Social Dynamics Of Non-playable Character's And Their Emergent Behaviors

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NPC Social Dynamics as Emergent Behavior By Redgie Mercado Professor Monica Evans December 07, 2009

OVERVIEW

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It is commonly cited in psychology and sociology textbooks that the majority of our interaction in the real world is through non verbal communication. Though much of our conscious effort goes into verbal communication, many times the non verbal communication aspects shape the group characteristics. The social dynamic between two people are significantly different from the dynamic between 3 or more people and in the case of interaction, people act quite differently. In the advent of ever more sophisticated video games, worlds that live and breathe are in demand. Video games progress in true/false trees. How can video games successfully simulate a dynamic that pushes past simple dichotomies and create nuance in NPCs? ("PsyBlog"; Matulef) Digital signals require a large amount of data in order to represent nuances. Due to its nature in binary information, every choice must be a “0” or a”1” in order to represent a wide gamut of results. If the results are not detailed enough, only another set of “0”s or “1”s can represent them. Much of communication done in video games relies on overtly mechanical features, such as dialogue trees and statistical damage and removal of morality points that do not realistically match real life. In reality, the brain processes a huge array of information that is sent from the five senses. Can they be successfully “compressed” when digitally converted, but still effectively communicate the desired psychological effect on the immersion experience? If such a system is buildable, can the effective digital

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quantification of psychological traits be used to build increasingly complex artificial intelligence so a standalone social dynamic can exist? This research document will analyze the level of immersion demanded in video games and the theories that create immersion. Then it will examine games that immerse players in context of these theories. And finally it will examine the relationship player agents have among NPCs and the relationships NPC’s can have between themselves.

JUSTIFICATION: Immersion, according to Steve Woyach “is the process by which a media element entices a person to suspend their disbelief and accept what they are viewing on a screen or page as actual reality. Through non-linear dramatic elements and interaction between the player and the computer, a video game achieves a level of reality that demands very little suspension of disbelief and is therefore a more compelling experience.” (Woyach). In this article he asks whether art is about imitating life, and asks what it really means to suspend disbelief. It is established that modern video games take little effort to achieve a suspension of disbelief. However, when video games imitate the nuances of real life, only then will video games reach the pinnacle of technology. Video games simulations exploit this by representing mechanical situations like flying a fighter jet in a military installment. They

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incorporate the real controls into an interface and control scheme that is often indistinguishable from actual aviation equipment. However, how could a video game designer take psychological factors and incorporate it into video game characters in a more meaningful way? Even though technology is ever growing, emergent game play in terms of creating a living social dynamic among non player characters is young. Many times, video games will employ hard coded systems in order to direct conversation trees and use scripts and game events to progress the game. And in many times, the only source of story progression in through the use of simple dialogues trees. Video gamers are tired of relying only on the exhaustion of options in dialogue trees. (Matulef) Flow Theory In Terms of Immersion Flow theory state the usefulness of intense complete immersion in any environment that is conducive to learning and interaction. This is especially true for the video game experience. If the player is engaged in the natural flow of the activity then their learning and enjoyment is enhanced. In flow theory, the skill level is associated with the challenge level. In simple terms, the optimum amount of challenge versus the skill level will increase the flow of learning. Flow theory consists of 9 parts, utilizing clear goals, concentration, a loss of self consciousness, distorted sense of time, direct instant feedback, balance between the level and challenge, a sense of personal control over the activity, intrinsic rewards and action awareness

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merging. As it is said by Csíkszentmihályi, not all of the 9 tenets are needed for flow. Sophisticated non playable characters give rise to a few of these tenets. (Butler-Bowdon) Presentation of goals can be clearer since sophisticated NPCs would give off more information that would make the player that much more aware of the goals needed. The loss of the feeling of self-consciousness incorporates the action i.e. the goal and the awareness. The player’s will to complete the goal, when merged also leads to clearer goals, and more importantly concentration. This affect on concentration could possibly result in intensified communication in evolved NPCs. Since concentration and goals are clear in mind, a distorted sense of time is another consequence. Intense concentration and flow lead to a natural dilation where the player becomes unaware of the time that’s passed. This in effect allows the player to be exposed to more than they think they have been exposed to, and thus increases learning opportunities while naturalizing the player to the experience. The last two state that direct and immediate feedback and the sense of personal control are also important for immersion. Evolved, personality infused non playable characters increases the chances for immediate feedback, and at the same time increases personal control. If a video game took advantage of these components of flow theory, a player who offends an NPC can expect to receive that feedback in a form of non verbal

