1 / 34

Marlinspike: The effects of story event threading on an interactive drama

Marlinspike: The effects of story event threading on an interactive drama. A CIS Dissertation Proposal by Zach Tomaszewski 16 Jan 2008 http://www2.hawaii.edu/~ztomasze/argax/. Three Phases. 1) Marlinspike and experimental design approved

cahil
Download Presentation

Marlinspike: The effects of story event threading on an interactive drama

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Marlinspike: The effects of story event threading on an interactive drama A CIS Dissertation Proposal by Zach Tomaszewski 16 Jan 2008 http://www2.hawaii.edu/~ztomasze/argax/

  2. Three Phases 1) Marlinspike and experimental design approved 2) Marlinspike implemented (details filled in); experiment pilot-tested 3) Experiment executed; final results/defense.

  3. Personal: How I got here Fall 2002: Started CIS program (considering WWW conceptual metaphors)‏ Got into RPGs (GURPS)‏ Fall 2003: Interactive Narrative class (Kim Binsted)‏ Web metaphor idea goes cold Fall 2004: Narrative Game Design (ACM/Kaveh Kardan)‏ Deeper into RPGs (D&D)‏ CIS required courses completed Spring 2005: 699 with Kim (Foundations: Aristotle, Freytag, Laurel, Meadows)‏

  4. Personal: How I got here (2)‏ Fall 2005: 699 with Kim (Review of ID projects)‏ ENG760j: Narration in Fiction and Film Spring 2006: 699 with Kim (First paper: Poetics; starting Eudaemon design)‏ ENG394: Digital Literature (Zuern)‏ Fall 2006: 699 with Kim (Eudamon design)‏ All CIS exams completed. Spring 2007: 699 with Kim (Eudaemon design leads to second paper: Limitations of Propp; starting Marlinspike design)‏ Fall 2007: 699 with Kim (Third paper: Marlinspike; proposal completed)‏

  5. Definitions Interactive narrative A story that changes in response to its reader Interactive drama Player assumes the role of a character in a virtual world Player's interactions with that world become part of a well-formed story Story generated at run-time rather than completely pre-authored Generally: digital, believable characters, focus on social interaction (over combat and problem solving)‏

  6. Existing Interactive Narratives Non-digital Traditional narratives (in a limited way)‏ Roleplaying games CYOA and gamebooks Improv Digital Story-based computer games (IF, adventure, RPG, FPS, MMORPG, sim)‏ Digital media (Flash, hypertext novels, digital lit)‏

  7. Motivations AI challenge (narrative intelligence)‏ New gaming market ($$$)‏ Education/training applications A new creative form: exploring Self rather than Other.

  8. Theory: Interactive Narrative Poetics What is the nature of narrative, particularly with an eye to interaction? Such a model already exists in AI literature: Mateas, from Laurel, from Smiley, from Aristotle. Each stage of evolution has added some new feature. Yet model also contains a number of tensions and oversights that could perhaps be resolved.

  9. Aristotle's Poetics Art, such as drama, has 3 parts: Object: an "imitation of men in action" Plot, Character, Thought Medium: means by which the object is conveyed Diction, Song Manner: how the object is presented Drama can be narrated (told) or enacted (performed)‏ Spectacle

  10. Smiley's Playwriting (1971)‏ • Takes Aristotle's parts of drama in order of importance • Adds Aristotelian concept of formal and material causes

  11. Laurel's Computers as Theatre (1991)‏ • Applies the poetics to computer-based drama • Renames levels in attempt to meet demands of formal & material causes

  12. Mateas's "Preliminary Poetics" (2004)‏ • Adds Janet Murray's sense of user Agency (defined here as a balance of affordances and constraints)‏

  13. Problems Loss of manner Poor/no distinction between object and medium Does not include drama world objects (props, setting, etc)‏ Exclusivity of causal hierarchy, which requires constructions of a level only in terms of the level immediately below it, causes certain tensions (ie, characters only formed of thought, all language must convey thought)‏

