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

[Michael Sellers]

Robert Zubek wrote:
> From: Michael Sellers

>> 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.

> Speaking of which...

> I'm working on believable social characters right now - building a
> system that participates robustly in real social interactions via
> natural English text. Unlike chatterbots (Eliza, Alice, etc.), it
> actually contains knowledge of the long-term structure of human
> interactions; it tries to make the conversation coherent in the
> long term. And it concentrates on the more pragmatics-heavy kinds
> of interactions.

Full disclosure: we are working (with DARPA funding) on believable
('psychosocially plausible') characters as well; I wasn't entirely
spouting hot air up above.

Interesting paper -- we're taking a broader and more longitudinal
approach, and aren't attacking the dialogue problems you're focusing
on.  I think we may be seeing some convergence in overall
architectures though.

I'm hoping to make it to the AAAI workshop; we should chat there,
Robert!

Mike Sellers
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