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communication, through gestures or facial reactions. This is unlike the typical mechanical solution of decreasing player karma, negatively affecting the player in some sort of arbitrary way. It is in the same way that personal control affects player immersion. Instead of dialogue trees, the more organic solution allows the NPCs and player to interact in a more organic fashion. (Butler-Bowdon) Building towards Immersion Throughout the history of video games, many designers realized the need for video games to communicate feeling to the player. In “The Art and Science of Synthetic Character Design” Kline posits that dynamic characters can be built with complex characters in terms of mathematical functions that can programmed into a system. Though the system is complex, the main drive for creating such a system stems from the belief in traditional animation that the characters should communicate, through motions, gestures, and facial expressions the very desires of their inner being. (Kline, and Blumberg) As rational agents, NPC intentions can be gleaned from the very actions they produce. Kline and Blumberg’s study breaks down dynamic characters in to four terms; motivation drives, emotions, perception and action selection. Motivation drives are defined as the bias towards a certain behavior. Though motivation drives may be affected dynamically through the

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environment, like in the event of danger, the NPC with a motivation drive will flee the scene but return to do its preferred activity. Emotions in terms of external manifestations come from the movement, stance, and general attitude of NPCs. In contrast to motivational drives, emotion is a sudden change in the behavior of the NPC compared to the larger time span attributed to motivation drives. With perception and action selection, the last two values affect each other. Perception information relates reaction information to motivation drives and emotion. However, the sensory information involved with perception dictates the selection of action. Though all three other factors can rise through the direct link from sensory perception, the nuance in action selection provides the NPC with fine tuned control over the situation. If the initial motivation drives and emotion are not enough to give the NPC desire and goal fulfillment then action selection fine tunes the appropriate reaction until the appropriate goal is achieved.

Video Games Examples Many games are starting to push the envelope towards non player character and player character interactions. The theory of “Avatar-centric Communication” relies very much on the same principles discussed in the

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previous section. Instead of the focus on NPCs, avatar centric communication focuses more on the player character’s communication and what they mean to the player. (“Patent Storm”) In the two games that Team ICO made, the philosophy oftheir development team is apparent in their treatment of NPC and player characters. In an interview with Fumito Ueda he said “We opted for a theme full of character. We have learned much about AI thanks to the our work on ICO, and we then explored how different things and characters can interact with each other in Shadow of the Colossus. With The Last Guardian, we’re taking these two facets of gameplay, combining them together and bringing them to a whole new level, allowing us to create a truly living and breathing world, even surpassing our first two games.” (“PS3Blog.net”) In discussing the Last Guardian, Ueda stressed the two previous game’s interaction and AI. Shadow of the Colossus and the more obscure title, ICO created a sense of deep characterization communicated through the intentional action of the player character. In Nick Fortunugo’s essay, he says that Wander, the protagonist in Shadow of the Colossus, moves and sounds desperate. Wander shouts at his horse with harshness and desperation to help him. When he moves, he pants, almost constantly tired albeit determined. In animations, Wander runs awkwardly and suffers blows uncomfortably. In fact, if Wander is hit hard, he goes down, and does not get back up for a worrying amount of time. (Davidson)

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In Ico, Charles Herold’s informal essay discusses Yorda’s relationship with Ico, especially the subtle movements and gestures between the two that turned into powerful non verbal communication for the player. Ico is a small boy, and as a result moves around just a like a small boy. When he swings his stick, he does so awkwardly, and does it with lumbering force. Yorda is defenseless, and acts on her own if the player leaves her alone. Most of the time, the player must take care of Yorda. This practice is stretched over the entirety of the game and thus the player in consequence develops attachment. Herold states that the prolonged involvement and worrisome behavior of Yorda becomes the focus of the player’s immersion and interaction with the medium. (Davidson) These games push the envelope when it comes to invoking natural psychological triggers in the human psyche. With Team ICO it seems that NPC and PC interactions are evolving. However in terms of NPC to NPC social dynamics, the communication within game is lacking compared to the interaction NPC has to the player. In games like Oblivion and more recently Fallout 3, Radiant AI has been the focus on big game companies like Bethesda in order to boost realism in video game worlds. Radiant AI incorporates movements, actions and pathfinding in terms of the motivation drives. Radiant AI works to a certain degree at full implementation due to the fact that only motivations are implemented at its design. In an insert on Bethesda’s Fallout 3 panel at E3, Kotaku talked about some of the most pertinent questions concerning

