Swedish Institute of Computer Science - SICS Outline

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Dramatic Gaming

Jarmo [email protected]

A few facts about myself…

Background in computer/systems scienceResearcher at SICS since 1997Part time at DSV/KTH 2004-2006Research interests

Humanistic ITPeople have spare time, emotions, religion, social needs,…

Entertainment applicationsGames and interactive drama

Swedish Institute of Computer Science - SICS

Independent non-profit research organisationEmploys ~ 90 researchers in 7 labs

Computer and Network ArchitecturesDistributed SystemsIndustrial Applications and MethodsIntelligent SystemsInteractive Collaborative Environments Interaction LaboratoryUserWare Lab

Recently nominated one of the top 15 IT-research institutions in the world

Outline

Overview of GamesOverview of Interactive DramaKaktus - The story of a dramatic game

Socio-Emotional gamingExpressive cinematographyPlot control mechanisms

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Interactive Drama Research

Why?Explore the mediumNew domains bring new solutions to (old) problems

Is it important?We have lives outside the workplace…People have always played and told storiesGames and storytelling can be used for otherpurposes than entertainment too…

Gaming defined

Play is an occasion of pure waste: waste of time, energy, ingenuity, skill and often money. (Caillois, 1958)Play is essentially:

Free – you choose to playSeparate – limited in space and time from other activitiesUncertain – you don’t know what will happen beforehandUnproductive – does not create goods or wealthGoverned by rules – game rulesMake-believe – as opposed to real life

• Agôn – competion

• Alea – chance

• Mimicry – simulation/role play

• Ilinx – vertigo (e.g. roller coasters)

• Agôn – competion

• Alea – chance

• Mimicry – simulation/role play

• Ilinx – vertigo (e.g. roller coasters)

What do players want?

ChallengeCompeteSocial Emotional experienceFantasy/Story

(Rouse, 2001)

Computer Game Genres

Action gamesRacing gamesSports gamesStrategy gamesSimulation games

Platform gamesRole-playing/AdventuregamesPuzzle/Boardgames”Edutainment”

Source - Teldok 133

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Motivations for Gaming

Most games focus on actionClaim: Interactive Games are motivated bybasic survival motives

Hunting/fightingGathering/explorationConstruction/creativity

But what about other types of motives?

Our research

Explore ”games” that areEmotionalSocialNarrative

Interactive dramaIt has less focus on actionAttempts to merge interactivity with a narrative experienceEmotion is a vital ingredient

Outline



What is a narrative?

A narrative is an account of events that has happenedto someone.Narratives order events temporally…

A happened first, then B and C.

…and causallyC happened because of A.

Focus on characters.Narratives are aboutimportant events. Plot refers to how events are retold (e.g. in reverse)

A CBthen then

because of

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Dramatic Narrative

ValuesLove/hate, life/death, rich/poor, …

EventsActsSequencesScenesBeats

CharactersMcKee, 1997

Dramatic arc

1 23

4

5

6

7

1. Exposition2. Inciting incident3. Rising action4. Crisis5. Climax6. Falling action7. Denouement

Time

Com

plic

atio

n

The wedge

Possible Probable Necessary

Potential

Stories and Games

What are the differences?Games focus on interactivity, stories on

controlGames involve solving puzzles, scoring

points and winningWhat is the role of story in games?

Games often involve stories (in some way) don’t they?

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Traditional stories vs. Interactive stories

The author controlsWhat happens when in the story worldWhat the reader finds out about it, and when

The reader controlsWhether to read on or stop (or skip)

Author shares controlPlayers actively participate in the creation of their own experience

Conflicting demandsPlayers want freedom to do and see whatever they find interesting (?)Authors want to tell their (a) story

Making it interactive

Aren’t all storiesinteractive?

ConstructivismExplicit vs implicit interactivity

Interactive PlotMake the links betweenevents virtualCreating new plots

Interactive StoryMake the events themselves virtualCreating new story events

A CBthen then

because of

A CBthen then

because of

The interactive wedge

Possible Probable Necessary

Potential

Structure of Interactive Narrative

“The narrative potential of the interactive text is a function of its system of links” (Ryan, 2001)Does this also apply to other media?

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The complete graph

Fully connected graphPlayer can navigate as she likesDifficult to create events that can be experienced in any orderHard to guarantee narrative coherence

The vector with branches

Main story is non-interactiveThe player can visit the side branchesPlayers can decide the level of detailPopular in children's (educational) games…and perhaps RPG’s?

Critical Voices

LudologyNarratives retell past events and thus cannot be interactive (narration collapses)Story and roles constrain interactivity

NarratologyInteractivity only allows simple/uninteresting stories to be formed

Drama management

Policy for “story piece” selection“Null” policy = explicitly coded links

Story library

Selection policy

previous sequence

Null policy

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Façade – Mateas & Stern

Story a la “Who’s afraid of Virginia wolf”Interaction through natural language dialog within story contextThe player plays a character in the storyFirst person viewTo be released (free) 2004?

