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

[Amanda Walker]

On May 26, 2004, at 10:58 PM, J C Lawrence wrote:

> There's a considerable different in the environment that Disney
> character actors operate in and the environment in our games.  The
> salient difference is probably the disinhibiting aspects of VR,
> not as regards the pseudo-NPC to the players, but the players to
> each other and to the pseudo-NPC.

True.  On the other hand, I wonder if that's not what we're talking
about.  How is that disinhibition related to immersiveness?

Virtual contexts are not always the wild west in terms of behavior.
If the world is no longer made out of teflon-plated adamantium, and
NPCs are no longer vending machines I drag, behavior will have more
consequences.  My example of an armorer's guild touches on this.
Get an armorer ticked off at you, and you may find you can't buy
armor.  Another aspect is that if NPCs are game employees, there's a
big dynamic shift from "nobody's watching" to "everyone's watching."
I think this is a factor at amusement parks: the cotton candy vendor
may be being paid a pittance, and may give free candy to her school
buddies, but if trouble develops she's got a walkie talkie that can
summon security on a moment's notice.

The other factor that amusement parks can use as leverage is access
control.  You make too much trouble, you don't get to play.  Right
now, game companies have to use this with a light touch because they
can't observe everything.  With a larger network of human observers,
this could change.

> And best of all, all of this is expressed and endlessly reinforced
> by the entire structure of the theme park from the smiling
> tickets-takers at the gate, to the flags along the walkways as you
> leave, and the behaviour of every other patron and guest you see
> while there.  Those structures can't be as well relied on in
> virtual environments.

Then perhaps this is an area for some active research.

> Its probably possible, but I suspect it would require an
> astounding effort in terms of social engineering of the space,
> social context, and individual feedback loops for the players.

But if we expect virtual worlds to be anything more than playpens,
it's got to happen one way or another.

How to do this is, of course, a tough nut to crack.

Amanda Walker
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