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Radiant AI in Fallout 3. “In terms of the NPCs traveling around, many travel around town, and some travel the wasteland. There are a few caravans in the game that go from town to town trading. Radiant AI handles something like that really well.” (The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, 2006; Fallout 3, 2008; Kotaku) It seems that Radiant AI has the ability to provide scheduled NPC interaction at high levels of success. However most of their system carries over from Oblivion. The only functions they added were the purely aesthetic presentation in NPC actions like leaning on a wall to wait around for the next event. Bethesda admitted that they had to reduce the amount Radiant AI persisting through the world, since many times NPCs will flee from the player character if the NPC is outmatched or outgunned. Radiant AI still has holes primarily from the fact that they do not incorporate more complex structures such as stated in the Kline and Blumberg’s research document. Expected Treatment of Digital Characters In the abstract of Byron Reeves and Clifford Nass’ book The Media Equation they reveal that people, as agents of control, react and treat digital media like they would treat real social events. They state the anything from movements of facial features on a monitor, to female and male voices sway human psychological interaction in much of the same way as the real thing. The concept suggests that human brains have not evolved to filter out computer and media formats as false sense of information. Hence immersion within the video games can happen in the first place. (Reeves, and Nass)

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Human beings have the ability to suspend disbelief, to have diligent concentration in an activity and activate the components of flow theory. However, there are disconnects that can happen in between that sway our suspension and hence break down all the positive forces that aid our desire and goal for the activity. But in the relationship humans form with media formats, and the expectations they have from the relationships, it would be prudent if the combination of positive immersion forces through highly evolved socially dynamic NPCs, and the player’s expectations to form relationships be melded together in order to maximize the immersion experience. In this way, the player can have a ever deeper immersion experience that brings the game world into another level. (Reeves, and Nass)

BEYOND THE VISUAL: THE ACTIVE AGENT AND THE IN-GAME CHARACTERS How then can the player become totally engrossed in the experience afforded by the highly evolved non-player character? By analyzing certain psychological factors within human interactions, the player or the active agent can absorb the emotional and social cues given by the NPCs in the same way they do in real life. In the analyzing the pure aesthetic design we can see that many things apply to the game character design that would trigger these responses. If it is used correctly, the right message will be sent through the aestheticism of the character itself. Though the pure aesthetic makes it way through many games, it is still worth mentioning because of

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how it primes the stage for the evolution of personality in non-player characters that are beyond the visual. And in many ways already this is being incorporated through dialogue and other things much like in the game Mass Effect, where trigger motions are used in order to make the dialogue more reaction based, instead of the player actually having to analyze each game choice dialogue and choosing the appropriate response reflecting the player’s wishes. (Mass Effect, 2007) Universals In Katherine Isbister’s book Better Game Characters by Design: A Psychological Approach she extensively details all the different factors that create game characters that appeal to human beings through psychology. While Isbister focuses on general game character design, the focus here is to create universals that foster immersion and social interaction among the game world NPCs. However some of her pointers apply. (Isbister) One of the point she mentions talks about the use of simple character relationships that everyone can relate to. This typically means relationships between family, friends, siblings, parent and son and love interests. There are games that display this sort of relationship of characters and attempts to emulate relationships it through game mechanics help player’s relate to them. The rest of the factors include testing the game among the target culture, removing any cultural references and being careful with the cultural references that are incorporated to the game’s design. (Isbister)

