Meta Matters in Interactive Storytelling and Serious Gaming

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Meta Matters in Interactive Storytelling and Serious Gaming METAMATTERS ININTERACTIVESTORYTELLING ANDSERIOUSGAMING APLAYONWORLDS BY JEROENLINSSEN Graduation Committee Paranymphs Chairman and Secretary: Dr. M. Bruijnes Prof.dr. P. M. G. Apers Ing. T. F. de Groot Promotor: Prof.dr. D. K. J. Heylen Assistant-promotor: Dr. M. Theune Members: Prof.dr. R. Aylett Dr. R. Bidarra Prof.dr. J. van Hilligersberg Prof.dr. T. W. C. Huibers Prof.dr. J-J. Ch. Meyer Dr. N. Szilas The research reported in this dissertation was carried out at the Human Media Interaction group of the University of Twente. Human Media Interaction The research reported in this dissertation was suppor- ted by the Dutch national program COMMIT. CTIT Ph.D. Thesis Series No. 17-432 Centre for Telematics and Information Technology P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands SIKS Dissertation Series No. 2017-21 The research reported in this thesis has been carried out under the auspices of SIKS, the Dutch Research School for Information and Knowledge Systems. isbn: 978-90-365-4343-9 issn: 1381-3617 (CTIT Ph.D. Thesis Series No. 17-432) doi: 10.3990/1.9789036543439 (https://doi.org/10.3990/1.9789036543439) ⃝c 2017 Jeroen Linssen, Enschede, the Netherlands METAMATTERSININTERACTIVESTORYTELLINGANDSERIOUSGAMING ( A P L A Y O N W O R L D S) DISSERTATION to obtain the degree of doctor at the University of Twente, on the authority of the rector magnificus, prof.dr. T. T. M. Palstra, on account of the decision of the graduation committee to be publicly defended on Thursday, May 4, 2017 at 16:45 by Johannes Maria Linssen born on June 11, 1987 in Venray, the Netherlands This dissertation has been approved by: Prof.dr. D. K. J. Heylen, University of Twente, NL (supervisor) Dr. M. Theune, University of Twente, NL (co-supervisor) SUMMARY(ENGLISH) Stories, in games, novels, films, and all media alike, help us understand our world. Stories provide an escape from the real world, but they also reflect reality. They provide situations that may previously have been unimaginable, leading us to think about concepts in different ways. We learn through stories, we construct our mental model of the world through them. In this dissertation, I investigate the use of storytelling techniques in the domains of interactive storytelling and serious gaming. The field of interactive storytelling attempts to create and analyse systems that provide an interactive experience to users: the latter can influence the plot of story as it is being told. Serious gaming is concerned with the use of games for purposes other than only entertainment; in this dissertation, I investigate serious games with educational purposes. In both domains, I inspect how both human users and virtual agents (artificial, autonomous entities) can perceive stories. In Part i of this dissertation, I present my main thesis: the meta matters when interacting with interactive storytelling systems and serious games. All stories and games take place in a context: they take place in virtual worlds embedded within the real world. This concept is captured by the term magic circle. Virtual worlds are not separated from the real world; they are interconnected. Moreover, events and perceptions in the real world influence people’s behaviour in the virtual world and vice versa. My research revolves around the use of such meta-information to improve experiences with interactive storytelling systems and serious games. In Part ii of this dissertation, I delve into the field of interactive storytelling, specifically focusing on the Virtual Storyteller (vst) and its successor, the Interactive Storyteller (ist). The vst provides users with an emergent narrative: stories are generated based on the interactions between virtual agents which play characters in the story. In the ist, users can take control of one of the characters, substituting a virtual agent, and influence how the story plays out. I first investigated how the meta matters to these systems by analysing interactions between pairs of children and the ist. This analysis showed that children, apart from only enacting in-character (ic) behaviour, actively go meta to reason about their plans and discuss their experience amongst each other (out-of-character behaviour, ooc). We created a scheme that allows for the annotation of this communication to discern the types of ic and ooc behaviour. With this scheme, we could see how the children’s perspectives toward their interaction changed over time. Using the vst, we investigated how the meta can matter to its virtual agents. The generation of stories in the vst relies on the characters in the story world performing actions that advance the story. However, this does not necessarily entail that characters will take those actions. For example, if they can go about their way and never meet each other, possible conflicts can be avoided. To circumvent this problem, we outfitted the virtual agents with ooc techniques that allow them v to go meta to plan actions that result