IDTension

World of the story User Model

User

Theatre

Narrative Logic

Virtual Narrator

User ModelWorld of the story

Discourse / Story / Perception

IDTension storyAnna tells Joe he could try to buy Mr D., the witnessJoe acceptsBill tells Joe to kill Mr D. Joe refuses to do that.Joe tells Anna he could kill Mr D.Anna encourages him to do so!Joe tells Anna he wants to buy Mr D.Anna encourages him to do soBill incites Joe to kill Mr D.Joe meets Mr D.He proposes him some money for changing his testimony, but Mr D. wants a lot of money, and Joe is not rich enoughHe then decides to get moneyHe tells Anna about itJoe tells Sylvie he could kill Mr D.Sylvie dissuades him to do so!

Agneta & Frida

Characters weaving web browsing into a narrativeBased on MS Agent technology~ uses a “null policy” to structure the storyIt’s not really a game (?)Demo…

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(Some) Challenges

Combining interactivity and narrativelinearity vs. dynamicity

Believable characters (agents).Creating inner life.Expressing inner life.Reactivity.

Balance between autonomy and narrative progression.

How can we make sure that the story hapens if agents are autonomous?

Choosing the right medium

Outline



Socio-Emotional Drama

The Kaktus scenario aims to:Provide an emotional experience.Provide a social experience.Provide a narrative experience.Support replayability – sucess criteria?Include proactive autonomouscharacters.

Drama

Game interface

You: Lovisa, a party is a great idea! Think of all the fun we will have!

Lovisa gives you a Lovisa gives you a bigbig smilesmile

Lovisa: But what about serving drinks?

Ebba, can’t your brother take care of that?

Ebba, do you want to borrow my new DKNY dress for the party?

Lovisa, maybe we can get some alcohol from your fathers medical practice?

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User study

Aim: To test impact of emotion model15 subjects (one using emotion model the other random) ‘Random’ group found characters to be strange

‘…sometimes they changed completely, first they were about to cry, the next instant their eyes were twinkling.’Some users believed they were doing something wrong!

The group using the emotional model experiencedno strange behaviourEmotional expressions need structure and timing!

Magicster - Kaktus

Screen Shot Outline



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Film structure

Film – a sequence of scenesScene – captures a specific situationShot – interval during which the camera is continuously rolling ~2-8 sec.Scenes are made up of one or more shots

Cinematography

Cinematography refers to howsomething is filmed in contrast to whatThree main factors

Photographic aspects -emulsion, filters,etcFraming – what is includedDuration – how long a shot is

Emotions through cinematography

By applying proper visual effects the emotional disposition of viewers can be changed

Happy scene: bright lighting, bright colorsSad: dark, low-key colorsTerror: quick zoom to a characters faceMental/Sick: fish-eye lens…

Partly learned behavior due to repeated exposure

Shot size

Extreme long-shot

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Angle Line of action

Crossing the line Examples of shots

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Borders

Colors affect how we perceive things

Culturally dependant

Red/yellow is generally more positive than blue/green

Rounded shapes are more positive than jagged

Shot parameters

Start timeEnd timeShot typeCamera id3D Shot size (close-up,…,long-shot)2D Shot size (size on screen)2D positionPrimary character of the shotSecondary character(s) of the shot2D movement Border to use

Idioms

Working knowledge about how to sequence shots to capture situationsIdioms can be modeled as automatonsExample: a conversation between two people

Start

Apex(A,B)

Close up(B)

Close up(A)

Over the shoulder(A,B)

Establishing shot to introduce the situationClose-up or over the shoulder shots for showing the conversation

Cinematographer

Process of cinematographer

Event

SpeakerAddresseeRelations

Idioms

BuildSelect

Idiom

Scene,duration,

shotsDirect

Scene,shots

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Outline



Anticipatory systems

Contains a predictive model of itself and the environmentThe behavior of the system depends on predictions about what will happen in addition to what already hasThe system is executed faster than “real-time”

Anticipatory Drama

The game is turnbasedControl variables

Friendship (= social relation) Elapsed time

The value of the control variables determine which agent gets the turnWhat about when no good choices exist?

Behaviors such as ”throw a temper tantrum” can be used to pull players in the right direction

Social Configurations – Heider(1946)

P O

X

+

+ +

P O

X

+

+ -

P O

X

-

+ -

P O

X

+

- -

P O

X

+

+ +

X is not good

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The anticipatory model

The anticipatory model can be described as a finite state automatonAutomatons that describe generic dramas are context free and hence reusable

S

q1 q2

q3

E

-1,20,2

-2,2+1,2

+1,1

0,2

And so the drama begins…

Thank you for listening!

For more information contact:

Jarmo [email protected]

Documents

Swedish Institute of Computer Science - SICS Outline