Proceedings of CGAMES’2006 8th International Conference on Computer Games: Artificial Intelligence and Mobile Systems 24-27 July 2006 Hosted by Galt House Hotel Louisville, Kentucky, USA Organised by University of Wolverhampton in association with University of Louisville and IEEE Computer Society Society for Modelling and Simulation (SCS-Europe) Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) British Computer Society (BCS) Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) International Journal of Intelligent Games and Simulation (IJIGS) Edited by: Quasim Mehdi Guest Editor: Adel Elmaghraby Published by The University of Wolverhampton School of Computing and Information Technology Printed in Wolverhampton, UK ©2006 The University of Wolverhampton Responsibility for the accuracy of all material appearing in the papers is the responsibility of the authors alone. Statements are not necessarily endorsed by the University of Wolverhampton, members of the Programme Committee or associated organisations. Permission is granted to photocopy the abstracts and other portions of this publication for personal use and for the use of students providing that credit is given to the conference and publication. Permission does not extend to other types of reproduction nor to copying for use in any profit-making purposes. Other publications are encouraged to include 300-500 word abstracts or excerpts from any paper, provided credits are given to the author, conference and publication. For permission to publish a complete paper contact Quasim Mehdi, SCIT, University of Wolverhampton, Wulfruna Street, Wolverhampton, WV1 1SB, UK, [email protected]. All author contact information in these Proceedings is covered by the European Privacy Law and may not be used in any form, written or electronic without the explicit written permission of the author and/or the publisher. Published by The University of Wolverhampton, School of Computing and Information Technology ISBN 0-9549016-1-4 2 Contents Programme Committee 4 Preface 5 Proceedings 6 Session 2 Keynote Presentation 7 Session 3 15 Session 4 34 Session 5 50 Session 6 63 Session 7 85 Session 8 96 Author Index 108 3 Programme Committee General Conference Chair General Programme Chair Quasim Mehdi Adel Elmaghraby School of Computing & Information Computer Engineering and Computer Technology Science University of Louisville University of Wolverhampton, UK Louisville, KY 40292, USA Local Chair Conference Organisers Dennis E. Jacobi and Donald Anderson, Intellas Corporation, Lousville International Programme Committee Don Anderson Professor David Kaufman, Simon Fraser Intellas Group LLC, Quantum Int.Corp., USA University, Canada Dr Daniel Livingstone Professor David Al-Dabbass University of Paisley, UK Nottingham-Trent University, UK Professor Ian Marshall Professor Marc Cavazza University of Coventry, UK University of Teesside, UK Dr Stephen McGlinchy Dr Darryl Charles University of Paisley, UK University of Ulster, UK Professor Stephane Natkin Professor Ratan Kumar Guha CNAM Paris, France Central Florida University, USA Professor Yoshihiro Okada University of Bradford, UK Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan Dr Johannes Fuernkranz Professor Mark Overmars (Utrecht University, Technical University of Darmstadt, FRG The Netherlands) Dr John Funge (iKuni Inc, Palo Alto, USA) Professor Leon Rothkrantz University of Delft, Netherlands Dr Julian Gold, Microsoft Research Centre, Cambridge, UK Dr. Pieter Spronck University of Maastricht, Belgium Dr Stefan Grunvogel NOMADS Lab, Cologne, FRG Dr Ian Wright iKuni Inc, Palo Alto, USA 4 Preface The Programme Committee is very pleased to welcome all delegates to the 8th International Conference on Computer Games, CGAMES 06 USA. CGAMES is part of Game-On® International Conference of Wolverhampton University, UK. We have the privilege to bring the conference for the second time to the Louisville, Kentucky. The 7th event was held in CNBDI-Angouleme, France which was a huge success and well participated. Our 9th International conference: Artificial Intelligence, Animation, Mobile Systems, Educational and Serious Games, will be hosted by the Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin, Ireland, 22nd-24th November 2006. The theme has been chosen to reflect the major changes in the way in which games are developed and played. We are very proud to announce that the conference has successfully maintained its links with its sponsors: the IEEE Computer Society, British Computer Society, Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA), and the Society for Modelling and Simulation (SCS) who where the first sponsors of the conference, we are thankful to them for their help and support. The conference will endeavour to help the new researchers and MSc/MPhil/PhD research students to present their work to their peers and experts in the field in order to improve the quality of their work in this exciting subject area. The quality of submitted papers has been maintained at a high standard by having them reviewed by our reviewers who have been delighted with the work produced by the authors. Our special thanks go to