in conflicts. For example, a character can go meta to assume (ooc) that an object it is looking for is at the location of its antagonist, leading to a confrontation between the two. This way,generated stories can become more interesting. In Part iii of this dissertation, I investigate serious games and take an approach which is similarly structured to that of Part ii. We created a digital serious game called loiter which features a police officer (the player character) who has to convince a small group of loitering juveniles to cease their loitering. The overarching learning objective of this game is that players should improve their social awareness, being able to interpret how their own behaviour influences that of others and vice versa. To bring about this understanding in players, I designed feedback mechanics that are shown during the game and give insight into the thoughts of the virtual juveniles: thought bubbles and flashbacks. These mechanics allow players to briefly go meta while they are playing the game, giving them the opportunity to reflect and learn from their interaction. Secondly, I investigated how the virtual agents can further support the learning objectives of loiter. I designed mechanics that allow the virtual agents to make use of meta-information to adapt the game’s difficulty to players. Based on a player’s competence, the virtual agent can determine whether that player has reached a certain level of social awareness. If so, the virtual agent adapts its behaviour to be less cooperative so that the player will have a harder challenge to convince the virtual juvenile to stop loitering. As this change in behaviour may come across as incoherent, the game presents motivations for such a change in the form of either a thought bubble or flashback. This way, loiter can provide a difficulty level that is tailored to individual players. This dissertation concludes with Part iv, in which I summarize the above points and provide an outlook on future work. One such research direction concerns envisioned improvements to the Interactive Storyteller, most notable how such an interactive storytelling system can receive player input. Future work should also expand on the possibilities of virtual reality (vr) for serious gaming. We already took a small step in this direction by implementing loiter in a multi- modal vr environment. Here, again, the challenge is to correctly interpret players’ intentions through the available channels for input. In the end, this dissertation shows that, by enabling and stimulating both virtual agents and human users to use meta-information, interactive storytelling systems and serious games can be improved. vi SAMENVATTING(NEDERLANDS) Verhalen, in games, romans, films, en alle vergelijkbare media, helpen ons om de wereld te begrijpen. Verhalen bieden de mogelijkheid om te ontsnappen aan de echte wereld, maar reflecteren ook de realiteit. Ze verschaffen situaties die we voorheen niet hadden kunnen voorstellen, zodat we na kunnen denken over concepten op verschillende manieren. We leren dankzij verhalen, dankzij hun creëren we een mentaal model van de wereld. In dit proefschrift onderzoek ik het gebruik van verhaaltechnieken in de domeinen interactive storytelling (interactieve verhalen) en serious games (edu- catieve spellen). Het veld van interactieve verhalen poogt systemen te maken en analyseren om een interactieve beleving aan te bieden aan gebruikers: die laat- sten kunnen het plot van het verhaal beïnvloeden terwijl het verteld wordt. Seri- ous games zijn spellen met een ander doel dan louter vermaak; in dit proefschrift onderzoek ik serious games met educatieve doeleinden. In beide domeinen ana- lyseer ik hoe menselijke gebruikers en virtuele agenten (kunstmatige, autonome entiteiten) verhalen waarnemen. In Deel i van dit proefschrift presenteer ik mijn hoofdthese: de meta maakt uit tijdens het interageren met interactieve verhaalsystemen en educatieve spellen. Alle verhalen en spellen spelen zich af in een context: ze spelen zich af in virtuele werelden die ingebed zijn in de echte wereld. Dit concept is omvat in de term de magic circle. Virtuele werelden zijn niet gescheiden van de echte wereld; zij zijn onderling verbonden. Gebeurtenissen en percepties in de echte wereld beïnvloeden bovendien het gedrag van mensen in de virtuele wereld en vice versa. Mijn onderzoek draait om het gebruiken van meta-informatie met als doel belevingen met interactieve verhaalsystemen en educatieve spellen te verbeteren. In Deel ii van dit proefschrift verdiep ik me in het veld van interactieve verhalen, waarbij ik me concentreer op de Virtual Storyteller (vst) en haar opvolger, de Interactive Storyteller (ist). De vst biedt gebruikers een emergente vertelling aan: verhalen worden gegenereerd op basis van de interacties van virtuele agenten die karakters spelen in het verhaal. In de ist kunnen gebruikers de rol van een virtuele agent overnemen en een karakter spelen om op die manier te beïnvloeden hoe dat verhaal verloopt. Ik heb onderzocht wat de meta uitmaakt voor deze systemen door interacties tussen kinderparen en de ist te analyseren.
