Building a Dynamic Social Community with Non Playable Characters

Justin PERRIE; Ling LI

doi:10.1587/transinf.E97.D.1965

Building a Dynamic Social Community with Non Playable Characters

Justin PERRIE, Ling LI

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A challenge faced by the video game industry is to develop believable and more intelligent Non-Playable Characters (NPCs). To tackle this problem a low-cost and simple approach has been proposed in this research, which is the development of a gossip virtual social network for NPCs. The network allows simple individual NPCs to communicate their knowledge amongst themselves. The communication within this social network is governed by social-psychological rules. These rules are categorized into four types: Contact, whether the NPC are within a contactable range of each other; Observation, whether the NPCs actually want to talk to each other based on their personal traits; Status, the current representation of the NPCs; and Relationships which determines the long term ties of the NPCs. Evaluations of the proposed gossip virtual social network was conducted, both through statistical analysis and a survey of real users. Highly satisfactory results have been achieved.

Publication: IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information Vol.E97-D No.8 pp.1965-1973

Publication Date: 2014/08/01

Publicized

Online ISSN: 1745-1361

DOI: 10.1587/transinf.E97.D.1965

Type of Manuscript: Special Section PAPER (Special Section on Cyberworlds)

Category: Social Networks

Authors

Justin PERRIE
Theoretical Game Development
Ling LI
Curtin University

Keyword

Intelligent NPCs, Gossip Virtual Social Networks, social-psychological rules

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Justin PERRIE, Ling LI, "Building a Dynamic Social Community with Non Playable Characters" in IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information, vol. E97-D, no. 8, pp. 1965-1973, August 2014, doi: 10.1587/transinf.E97.D.1965.
Abstract: A challenge faced by the video game industry is to develop believable and more intelligent Non-Playable Characters (NPCs). To tackle this problem a low-cost and simple approach has been proposed in this research, which is the development of a gossip virtual social network for NPCs. The network allows simple individual NPCs to communicate their knowledge amongst themselves. The communication within this social network is governed by social-psychological rules. These rules are categorized into four types: Contact, whether the NPC are within a contactable range of each other; Observation, whether the NPCs actually want to talk to each other based on their personal traits; Status, the current representation of the NPCs; and Relationships which determines the long term ties of the NPCs. Evaluations of the proposed gossip virtual social network was conducted, both through statistical analysis and a survey of real users. Highly satisfactory results have been achieved.
URL: https://globals.ieice.org/en_transactions/information/10.1587/transinf.E97.D.1965/_p

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@ARTICLE{e97-d_8_1965,
author={Justin PERRIE, Ling LI, },
journal={IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information},
title={Building a Dynamic Social Community with Non Playable Characters},
year={2014},
volume={E97-D},
number={8},
pages={1965-1973},
abstract={A challenge faced by the video game industry is to develop believable and more intelligent Non-Playable Characters (NPCs). To tackle this problem a low-cost and simple approach has been proposed in this research, which is the development of a gossip virtual social network for NPCs. The network allows simple individual NPCs to communicate their knowledge amongst themselves. The communication within this social network is governed by social-psychological rules. These rules are categorized into four types: Contact, whether the NPC are within a contactable range of each other; Observation, whether the NPCs actually want to talk to each other based on their personal traits; Status, the current representation of the NPCs; and Relationships which determines the long term ties of the NPCs. Evaluations of the proposed gossip virtual social network was conducted, both through statistical analysis and a survey of real users. Highly satisfactory results have been achieved.},
keywords={},
doi={10.1587/transinf.E97.D.1965},
ISSN={1745-1361},
month={August},}

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TY - JOUR
TI - Building a Dynamic Social Community with Non Playable Characters
T2 - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information
SP - 1965
EP - 1973
AU - Justin PERRIE
AU - Ling LI
PY - 2014
DO - 10.1587/transinf.E97.D.1965
JO - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information
SN - 1745-1361
VL - E97-D
IS - 8
JA - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information
Y1 - August 2014
AB - A challenge faced by the video game industry is to develop believable and more intelligent Non-Playable Characters (NPCs). To tackle this problem a low-cost and simple approach has been proposed in this research, which is the development of a gossip virtual social network for NPCs. The network allows simple individual NPCs to communicate their knowledge amongst themselves. The communication within this social network is governed by social-psychological rules. These rules are categorized into four types: Contact, whether the NPC are within a contactable range of each other; Observation, whether the NPCs actually want to talk to each other based on their personal traits; Status, the current representation of the NPCs; and Relationships which determines the long term ties of the NPCs. Evaluations of the proposed gossip virtual social network was conducted, both through statistical analysis and a survey of real users. Highly satisfactory results have been achieved.
ER -