the reviewers who have been most diligent in their task by providing detailed and useful feedback to authors. The best papers will be reviewed for possible inclusion in the International Journal of Intelligent Games & Simulation (IJIGS). This conference has flourished by the hard work put in by our colleagues in Louisville. Our big thanks and appreciation go to their generosity and time and effort to help organise this conference and provide valuable support. We particularly wish to thank the General Programme Chair, Professor Adel Elmaghraby; University of Louisville and colleagues at the Intellas Corporation, Don Anderson and Dennis Jacobi. We would also like to thank the School of Computing & Information Technology, University of Wolverhampton, UK, especially the Dean Professor Rob Moreton for his endless support. We trust that you will all enjoy your stay in Louisville and benefit from this conference by making new contacts for future mutual collaboration. Quasim Mehdi, General Conference Chair University of Wolverhampton, July 2006 5 Proceedings 6 Session 2 Keynote Presentation 7 GAMING IN CONTEXT: THE SOCIAL, CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL RELEVANCE OF COMPUTER GAMING Don Anderson Intellas Group, LLC, 15424 Beckley Hills Drive, Louisville, KY 40245 USA (502) 254-1601 [email protected] Keywords Background Games, war games, educational games, multi-player games, role-playing. Gaming had remained relatively unchanged throughout most of the course of human Abstract history. Games have been with us since ancient and possibly even prehistoric times. Myopia is a common affliction among those The majority of these games involved two involved in technology. Simply put it is players pitting their skills in a variety of failing to see the forest because of the trees. games of strategy. In the Ancient Near East As technologists and creators of computer these included such games as Marcala, games and computer gaming platforms, it is Seega, Senet and Quirkat. In India the easy to become too narrowly focused on ancient predecessor of Chess was born. In specific technical issues that apply to our China such games as Go and Mah Jongg work. This is not to say that these issues are appeared. In Ancient Rome in addition to not important and need to be addressed in some of the aforementioned Near Eastern order for the quality and capabilities of games, there were Tali, Tesserae (a dice computer games to increase, but rather that game), Duodecum Scripta (Twelve Lines), we can not afford to lose the perspective of Tabula (a backgammon predecessor), and the context in which they exist and operate. Latrunculi. Computer games and game technology are Most of these games were two dimensional profoundly influencing the world around us and involved strategy of mind on mind in both obvious and subtle ways. Modern between two players. A few functioned as cultures and societies are faced with the group gambling games, but were still most rapid rate of change in the course of essentially two dimensional. This gaming human history. Change in itself is neither methodology continued for several positive nor negative. Rather it is how we thousand years with no essential changes frame and direct this change that adds the until the modern era. element of whether or not a particular change or element of change is positive or In a previous study for a United States Air negative. This paper will attempt to take a Force project our team identified three snapshot of computer games from this generations of war games, which can also larger context and demonstrate how they be applied to games as a whole. In fact a are becoming an important and integral part fourth generation could be added to the of the world around us. original three to define the emergence of 8 multi-dimensional games over the course of achieving of specific objectives or goals in the last ten years. See Figure 1. the game scenario. GENERATION FOCUS SCOPE In the mid 1970’s another phenomena First Strategy Mind on mind occurred that would impact the course of gaming and the advent of the computer Second Attrition Force on force gaming industry. Gary Gygax and Rob Kuntz introduced the first set of rules for a Third Effects System on system new fantasy role-playing system, “Dungeons & Dragons,” and founded TSR Fourth ? Interaction Multi- /integration ? dimensional? Games. Role-playing introduced a system in which any reasonable number of players could enter the game. Play could be set for Figure1. Game generations short periods of time all the way up to campaigns that could go on for days, After several thousand years of first months or even years. Success or victory generation games, the second generation was redefined in contrast to the typical was born through the medium of a new board game in which one player emerged generation of board war games that more victorious. In Dungeons & Dragons success accurately modeled conditions on the or victory is judged on a more individual battlefield through the depiction of military level, but also by a particular group to units as individual game counters with which the player has affiliated him/herself.