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Universals help players of all kind get into the game by openly identifying key moments in their own lives, and the associations formed create a sort of indirect bridge to their emotional center. However, how can one involve the player more so that players can go beyond the indirect approach of the pure aesthetic? For example take the model of the father and son. Failure in most games are hard coded to display a certain scripted event. Much like in many other games, in Katamari Damacy, winning advances the level and losing does not. Each condition is met with a scripted action be it a cut scene or simply the next level. However, the mechanics of winning and failure is one-dimensional. Though the player experiences failure, repeated failure takes on the same consequence. If somehow the King of All Cosmos would give out different punishment for the failure of his son, vary the reactions between failures or even cut off certain game world content until player’s were able to complete the level successfully, perhaps then the NPC would act more like a convincing father who guides the son i.e. the player into a right path into completing the game. As mentioned before with Ico, there is a possibility to make indirect associations to true pure visual aesthetic designs and easily incorporate it in to the game world in order to minimize any distractions to the suspension of disbelief. (Katmari Damacy, 2004) In a controversial game, Love Plus a popular dating simulation game for the Nintendo DS is an example of many where pure aesthetics in the universal sense capitalize on human behavior, namely the relationship

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between the two intimately engaged individuals. Dating simulations by nature play on human emotion and simulate the experience by multiple dialogue trees with several endings. It also features a time function that takes into account the player’s day cycle so wake/sleep cycles and meal times are synchronized. (Love Plus, 2009) While almost every game in this genre is an exercise in dialogue tree exhaustion, the difference here in Love Plus incorporates the use of the stylus, toting that the player can interact with the NPC by touching her, and thus the NPC will react dynamically to the player’s stimulus. This is one example of indirect associations have been expanded upon by the use of new technology to stimulate the player’s brain in such a successful way. In fact it is so successful that in many news sites there have been reports from various sources that show Love Plus to have sold at least 100,000 copies in Japan attesting to its popular among the male population. There are even reports that caused a media sensation where a man intends to marry his virtual girlfriend in Love Plus and has started the plans for the wedding ceremony. Certainly, this example is extreme, but it attests to the power universal themes have over people, and especially the ones who interact in increasingly immersive manners. (Love Plus, 2009)

Abstractions

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Screenshot from The Marriage. The blue and pink squares represent husband and wife and the circles all around represent the different things in life. (“The Marriage”)

Abstractions offer another way to make universally relatable characters in a method that attract the player into engaging immersion. Taking universals one step further, creating a metaphor for the player to engage in makes powerful plays towards their consciousness during their gaming experience. Metaphors can take on a variety of expressions. One of the most abstract explorations of NPCs is in Rob Humble’s The Marriage. Here, the player interacts with two squares, both blue and pink. Playing the game, the player sees a variety of bubbles that take away from the blue and pink squares. This abstraction in this case however is so extreme that the player must have it explained to them. In this sense, it fails, but once it is made clear, the metaphor for attraction and courtship is made clear. It is made obvious that the game represents a man and woman as they meet and go through their life story. At that point it becomes meaningful and possibly emotinal. Quoting Humble’s explanation he says “Your controls reveal the agency of the game. You are only capable of making the squares move

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towards each other at the same time or removing a circle by sacrificing the size of the pink square. You are playing the agency of Love trying to make the system of the marriage work. Not only does this mean that the mechanics of attraction and sacrifice communicate love but also the physical way the game is controlled”. Though it was personal to Humble the theme of marriage is universal. In this aspect it provides a very good example of how abstraction will lead to a universal theme that increases the player’s interaction with the game. (Humble) But how does this create a dynamic situation for the player to feel involved and immersed through psychological design? Though the NPCs are abstract, the themes communicated are dynamically created through the player’s agency, which is the most important part of the game. As the player goes on through the game, agency on abstract and universal nature of the man and wife plays at affecting the player’s emotion, and thus increasing immersion in a way that is not static and based on hard coded reaction. (Humble)

A screenshot from passage; the future to the far right is a blurry path. (“Passage”)