  14. Reformulation (1)‏ • Returned to distinction between object and medium

  15. Reformulation (2)‏ • Included most of the existing levels, but in a way that adheres to the causal requirements

  16. Reformulation (3)‏ • The return of manner to the model means it can apply to other forms of IN besides ID

  17. Benefits of new poetics Includes most of the definitions of existing model, but without most of the tensions Describes other forms of interactive narrative (depending on level at which user interaction occurs). Closely matches actual implementation architectures (drama manager, characters, world environment, presentation interface)‏ Allows for discussion of medium-specific details

  18. Further encouragement: Narratology parallels Chatman's model of narrative:

  19. Interactive Drama: Player assumes the role of a character in a virtual world Player's interactions with that world become part of a well-formed story Story generated at run-time rather than completely pre-authored Directed: System includes a centralized drama manager capable of directing the story Emergent: Story arises from interaction with autonomous agents or rules of the story world Theory II: Interactive Drama [The Missing Chapter]

  20. The model again: Player immersed in story world (setting + characters)‏ Player actions provide material for story; story formally guides player Agency: constraints of story and affordances of world are balanced (Mateas)‏ Marlinspike Architecture

  21. Setting: Props and locations Characters: Bundles of conversation and attributes (affinity, morality)‏ No behaviors of their own (puppets of DM)‏ Story World

  22. Verbs: actions player can perform in the story world Example verbs: take, drop, talk, attack, kiss Verbs affect world state World-level interaction: Verbs

  23. Actions: translated from verbs by default rules Example actions: MANIPULATE, ASSAULT, ROMANCE, RESCUE Translation can be affected by world state: kiss(Alice) ->ROMANCE(Alice) or ASSAULT(Alice)‏ Translation can be overridden by story context: kiss(Alice) ->RESCUE(Alice)‏ Actions can also affect world state Each action has import value Story-level interaction: Actions

  24. Pre-authored collection, each with preconditions. Some have template details to be filled in at runtime (such as roles). Advance story, affect world state, set up story context (triggers) for later verb-action translations DM response: Scenes

  25. Complete: Story has a beginning, middle, and end. Each Marlinspike scene is tagged as one of these Unified: Story is whole when no part can be removed without leaving the remainder disjointed and disturbed. That is, every part (event) is necessary. Good Story Structure (from Aristotle, Freytag, Propp, & Chatman)‏

  26. Thread: series of events connected by necessity Necessity in Marlinspike: ACTION –(precondition)—> SCENE SCENE –(story context)—> ACTION Actions of high import need to be reincorporated into a thread. DM selects next scene that extends and splices together the most threads. Connecting events: Threads

  27. Verbs and Actions

  28. Reincorporates user actions of high import to make them necessary to the story Scenes and Threads

  29. Contributions • Integrates verb-based approach (Crawford 2004) with scene-based approach (Grasbon & Braun 2001, Mateas & Stern 2002, Tomaszewski & Binsted 2007)‏ • User flexibility but still strong story structure. • User actions are story atoms at the same level as scenes.

  30. Prototype Game • Demeter: Blood in the Sky • Basically, vampires on a zeppelin • Text-based, using IF platform Inform • Story world: 8 characters; about 15 locations. • Expected needs: 50 verbs, 30 actions, 60 scenes to tell a story 20 scenes / 30 minutes long. • 4 to 6 months to implement (along with Marlinspike)‏

  31. Evaluation Design • Claim: Threading will produce a better interactive narrative experience • Narrative –> well-formed (unified and complete) story structure(B/M/E scenes, number of threads, number of threads dropped)‏ • Interactivity –> story-level agency(number of dropped actions, variety and frequency of actions)‏ • Experience –> player response(reported perception of story structure and agency)‏

  32. Experimental Design • Marlinspike selects scenes first on what can be played • Then it selects from this set the scene that splices the most threads together • This second selection stage can be turned on and off. • Generated baseline cases: "agreeable" (author) and "disagreeable" (inactive, random, obtuse) players to test performance in extreme cases.

  33. Experimental Design (2)‏ • Subjects will first provide their computer and roleplaying game experience • They will then play through the prototype game twice—once with threading on and once off. • After each session, they will report their experience of story structure and agency (and satisfaction). • From the transcript of their session, a map of their story's threads will provide measures of story structure and agency.

  34. Zach Tomaszewski ztomasze@hawaii.edu http://zach.tomaszewski.name/argax/ Questions or Comments?

More Related