
Steps Towards Creating Socially Competent Game Characters GOTHENBURG MONOGRAPHS IN LINGUISTICS 44 Steps Towards Creating Socially Competent Game Characters Jenny Brusk Dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics, University of Gothenburg © Jenny Brusk, 2014 Cover: Thomas Ekholm Picture: © Jenny Brusk 2014 Printed by Reprocentralen, Humanistiska Fakulteten, University of Gothenburg, 2014 ISBN 978-91-628-8890-9 Distribution: Department of Philosophy, Linguistics and Theory of Science, University of Gothenburg, Box 200, S-405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden ii For Thomas, Thea and Mira Abstract Ph.D. dissertation in Linguistics at University of Gothenburg, Sweden, 2014 Title: Steps Towards Creating Socially Competent Game Characters Author: Jenny Brusk Language: English Department: Department of Philosophy, Linguistics and Theory of Science, University of Gothenburg, Box 200, S-405 30 Gothenburg Series: Gothenburg Monographs in Linguistics 44 ISBN 978-91-628-8890-9 This thesis investigates and presents approaches towards creating more socially competent NPCs by means of natural language dialogues. The aim is to provide hands-on solutions for game developers who want to offer interactions with the NPCs in the game that are socially driven rather than functionally motivated and that encourage the player to build and maintain relationships between the character they control and the other game characters. By means of gameplay design patterns (GDPs), i.e. a semi-formal means of describing, sharing and expanding knowledge about game design, a selection of games have been analysed in order to identify existing and hypothetical GDPs for game dialogues. The analysis resulted in a number of GDPs that support, or could support, social interaction among game characters. A selection of the identified patterns has then been modelled using Harel statecharts and implemented in State Chart XML, a candidate to become a W3C standard. Keywords: dialogue systems, non-playable characters, computer games, SCXML, statecharts, socially oriented dialogues i Acknowledgements This work would not have been possible without the support of my supervisors Torbjörn Lager, Staffan Björk, and Robin Cooper. As my primary supervisor, Torbjörn has been my faithful companion from the very beginning. His encouragement, patience and never-ending support have kept me going and this thesis would not have been without him. I am also deeply indebted to my assistant supervisor Staffan Björk, who has been a great friend, teacher, inspiration and a valuable sounding board for my work on games. Robin Cooper has also been involved in the process of writing this thesis, in particular in finalizing the script and reaching an end to this project. Robin has provided me with new energy, self-esteem, hope, and great feedback when I had almost given up. I would also give my warm thanks to Simon Dobnik, who was my opponent during my final seminar. Simon’s critique and well thought through feedback improved this thesis considerably. Thanks to Svenska Spel, Gotland University, department of information and communication (IKI) at University of Skövde, department of FLOV University of Gothenburg and Graduate School for Language Technology (GSLT) for financial support. Over the years I have had the opportunity to collaborate with some amazing people. First, I’d like to thank Mirjam Palosaari Eladhari, my former colleague at Gotland University, for her friendship, collaborations, interesting discussions and support throughout the tough years. Thanks also to Anna Hjalmarsson and Preben Wik at the Department of Speech, Music and Hearing at KTH for friendship and cooperation in the DEAL project. Visiting KTH always gave me a lot of positive energy! In 2009 I was invited as a visiting scholar at the Institute for Creative Technology, University of Southern California thanks to David Traum. My stay at ICT was one the greatest experiences I have had over these years and I learned immensely from David and the rest of the Natural Language group. Thank you for making me feel so welcome and for taking such interest in my research. It really boosted me! Thanks also for letting me take part in interesting seminars, lectures, and for openly sharing your research. A particular thanks to Ron Artstein who helped me with the statistics and taught me how to use it – I am so grateful! Special thanks also to Sudeep and Angela for being the best office neighbours! Thanks also to all PhD students, supervisors and associates of GSLT and FLOV at the University of Gothenburg for interesting courses, discussions, ii collaborations, feedback, support and fun. A special thanks to my reviewers Rolf Carlson and David House for always believing in me. I would also like to thank Staffan Larsson for providing me with valuable feedback at the early stage of my work, Sally Boyd for reading and giving feedback on my work on gossip, and Åsa Abelin for helping me with various problems concerning my studies. Thanks to my friends and colleagues at the computer game development programs in Skövde University for keeping my spirits up, in particular Ulf Wilhelmsson for reading parts of my script and providing insightful feedback. Several anonymous reviewers are worth their acknowledgements for taking their time to provide constructive feedback on the papers I have submitted to various conferences. Thanks to all my friends and relatives who have stood by my side all these years. A special thanks to Malina, Pontus, Isak, and Karl for generously sharing their home whenever I needed to visit Gothenburg. I could not have pursued this work without the support of my beloved family – Thomas, Thea, and Mira – you make everything worthwhile. iii Contents CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................... 1 1.1 NATURAL LANGUAGE INTERACTION IN GAMES ................................................... 2 1.2 CHOICE OF TECHNOLOGY ...................................................................................... 3 1.3 A SIMPLE GAME SCENARIO .................................................................................... 4 1.3.1 The Waiter Character ............................................................................................. 4 1.3.2 Extending the Model with a Dialogue Manager .................................................... 6 1.4 THE STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS .......................................................................... 12 CHAPTER 2: CONVERSATIONAL AGENTS ......................................................... 14 2.1 CLASSIFICATION OF CAS ...................................................................................... 14 2.1.1 Dialogue Systems ................................................................................................. 14 2.1.2 Platform and Setting ............................................................................................. 16 2.1.3 Examples of ECAs ............................................................................................... 18 2.2 NPCS ....................................................................................................................... 18 2.2.1 Natural Language Interaction in Games .............................................................. 19 2.2.2 NPC Roles ............................................................................................................ 21 2.2.3 Believability of NPCs .......................................................................................... 22 2.2.4 Examples of Conversational NPCs ...................................................................... 23 2.3 SOCIAL ACTIVITIES ............................................................................................... 25 2.3.1 Context ................................................................................................................. 25 2.3.2 Communicative Acts ............................................................................................ 26 2.3.3 Cooperation .......................................................................................................... 26 2.4 DIALOGUE MANAGEMENT TASKS ........................................................................ 28 2.4.1 Initiative ............................................................................................................... 29 2.4.2 Turn-taking ........................................................................................................... 29 2.4.3 Incremental Text or Speech Processing ............................................................... 31 2.4.4 Multi-party dialogue ............................................................................................ 31 2.5 POTENTIAL DESIGN DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PRACTICAL DS AND GAME DS ... 32 2.5.1 Correctness and cooperativeness ......................................................................... 33 2.5.2 Reliability and Efficiency .................................................................................... 34 2.5.3 Error Handling ..................................................................................................... 35 2.5.4 User Role and Setting .......................................................................................... 35 2.6 RULE-BASED APPROACHES FOR DIALOGUE MANAGEMENT .............................. 36 2.6.1 Finite State-based Approach ................................................................................ 36 2.6.2 Frame-based Approach
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