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In another game by Jason Rohrer, two similar games Passage and Gravitation explores life in a similarly metaphorical way. Agency and the control in this game are manipulated not only by the aesthetics of the player characters and the NPCs, but also by the mechanics of the game world. Though it may seem like a tangent, the mechanics are incorporated into the player character’s perception. The view of each game is an example of this. In Passage, the game is played with a horizontal bar across the screen. The player meets the girl and can be played by walking straight to the end of the level until the girl and the player character dies of old age. Immediately, one can see the metaphor in perceptual choice. As said by Rohrer, this is a game about life or more specifically a memento mori, journey from birth to death. The extremely wide perspective ratio emulates the lack of full perspective when moving through life. Going north and south changes the variables in life. Going south provides more opportunities to get more treasure or money, but often times, the search is fruitless, if not impossible. Go north and stay the easy route, and people see the world as it enfolds, amassing nothing, but reaching farther then anything. Once you choose your wife, you become less mobile, and cannot reach different treasures due to her. There is a timer counting your natural life, and the player character can either expire in the southern regions seeing nothing in life but money, or expire in the northern regions having close to nothing, but seeing everything. The first and last moments are the defining times in the game that move the metaphor into a whole new level. As the player character and the NPC move from the

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beginning of life to the end, the far right part of the screen is initially blurry indicating a uncertain future. But as the player proceeds and nears the end of his life, the end becomes clear, while the end becomes blurry. And eventually, the wife dies. Go on further and the eventually the player slows down and succumbs and instantly turns into a tombstone. (Rohrer)

Screenshots from Gravitation. As the player gets his high, his viewable screen gives him more to see and the land blooms in spring. But when he is down, his view becomes small, and the world turns to the dead of winter. (“Gravitation”)

In those final moments, the mechanics represented throughout the short experience emulated the social dynamics between the player character and the NPC concerning the mechanics in life. In much of the same way, Gravitation does the same thing. In Gravitation, the mechanics directly affect the players perception and serves as the abstraction of the agent and the player character’s own psychology. As the player goes up and gets more stars, he becomes more and more happy and thus expands the view of the player. This chronic depression becomes the pivot of the player as he tries to

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make the girl near the bottom happy. Games characters themselves do not have to be the sole source psychological factors. If game mechanics invisibly incorporate psychological aspects by combing character mechanics within the world, then it is possible to create a more meaningful relationship and thus model a social dynamic among NPCs. (Rohrer)

Gender Gender plays a specific function in social dynamics in video games, as a means of communication. While Universals and Abstractions can play with the lines between player character and the framework of the game, gender communicates more specifically on terms of pure aesthetic. Gender takes on the qualities of the universal but just like real people, NPCs have different types of communication that arise from their respective genders. Thus the separation is important, and depending on the male and female agent, their reaction to the NPC are coloured by all the possible combinations. Male and Female agents and their respective characters genders Males and females treat their player characters much like they would treat themselves in real life. For players who engage their respective gender in-game the tendency for males is to play aggressive roles and cater their game play to destructive types, thought obviously this is not always the case. With females, the tendency instead is to collaborate, and to be constructive instead of destructive. This is especially true with how females

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deal with other NPCs respective to themselves, regardless if they are male or female. Females also tend to create relationships more for the sake of the relationship and the intercommunication rather than something strictly for gain. When Males and females engage their own respective gender in-game it provides for them a way to play off their own attributes, and expand from there. The advantage here is that play styles, especially those supported by the game mechanics will foster strong communication between the player agent and the player characters and other NPCs, and thus increase the immersion factor to a great degree. (Isbister) Male and Female agents and their opposite respective characters According to Isbister, the majority of female NPCs appeal to the male gamer by visual appeal. Sexual curiosity becomes part of the drive to communicate with female characters. And in many ways, if the game allows it, the male agent will communicate to the female character in the way he believes is appropriate to treat her because of her gender. However male agents who have control of female player characters become a different goal. Sexual curiosity is still there, but it takes on another role, this time, in gender role-play. This allows the male player to explore or even nurture the inherent feminine traits the player. This gender based attraction goes both ways, and allows social interaction to flow in natural ways. Female agents may treat male NPCs differently. Just as they do in real life, females who are not actively engaged in the relationship can view male characters more like an attractive mentor with a less significant stress on