Recommended publications
  • Timing Interactive Narratives
    Timing Interactive Narratives Thomas Cabioch Ronan Champagnat Anne-Gwenn Bosser Jean-Noel¨ Chiganne Martin Dieguez ENIB – Lab-STICC L3i ENIB – Lab-STICC Incarna ENIB – Lab-STICC Brest, France La Rochelle universite´ Brest, France Paris, France Brest, France [email protected] La Rochelle, France [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Abstract—Research in Computational Narratives has evi- put an emphasis on the underlying structures of narratives. denced the need to provide formal models of narratives inte- The conceptual distinction between the raw material of the grating action representation together with temporal and causal narrative (characters, objects, narrative actions, . ) and the constraints. Adopting an adequate formalization for narrative actions is critical to the development of generative or interactive order and manner in which it is conveyed to the audience systems capable of telling stories whilst ensuring narrative coher- has helped frame a number of approaches in Computational ence, or dynamic adaptation to user interaction. It may also allow Narratives. In this paper, we consider the former, the story (the to verify properties of narratives at design time. In this paper, latter being commonly designated as discourse in IS), follow- we discuss the issues of interactive story design, verification, and ing terminology borrowed from narratologists like Genette [7] piloting for a specific genre of industrial application, in the field of interactive entertainment: in the games we consider, teams of or Chatman [8]. Another important take away from narrative participants in a Virtual Reality application are guided in real theories for research in IS has been the centrality of narrative time through a narrative experience by a human storyteller.
    [Show full text]
  • Towards a Crowdsourced Solution for the Authoring Bottleneck in Interactive Narratives
    Heriot-Watt University Towards A Crowdsourced Solution For The Authoring Bottleneck In Interactive Narratives Michael Kriegel April 2015 Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science on completion of research in the Department of Mathematics, School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences. The copyright in this thesis is owned by the author. Any quotation from the thesis or use of any of the information contained in it must acknowledge this thesis as the source of the quotation or information. Abstract Interactive Storytelling research has produced a wealth of technologies that can be employed to create personalised narrative experiences, in which the audience takes a participating rather than observing role. But so far this technology has not led to the production of large scale playable interactive story experiences that realise the ambitions of the field. One main reason for this state of affairs is the difficulty of authoring interactive stories, a task that requires describing a huge amount of story building blocks in a machine friendly fashion. This is not only technically and conceptually more challenging than traditional narrative authoring but also a scalability problem. This thesis examines the authoring bottleneck through a case study and a literature survey and advocates a solution based on crowdsourcing. Prior work has already shown that combining a large number of example stories collected from crowd workers with a system that merges these contributions into a single interactive story can be an effective way to reduce the authorial burden. As a refinement of such an approach, this thesis introduces the novel concept of Crowd Task Adaptation.
    [Show full text]
  • A Semantic Foundation for Mixed-Initiative Computational Storytelling
    A Semantic Foundation for Mixed-Initiative Computational Storytelling B Ben Kybartas( ) and Rafael Bidarra Department of Intelligent Systems, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands {B.A.Kybartas,R.Bidarra}@tudelft.nl Abstract. In mixed-initiative computational storytelling, stories are authored using a given vocabulary that must be understood by both author and computer. In practice, this vocabulary is manually authored ad-hoc, and prone to errors and consistency problems. What is missing is a generic, rich semantic vocabulary that is reusable in different appli- cations and effectively supportive of advanced narrative reasoning and generation. We propose the integration of lexical semantics and com- monsense knowledge and we present GluNet, a flexible, open-source, and generic knowledge-base that seamlessly integrates a variety of lexi- cal databases and facilitates commonsense reasoning. Advantages of this approach are illustrated by means of two prototype applications, which make extensive use of the GluNet vocabulary to reason about and manipulate a coauthored narrative. GluNet aims to promote interoper- ability of narrative generation systems and sharing corpus data between fields of computational narrative. Keywords: Computational storytelling · Natural language · Semantics 1 Introduction Mixed-initiative computational storytelling, in which the author and computer create a narrative by collaboratively building a story, requires a rich and detailed representation of narrative. This is often done by creating a model of narrative, and then providing the author a ‘vocabulary’, a set of building blocks that can be used to tell pieces of a story and of which the semantics are known to the computer. The ‘words’ in the vocabulary may take the form of text, images, or even actions, depending upon the application.
