expressiveintelligencestudio noah wardrip-fruin computational media toward deeper interdisciplinary...

expressiveintelligencestudio

Noah Wardrip-Fruin

Computational Media

Toward Deeper Interdisciplinary Engagement

Associate Professor, Computer Science

expressiveintelligencestudio UC Santa Cruz

Computation is shaping every discipline’s work

— including arts & humanities


Arts work done faster

?


Humanities work done faster


But doing existing work fasteris just scratching the surface


Fundamentally new approaches

+

+

=Bioinformatics

=Computational

Media


Computational Media at UC Santa Cruz


Big data @ Santa Cruz

EISBot

WoWSpyder


Content and rule generation @ Santa Cruz

Polymorph

VariationsForever


Authoring tools @ Santa Cruz

Story Canvas

Tanagra


How do we get truly interactive stories?

A deep, unsolved question

Why aren’t computer games already there?


Failures and fantasies


In 50 years, why haven’t games done it?

Spacewar! Mass Effect

This looks like an interactive movie. So why is the ship the only place you can have a personal conversation?


Humanities-style interpretation of the

media surface can be confusing

Software studies

Interpretation of the media-making processes is revealing


Logics of Spacewar! and Mass Effect The world —

physics and collision detection

Combat — world, projectiles, tactics

Character and story — basically CYOA

At the deep system level, not the leap we seek


What about The Sims?


What about The Sims?

No event specifics live on, no history & no story

All actions atomic — no connections, no telling

Almost everything stored as numbers

Focus on getting and maintaining


... and so we’ve identifiedsome key challenges


Playable models of character and social relations Recording, accounting for, and referring to an

ongoing gameplay-determined history Plots with meaningful player choice, authorial

control, and tractable creation Dialogue systems that account for current state

of characters, relationships, and plot — without hand-authoring each version

All require using how fictions communicate, and are authored, to design technical systems

Key challenges for deep game fictions


Two projects addressingthese challenges


First project:“Comme il Faut” and The

PromWith Josh McCoy°, Mike Treanor°*,

Ben Samuel°*, Aaron Reed*, Kathleen Kralowec*, Ryan Andonian°, Michael Mateas°

(*Arts °Engineering)


Taking on the challenge of character and social “physics”

Social games change social state Played differently depending on

character personality, current state, relations with other characters, cultural knowledge, and specifics of history

Social games refer to past events and record new events

“Comme il Faut” and The Prom


Debbie and Edward’s Angry Breakup


Why would Debbie want to break up with Edward?

She has the character trait of jealous

Her sense of romance is low with him

He did something that could be cheating

And possibly many more reasons…


The Social Facts Database


Initiator’s Volition via Influence Rules

For:Responder cheated on InitiatorResponder cheated on Initiator with a friendInitiator is has low confidence

Against:Initiator is a cheaterInitiator is not confidentResponder is aggressiveInitiator thinks Responder is really cool


Initiator’s Volition via Influence Rules

For:Cheat(Responder) and Dating(Responder,Other) +20Cheat(Responder) and Dating(Responder,Other) and

Friend(Initiator, Other) +20~Trait(Initiator, Confidence) +20 Against:Status(Cheat, Initiator) -20~Trait(Initiator, Confidence) -20 Trait(Responder, Aggressive) -10Cool(Initiator, Responder) > 70 -15


Responder’s Reaction

For:Responder is inarticulate

Initiator did something bad to responder in the past

Responder is a pacifistAgainst:

Responder is domineeringResponder has strong romantic

feelings for Initiator


Responder’s Reaction

For:Trait(Responder, inarticulate) +20

Trait(Responder, Pacifist) +10SFDB(Negative, Initiator, Responder)+20

Against:Trait(Responder, Domineering) -10

Romance(Responder, Initiator) > 60 -20


Choosing an Outcome

Reject:Flavorless:

romance/buddy down

Karen has low confidence:

Accept:Flavorless:

Robert is a pacifist:

expressiveintelligencestudio UC Santa Cruzexpressiveintelligencestudio UC Santa Cruz

CiF’s Flow: Social Game Play


Second project: SpyFeet With Aaron Reed*, Ben Samuel°*,

Anne Sullivan°, April Grow°, Jennifer Mahal*, Ricky Grant°, Sri Kurniawan°, Lyn Walker°

(*Arts °Engineering)


Taking on challenges of dynamic plot progression and dialogue generation

A discovery plot, though information can be discovered by multiple means and in multiple orders

Developing affinity with some characters, changing some character relationships, and playing outside!

Groundwork for generating dialogue specific to personality, information state, and relationship to character

SpyFeet


Playing the game

Choose a journey — has a type of movement (seek, evade, enclose) and a game goal (meeting a new character, gathering energy)

Speak to characters — about any information the player knows

Say we ask turtle why drivers have been acting suspiciously


Plot Point Definition File

Information conveyed, precondition information, types of characters that have information, etc

We ask about

Turtleis a

We learn

Openspossibility

From animalsthat are

Turtle suggests we seek someone sharp eared


Presenting options to the player

We might go back to a sharp-eared character, or seek new

We might decide to pursue other leads, with turtle or others

We might take on a journey to deepen our relationship with turtle, or another character

Importance filters

GrailGM filter

Informant filter

World StatePlayer State

All possible quests

All sensical quests

All interesting quests

SpyFeet

Checks pre-conditions on quests to see what quests are possible

Checks NPCs and items involved for importance to

storyline and player

Checks quests against author goals and desired story development arc, picks best match and informs game


Generating dialogue to match play

Human-authored utterances become Deep Syntactic Structure (DSyntS) representations

RPG-specific dictionary Character personality files,

three levels of friendship First version will be

evaluated later this year


Through these and other projects

we are approaching the field’s grand challenges


Combining CS with arts & humanities opens powerful

possibilities for our century’s defining new medium

Thanks! [email protected]

expressiveintelligencestudio noah wardrip-fruin computational media toward deeper interdisciplinary...

Documents

uc santa cruzbig data

social physicssocial

disciplines work

existing work

havent games

arts humanitiesarts

character personality

challenge of character