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sexual curiosity. In terms of players, many of the female gamers will have slightly reduced and different drives due to the differences in their brain and body chemistry. Androgenetic hormones, typically testosterone increase aggressiveness and sexual advances in men, but the severely reduced amounts in women influence their views on the NPCs. In the same way, female agents who play male player characters similarly, will have interest due to the more fluctuations of their particular body chemistry. In this game, it is less an appeal to the sexual curiosity involved with gender play, but rather the typical habits associated with testosterone like aggressive behaviours. (Isbister) Stance, Posing and Facial Expressions Taking into account all the different kinds of associations with male and female play types, gendered posing is defined by exhibiting the characteristics that socially cue the player agent and the general audience to the player character or NPC’s mental state. This is especially useful when trying to convey an idea. Using the different kinds of non verbal communication aspects of the human body, characters in video games can send signals that help the player immerse themselves instead of having flat affect from the characters they interact with. This instance of non verbal communication relies on the combination of pure aesthetics with movement of the body. While both genders have their own specific kinds of movement associated with their stance, the movements are all derivations of the same movement. For example, when

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males fold their arms, it can indicate presumption, contempt, a guarded stance or a mix of all three. However, it may be flavoured with masculine traits. Shoulders may also hunch up taking advantage of masculine traits in order to be more menacing or simply to punctuate the emotion and intent of the NPC. With females, if they do fold their arms, it may be accompanied instead by the cocking of their hips in order to intensify and colour their response. (Isbister) All this can be highlighted especially with Facial expressions. The expressions can intensify or nullify an action that otherwise be vague actions thus giving insight to the NPC’s feelings. In the previous examples, if the female folded her arms in contempt, cocked her hips, but had a comical expression on her face, the gesture could be taken as sarcastic, and not to be taken seriously. This highlights the fact that the combination of the preceding physical values goes very deeply into recognizing the true intended action for the player to perceive. (Isbister) First Impressions and Intention Though it is commonly known that first impressions are made within a 30 seconds to two minutes, recent studies have shown that first impressions are made within the “blink of an eye”. The blink effect states that the person thinks without thinking. Gathering all the information, experiences, stereotypes, associations that the aesthetic of the person exhibits the observer compares it to her past experiences and judges the person. (Heathfield)

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In terms of video games, the player character and NPCs can give way instantly to what kind of person they might be. This instantaneous decision results from the need to quickly analyze the situation and see if anything in the person’s social circle looks out of place. If anything is out of place, this blink effect helps fulfil the need for safety and essentially keeps the person, or the player out of trouble. Intention however, is better developed over the course of the time wherein the player actively or passively observes the NPC. The intentions come out after a while, and the player decides whether they want to approach the NPC and develop a relationship. With intention and first impressions culminating into a workable understanding on the player’s relationship with the player character and NPC, the next evolutionary step is to develop AI that allows the same level relationship among the NPCs themselves. The next section will discuss the social dynamics involved that take the concepts in between player agent and video game characters, and places them in the context of the game world.

ADVANCING AI THROUGH PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS Many of the problems that hinder advanced AI is the drives that analyze and set the tone the NPCs inhabit as they go on in their scripted actions. Setting a heavy preference for AI versus their scripted action can make the game play experience uncomfortable and in some instances actually keep the player from achieving their goal. Interestingly enough this

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can result in unpredicted actions and solutions as mentioned before in previous sections. However setting them back towards scripted action reduces the AI which reverts video games back to world mechanics done in previous games. The only different here is that NPCs seem to exhibit life like attributes but when manipulated by the player, NPC’s act unrealistically. In an article on 1UP.com Assassin’s Creed is known for crowd AI simulation. Though a majority of the game is about enemy AI and combat, the mechanics of crowd AI are still important. It is relevant in this game because Altair, the game’s protagonist takes time to weed through crowds and find his way to his assassination targets. As a hidden blade amongst the crowd, keeping minimal visibility is important. But in some of the more glaring examples of AI failure, Altair can quietly kill a member of society in the middle of the crowd. His animation is exaggerated, and the citizen falls down in a slow manner allowing ample time for Altair to walk away safely. However, depending on the suspicion state, doing the same act in the physically same manner can produce different results that can be inconsistent. If the player is not under suspicion, then the player is able to kill cleanly though movements would realistically trigger attention from NPC’s in close proximity. However if the player is under suspicion, simply bumping into the wrong person can trigger a full chase scene. Theoretically, if the artificial intelligence designers come up with sufficiently sophisticated systems, then AI would act dynamically and more realistically. In the 1UP.com article, it is mentioned Assassin’s Creed will