    [Show full text]
  • A Heuristic Approach for Narrative- Driven Games
    nr ik v H e d a ap a l sk M a EFFECTS OF INTERACTIVITY ON NARRATIVE-DRIVEN GAMES: A Heuristic Approach For Narrative- Driven Games Master Degree Project in Informatics One year Level 22,5 ECTS Spring term 2021 Sara Nil Acarsoy Supervisor: Mikael Johannesson Examiner: Per Backlund 1 Abstract In narrative-driven games, the story is an essential part of the gameplay, and understanding the story is of great importance. Given that what separates this genre from other storytelling media is interactivity, this thesis focuses on the elements in narrative-driven video games that effects the players' perception of narrative through interactivity. Using players' likes and dislikes from their previous experiences in narrative-driven games, this thesis aims to develop a heuristic approach for interactive narrative elements that offer the narrative through players' input to the game's system and create an effective gameplay experience that delivers the story to the players. Keywords: Video game narrative, storytelling, interactivity, narrative-driven games, storygames 2 Table of Contents 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................1 1.1 Purpose .............................................................................................................3 1.1.1 Previous Research ......................................................................................5 1.2 Overview and Structure ...................................................................................9
    [Show full text]
  • Interactive Narrative: an Intelligent Systems Approach
    This is a preprint version of an article to appear in AI Magazine (in press). Interactive Narrative: An Intelligent Systems Approach Mark O. Riedl1 and Vadim Bulitko2 1School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology 2Department of Computing Science, University of Alberta Abstract Interactive narrative is a form of digital interactive experience in which users create or influence a dramatic storyline through their actions. The goal of an interactive narrative system is to immerse the user in a virtual world such that he or she believes that they are an integral part of an unfolding story and that their actions can significantly alter the direction and/or outcome of the story. In this article we review the ways in which artificial intelligence can be brought to bear on the creation of interactive narrative systems. We lay out the landscape of about 20 years of interactive narrative research and explore the successes as well as open research questions pertaining to the novel use of computational narrative intelligence in the pursuit of entertainment, education, and training. 1 Introduction Storytelling, in oral, visual, or written forms, plays a central role in various types of media, including novels, movies, television, and theatre. The prevalence of storytelling in human culture may be explained by the use of narrative as a cognitive tool for situated understanding [3]. This narrative intelligence| ability to organize experience into narrative form|is central to the cognitive processes employed across a range of experiences, from entertainment to active learning. It follows that computational systems possessing narrative intelligence may be able to interact with human users naturally because they under- stand collaborative contexts as emerging narrative and are able to express themselves by telling stories.
    [Show full text]
  • Programming Interactive Worlds with Linear Logic
    Programming Interactive Worlds with Linear Logic Chris Martens CMU-CS-15-134 September 2015 School of Computer Science Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 15213 Thesis Committee: Frank Pfenning, Co-chair Karl Crary, Co-chair Andre´ Platzer Roger Dannenberg Anne-Gwenn Bosser Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Copyright c 2015 Chris Martens This research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation under grant numbers CCF-0546550, CNS-0716469, DGE-0750271; Qatar National Research Fund under grant number NPRP-096671100; and Commission of the European Communities under grant number FP-6506909. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the author and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of any sponsoring institution, the U.S. government or any other entity. Keywords: Programming Languages, Computational Logic, Game Design, Interac- tive Simulation, Interactive Storytelling, Interactive Fiction Abstract Interactive storytelling weaves together deep computational ideas with humanity’s rich history of story and play, providing an important context for tools and languages to be built. At the same time, formal specification languages offer a palette of representation and inference techniques typically reserved for the analysis of programming languages and complex deductive systems. This thesis connects problems in the interactive storytelling domain to solutions in formal specification. Specifically, we examine narrative from a structural point of view and observe that alternative narrative paths play a complementary role to simul- taneous interacting timelines. Linear logic provides the representational tools necessary to investigate this structure, and by extending the correspondence to proofs and proof construction, we find a suite of computational possibili- ties.
