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A flexible multi-model approach to psychosocial integration in non player characters in modern video games

Published: 06 May 2010 Publication History

Abstract

This paper introduces a novel approach to integrating various psychosocial models to facilitate the construction of flexible, expressive, and believable non player characters for modern video games. Instead of forcing game designers and developers to choose from a multitude of possible models for personality, emotion, and so on, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, our approach enables the use of multiple models simultaneously, either partially or in their entirety. In doing so, we can provide considerable flexibility and customizability in character design, leading to richer and more varied characters in video games.
Based on our approach, a prototype run-time system has been developed, using our earlier work in emergent characters as a foundation. To further support our approach in the creation of characters, tools have also been created to construct psychosocial models, as well as the characters based on these models. These prototypes have been evaluated and shown through experimentation to produce very positive results, and have great promise for continued work in the future.

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  • (2022)Improving the Survival Time of Multiagents in Social Dilemmas through Neurotransmitter-Based Deep Q-Learning Model of EmotionsJournal of Healthcare Engineering10.1155/2022/34494332022(1-15)Online publication date: 25-Jan-2022
  • (2020)PLAY ME! Influencing Game Decisions through Suggestions made by Augmented CharactersProceedings of the 19th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia10.1145/3428361.3428406(288-298)Online publication date: 22-Nov-2020
  • (2018)A Psychometric Detection System to Create Dynamic Psychosocial Relationships Between Non-Player Characters2018 IEEE Games, Entertainment, Media Conference (GEM)10.1109/GEM.2018.8516452(256-262)Online publication date: Aug-2018
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cover image ACM Other conferences
Futureplay '10: Proceedings of the International Academic Conference on the Future of Game Design and Technology
May 2010
282 pages
ISBN:9781450302357
DOI:10.1145/1920778
  • Conference Chairs:
  • Bill Kapralos,
  • Andrew Hogue,
  • Simon Xu
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Publication History

Published: 06 May 2010

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Author Tags

  1. believability
  2. emergent gameplay
  3. non player character behaviour
  4. personality and emotion
  5. psychosocial modeling

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Futureplay '10
Sponsor:
Futureplay '10: Futureplay '10 @ GDC Canada
May 6 - 7, 2010
British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

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Cited By

View all
  • (2022)Improving the Survival Time of Multiagents in Social Dilemmas through Neurotransmitter-Based Deep Q-Learning Model of EmotionsJournal of Healthcare Engineering10.1155/2022/34494332022(1-15)Online publication date: 25-Jan-2022
  • (2020)PLAY ME! Influencing Game Decisions through Suggestions made by Augmented CharactersProceedings of the 19th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia10.1145/3428361.3428406(288-298)Online publication date: 22-Nov-2020
  • (2018)A Psychometric Detection System to Create Dynamic Psychosocial Relationships Between Non-Player Characters2018 IEEE Games, Entertainment, Media Conference (GEM)10.1109/GEM.2018.8516452(256-262)Online publication date: Aug-2018
  • (2018)A Psychologically-Realistic Personality Model for Virtual AgentsBehavior Engineering and Applications10.1007/978-3-319-76430-6_4(81-99)Online publication date: 11-Jul-2018
  • (2015)Modeling believable agents using a descriptive approachBiologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures10.1016/j.bica.2015.09.00414(10-21)Online publication date: Oct-2015
  • (2012)Believability Through Psychosocial Behaviour: Creating Bots That Are More Engaging and EntertainingBelievable Bots10.1007/978-3-642-32323-2_2(29-68)Online publication date: 19-Oct-2012

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