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have better crowd AI simulation simply because of the better processing and multiple thread handling capabilities programmed into the Xbox360 version of the game. In a way, if better programming and better hardware handling can result in better simulations in the current artificial intelligence technologies, then perhaps the amount of factors artificial intelligence programming takes in to account can be analyzed through psychological factors that make up the real social dynamic. (1UP.com) That is why there is such a need to advance beyond video game characters that only rely on visual, audio, or text styles to provide informational cues to the player. In the following sections, the different areas of social dynamics will be explored in terms of their components and their overall contribution to the relationships of NPCs, and what they mean in terms of mechanics. Temporal The study of time in terms of communication takes on a different meaning as the conversation carries on. As conversations are inherently dependent on time, non verbal communication happens in the roughly the same amount of time. It could even be argued that non verbal communication encapsulates or surrounds the time taken to engage in verbal communication. Temporal communication focuses mainly on delay and the concentration of the efforts in that time in order to foster communication Chronemics

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As an NPC goes from talking to silence, the pause in between those times is a form of non verbal communication. In this time, the delay in between the next time communication happens has an effect on the player who perceives it. In many ways, a long delay between speaking events can imply hesitance or awaiting an answer. However, short delays in speaking events can imply restlessness and impatience. Based solely on the silence in between a wide variety of emotions and mental states can be connoted. In Doering’s paper, the effect of chronemics in terms of SMS texts and text based services argues that even though mobile phone technology allows anytime, anywhere communication. Doering argues and provides research that shows perceptions are changed merely by the inclusion of a time stamp, aside from subjective perceptions in time. (Doering, and Poeschl) This argument can be expanded into the world of video games. Video game characters are separated by a virtual wall and the suspension of disbelief, but are still treated like human beings. The effects of NPC’s willingness to speak at different times can reflect their intentions. The silence in between can communicate volumes of information to the player. If a game utilized chronemics to a higher degree by implementing it into the mechanics or the dialogue sequences, the experience can become even more immersive by using silence like punctuation. As subtle as it would be, it would serve its purpose and draw the player in. (Reeves, and Nass) Not only does delay play a role in chronemics, but aspects such as speed of speech and the willingness of the listener to continue listening. In

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the same note, speed of speech can indicate something about the NPC’s personality. Rapid speech and short delays can form assumptions about an NPC that is in a hurry, or rather, has the personality that things should be done. An interesting situation a player can encounter during a dialogue, if the player takes too long to answer the NPC the NPC cuts them off and affects the choices the player has to choose from. The possibilities arising from the use of chronemics as a deeper game mechanic can expand the experience by mimicking certain real world personalities. Monochronics vs Polychronics The definition of monochronics and polychornics describe the way human beings perceive time. While monochronics are concerned about taking one thing at a time, and focusing the keeping or punctuality of time, polychronics are more interested in multi tasking and involving more people in their involvement in time. Apparently this distinction exists within cultures. Polychronic cultures include Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Mexico, Philippines, India and most of Europe while Monochronic cultures Germany, Canada, Switzerland, United States, and Scandinavia. (Hahn) The differences in the way NPCs treat time can be interpreted to the player as either something they are familiar with or not. Most Americans find time to be a tangible thing and the schedule is of the utmost importance while polychronic cultures will find time to focus on several things forgoing times importance for the welfare of the group. Though the concepts of monochronics and polychronics are typically associated with different

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cultures, the detection of each type of social dynamic is not limited to the person whose culture experiences it firsthand. The person can typically detect the differences in the social treatment of time and hence can adapt to the communities need. (Ross) The way these can be used successfully in games is to use the social group dynamic to exhibit cultural treatments of time in order to make the player feel the atmosphere. An urgent atmosphere can make the player, and other NPCs sense the goal within that certain community. This would be more successful in times where an aggressive play style is encouraged. While a polychronic social dynamic can be used to foster building, cooperation and essentially a less goal driven experience and more relationship based play style. Whatever the play style is encouraged, the implementation and treatment of time can add to the overall play experience. Visual In neuroscience, the common aspects of social dynamics can be formed from the combination of pure aesthetic and movements. Visual cues allow a community to focus goals and work together in a cohesive manner. Similarly the visual cues can also let the observer, like the player see the discord among the group in terms of social dynamics. Mirror Behaviour Its known among the neuroscience community that humans adapt easily to different situations by observing and copying the actions in their

