Generating a Dynamic Gaming Environment Using OMCS David Gottlieb and Josh Juster davegot@mit, jjust@mit

1. Generating a Dynamic Gaming Environment Using OMCS David Gottlieb and Josh Juster davegot@mit.edu, jjust@mit.edu

2. What is OMAdventure? • OMAdventure is a game in which a player navigates around a world in order to find a goal item. • Unlike traditional games, there are no set boundaries. The world is created on-the-fly using the OpenMind database and Altavista’s image search engine. • OMAdventure is also a new method for inputting knowledge into the OpenMind database.

3. How it works • When a player enters a new location, it’s neighbors, parent location, and objects are automatically generated. • When the game begins, the player is given a goal item. The player must then navigate through the world until the item is found.

4. Magic • At any point in the game, the player can choose to use magic in order to an add object to the room and transport to a new place. Obviously, the player cannot transport directly to the goal. • The Magic feature enables players to add new information to the OpenMind database. • When using magic, players are asked a simple common sense question. The program then generates a sentence which can later be added to OpenMind. This additional knowledge is stored and applied in future games.

5. OMAdventure Applications • A unique approach to gaming—unlimited paths to choose from can loosely translate to the common sense thinking that goes on in the mind • A fun and effective way to enter common sense knowledge into a database • A more advanced version could be used for entertainment purposes

6. Future Work • Cause/Effect • Better filtering (possibly using WordNet however our first attempt at this approach was unsuccessful due its the limited common sense vocabulary) • More ways to add Common Sense to OpenMind

7. Acknowledements Henry Lieberman Hugo Liu Push Singh