    [Show full text]
  • Narratology for Interactive Storytelling: a Critical Introduction
    Narratology for Interactive Storytelling: A Critical Introduction Marc Cavazza and David Pizzi School of Computing, University of Teesside, TS1 3BA Middlesbrough, United Kingdom {m.o.cavazza, d.pizzi}@tees.ac.uk Abstract. Most research in Interactive Storytelling (IS) has sought inspiration in narrative theories issued from contemporary narratology to either identify fundamental concepts or derive formalisms for their implementation. In the former case, the theoretical approach gives raise to empirical solutions, while the latter develops Interactive Storytelling as some form of “computational nar- ratology”, modelled on computational linguistics. In this paper, we review the most frequently cited theories from the perspective of IS research. We discuss in particular the extent to which they can actually inspire IS technologies and highlight key issues for the effective use of narratology in IS. Keywords: Interactive Storytelling, Narrative Theory, Virtual Actors. 1 Introduction Since the early descriptions of Swartout et al. [19] and Young [26], most Interactive Storytelling systems have integrated Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques, which generate narrative actions sequences, with 3D graphics and animations, staging these narrative actions to produce the actual interactive story. However, AI formalisms can only succeed with appropriate processes for knowledge acquisition. When investigat- ing which domain knowledge could best support the IS endeavour, most researchers turned to narratology as the main discipline that could support narrative analysis and formalisation. In this paper, we review the main narrative theories that have inspired IS research and provide a critical insight into how these theories can support further develop- ments of our discipline1. One key question here would be to which extent narrative formalisms facilitate computational description [25]; as we shall see, many IS re- searchers have already embraced them with some success, although much remains to be done to take full benefit of these theories.
    [Show full text]
  • Experiencing Interactive Storytelling
    Experiencing Interactive Storytelling PhD Thesis Christian Roth VU University Amsterdam, 2015 This work is partially funded by the FP7 Programme of the European Commission in the context of the Network of Excellence IRIS — Integrating Research on Interac- tive Storytelling — project under Grant Agreement FP7-ICT-231824, and by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Germany. Graduation Committee: Prof. Dr. E. Tan Universiteit van Amsterdam Prof. Dr. J. Jansz Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam Prof. Dr. P. Petta Austrian Research Institute for AI Dr. T. Hartmann Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Dr. M. Vosmeer Hogeschool van Amsterdam Copyright © 2015 by Christian Roth. ISBN 978-94-6259-972-7 Cover design by Ayşe Kongur ([email protected]). Printed by Ipskamp Drukkers. VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT Experiencing Interactive Storytelling ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad Doctor aan de Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, op gezag van de rector magnificus prof.dr. V. Subramaniam, in het openbaar te verdedigen ten overstaan van de promotiecommissie van de Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen op vrijdag 15 januari 2016 om 11.45 uur in de aula van de universiteit, De Boelelaan 1105 door Peter Christian Herbert Roth geboren te Würzburg, Duitsland promotor: prof.dr. P. Kerkhof copromotor: dr. I.E. Vermeulen “Interactivity is the sum and substance of the entire revolution that has been shaking our society for the last few decades.” Chris Crawford ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Once upon a time, a young media psychologist went on a great journey to obtain his PhD in the Netherlands. He had to overcome many challenges, travelled around the world, made new friends and learned a lot about life. Long story short, as you read these lines, this journey has come to a good ending! I want to thank those that accompanied my journey and supported me during this great adventure.
    [Show full text]
  • Identity Transformation and Agency in Digital Narratives and Story Based Games
    Identity Transformation and Agency in Digital Narratives and Story Based Games by Joshua Glen Tanenbaum M.A. (Interactive Arts and Technology), Simon Fraser University, 2008 B.A., University of Redlands, 2002 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology Faculty of Communication, Art, and Technology Joshua Glen Tanenbaum 2015 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Spring 2015 All rights reserved. However, in accordance with the Copyright Act of Canada, this work may be reproduced, without authorization, under the conditions for “Fair Dealing.” Therefore, limited reproduction of this work for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, review and news reporting is likely to be in accordance with the law, particularly if cited appropriately. Approval Name: Joshua Tanenbaum Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Title of Thesis: Identity Transformation and Agency in Digital Narratives and Story Based Games Examining Committee: Chair: Steve DiPaola, Associate Professor Alissa N. Antle Senior Supervisor Associate Professor Jim Bizzocchi Co- Supervisor Associate Professor Dene Grigar Supervisor Associate Professor, Digital Technology and Culture Program, Washington State University Richard Smith Internal Examiner Professor, Communications, SFU Margaret MacKey External Examiner Professor, School of Library and Information Studies, University of Alberta Date Defended/Approved: March 13, 2015 ii Partial Copyright Licence iii Ethics Statement iv Abstract In this dissertation I propose a reimagining of two of the central pleasures of digital media: Agency and Transformation. The first of these pleasures – Agency – is a concept that has received significant attention in the discourse around games and storytelling. The second pleasure – Transformation – has received comparatively little deep investigation.
