....................................... 63 5.2.5 Evaluation Metrics ........................................... 64 5.3 Analysis and Results................................................ 67 5.3.1 H1: Choice Correspondence to Explicit Roles........................ 67 5.3.2 H2: Choice Correspondence to an Implicit Role...................... 69 5.3.3 H3: No Preferred Role in Control Group............................ 70 5.3.4 H4: Less Variability with Explicit Roles............................. 71 5.3.5 H5: Choice Consistency Increases................................ 71 5.3.6 H6: First Choices Are Predictive of Implicit Role....................... 74 5.4 Discussion....................................................... 75 Chapter 6 Case Study: Asymmetric VEs ...................................... 80 6.1 Introduction ..................................................... 80 6.2 Method......................................................... 82 6.2.1 Experimental Design ......................................... 83 6.2.2 Population and Sampling ...................................... 84 6.2.3 Description of the Environment ................................. 84 6.2.4 Experimental Procedure....................................... 86 6.2.5 Evaluation Metrics ........................................... 89 6.3 Analysis and Results................................................ 90 6.3.1 Individual Performance ....................................... 90 6.3.2 Group Performance .......................................... 91 6.4 Discussion....................................................... 93 Chapter 7 Conclusions .................................................. 96 7.1 Summary........................................................ 96 7.2 Impact ......................................................... 97 BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................... 99 APPENDICES ...........................................................109 Appendix