[MUD-Dev] believable NPCs (was Natural Language Generation)

[Michael Sellers]

Eric Rhea wrote:

>   In my own view, realistic NPCs get in the way of actual
>   gameplay. NPCs armed with Natural Language like apps remind me
>   of telemarketers. They aren't your friends, they respond within
>   a scripted range, and they suck.

I think maybe you're conflating a couple of different issues.  One
is natural language generation -- being able to interact with an NPC
in a fairly natural form -- and the other is realistic (better, I
think, is "believable") non-player characters.  As the various
chatterbots show, the ability to talk without doing so *believably*
ruins the effect.

IMO, looking at this as a NLP/NLG problem is very much like
confusing grammar with semantics.  "Green ideas sleep furiously" is
a grammatically correct sentence, but one without meaning; someone
who utters that in conversation isn't believably intelligent.  In
the same way, NPCs that can converse freely but without significant
semantic content are hardly believable -- and it's these that get in
the way of gameplay, as you say; they quickly remind you that you're
not really interacting with a world, but with a shallow stupid
program.

Believable characters OTOH -- with or without NLG -- will make
gameplay much more immersive and consequential.  Imagine asking a
tavern keeper NPC for info on where to buy good weapons.  Consider
how his responses might differ based on whether he's seen you
before, whether you tipped well last time, whether and how he's
heard other NPCs (and PCs) talk about you, and, say, whether he
heard you were flirting heavily with the blacksmith's daughter (whom
he happens to be in love with), or were the one to save her from
ruffians.  This goes way beyond script- or knowledge-based
responses, but provides much more interesting player-related context
for even the simplest menu-driven interactions.

Mike Sellers
Online Alchemy
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