    [Show full text]
  • Lessons Learned from Designing Children's Interactive
    Lessons Learned from Designing Children’s Interactive Narratives Angela Chang1, Pei-Yu Chi1, Nick Montfort2, Cynthia Breazeal1, and Henry Lieberman1 1 The Media Laboratory 2 Writing and Humanistic Studies Massachusetts Institute of Technology {anjchang, peggychi}@mit.edu, [email protected], {cynthiab, lieber}@media.mit.edu ABSTRACT In light of the informal use of interactive narrative by young Designing interactive narrative for children requires children, it seems that the field of interactive fiction (IF) awareness of the cognitive abilities of young readers. In this does not explicitly target works to young children. paper, we propose design principles based on knowledge of Although a few interactive fiction pieces claim to be children's cognitive psychology research. The principles suitable for children, we are interested in the audience of demonstrate how a children's interactive narrative can allow very young children. Works like A Bear’s Night Out or for creative play and avoid frustration. Furthermore, we WishBringer may reference childhood themes (e.g. teddy present an interaction design strategy aimed to reduce bears or postal mail; see http://www.ifwiki.org). These memory load and focus on story understanding. By using “children-oriented” works provide a simplified plot simple and encouraging discourse through short interactive compared to what exists in adult-oriented pieces. A playful prompts, electronic fiction can be used to craft delightful dialogue diffuses the sense of danger that normally and interesting literature for children. surrounds interactive fiction. Although these adaptations are accessible to young audiences, we are interested in Author Keywords looking further at how to construct enjoyable interaction Children, interactive narrative, storytelling fiction experiences.
    [Show full text]
  • Experiencing Interactive Storytelling Roth, P.C.H
    VU Research Portal Experiencing Interactive Storytelling Roth, P.C.H. 2016 document version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication in VU Research Portal citation for published version (APA) Roth, P. C. H. (2016). Experiencing Interactive Storytelling. General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. E-mail address: [email protected] Download date: 04. Oct. 2021 Experiencing Interactive Storytelling PhD Thesis Christian Roth VU University Amsterdam, 2015 This work is partially funded by the FP7 Programme of the European Commission in the context of the Network of Excellence IRIS — Integrating Research on Interac- tive Storytelling — project under Grant Agreement FP7-ICT-231824, and by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Germany. Graduation Committee: Prof. Dr. E. Tan Universiteit van Amsterdam Prof. Dr. J. Jansz Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam Prof. Dr. P. Petta Austrian Research Institute for AI Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Character Based Interactive Storytelling for Role Playing Games
    Character Based Interactive Storytelling for Role Playing Games by Cian Kearney, B.Sc(Hons) Dissertation Presented to the University of Dublin, Trinity College in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Computer Science University of Dublin, Trinity College August 2012 Declaration I, the undersigned, declare that this work has not previously been submitted as an exercise for a degree at this, or any other University, and that unless otherwise stated, is my own work. Cian Kearney August 31, 2012 Permission to Lend and/or Copy I, the undersigned, agree that Trinity College Library may lend or copy this thesis upon request. Cian Kearney August 31, 2012 Acknowledgments ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my supervisor, Mads Haahr, for his suggestions and advice throughout the project. I would also like to thank my family and friends for all of their support. Cian Kearney University of Dublin, Trinity College August 2012 iv Character Based Interactive Storytelling for Role Playing Games Cian Kearney University of Dublin, Trinity College, 2012 Supervisor: Mads Haahr ABSTRACT One of the main advantages of computers or games consoles over other entertainment media is that they provide the user with a means to interact with the system. Video games as an entertainment medium provide an excellent opportunity to tell a truly interactive story in which the players actions and interactions with non-player charac- ters affect the entire development and structure of the story. Stories in modern video games are mostly linear with occasional branching of story lines based around a cou- ple of key choices presented to the player.
    [Show full text]