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heads, even though it isn’t physically acted out. Mirror neurons help the person blend in with the community at the appropriate time. This leads to mirror behaviour, where it could be used when NPCs act in an environment. Mirror behaviour constitutes a large part of the social dynamic experience. It allows people to learn just as much as it allows people to blend. It also allows people to detect intention when the act itself is simulated in the brain. (Fogassi, et al.) As mentioned before, the different factors that contribute to the functionality of a social grouping depends on things like intention detection and mirroring of different NPCs in a group. The player character with or without the action of the agent can choose to blend in with NPC’s in the group by copying their acts. Since the brain already can be taught by the NPC’s on screen, this addition to group behavior mirroring can add the missing subconscious link that happens in reality.

Proxemics The study of proximity in terms of social dynamic structure is defined by the term proxemics. This study takes into account the surrounding area that an individual, and in this case, an NPC inhabits. Real people are affected by the surrounding in two ways. The first is the relationship the NPC and the player character has in the physical space they inhabit. Proxemics theory says the color of the space can influence the moods of any person that are in the space. For example strong warm colors like red and yellow can agitate

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and rush people, perfect for a fast food restaurant. However on the other side, a sit and dine type environment that had hues of blue and green encourage a more calm atmosphere, and thus affects the individuals. (Sheppard) With video games they already use a majority of color theory in game design in order to influence the mood of the player agent in the game. However, within social dynamics, it would be interesting to incorporate the atmosphere and general attitude of NPCs that depends on their physical proxemic. Creating a mechanic like that would add a sense of familiarity that matches what the player agent would be feeling. Another way proxemics can be viewed is through the study of social spaces. Social spaces involve the distance in which different persons are from one another. Of course this is one of the other aspects of social dynamics that is dependent based on culture. But again, the argument is, no matter what background the player agent comes into the game world, sensitivity to the social spaces should only add to their experiences since it mimics the subtleties in real life. With social spaces, in typical American culture, the spaces are divided into four separate spaces. Public space is anywhere from 12 to 25 feet, social space ranges from 4 to 10 feet, personal space ranges from 2 to 4 feet, and intimate space ranges from 1 foot from ourselves. Different areas change the meaning of a person’s relationship with others that enter within their radius. The public space is often reserved for addressing large radius, or

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keeping away from the public at large. Social space can be used for communication among colleagues and the separation between people in normal crowds. Personal space is primarily used for friends conversing, or separating oneself in lines or crowds. In intimate space, this is often used for physical contact, and is seldom seen in public. (Sheppard)

Altair blends in with four monks in a scripted event to bypass guards. What if blending was based on real time social dynamics instead? (“Assassin’s Creed Acre Crowd”)

Yet again, if the player agent has an active enough engagement, the player can detect this separation amongst their character and the other NPCs in the social dynamic structure. This could be especially useful if the NPCs use this in terms of crowd simulation and even within dialogue. The distance can tell much information about the character in question as they talk to the player agent. If a game like Assassin’s Creed used proxemics in the detection of Altair as he did tried to blend through society, it could be

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much more interesting and realistic. In already one instance, Altair does this by blending in with four prayerful monks pretending to be a monk himself. Their distance apart would place themselves in the personal space, and thus groups them together and allows Altair to blend in and avoid detection. However, the inability to do that dynamically in a crowd, instead of using a scripted event can be disappointing. The more knowledgeable gamer could try to emulate this by standing nearby an NPC or a group of people who are standing casually near a wall. However, in this instance Altair is still discovered despite the realistic situation and the player’s usage of proxemics that were taught to them in intrinsically through the game’s mechanic. Audio Audio comes last because communication through speech takes on the smallest percentage in terms of communication, both verbal and non verbal. However it is still important, despite it only being anywhere from 7% of the communication we actually send. Though it may be counterintuitive because it is only through speaking that we developed written and spoken language, it is the preceding sections that make an impact on our relationships with others as a whole. With that said, speaking is still important. Not so much in what NPC’s and player characters say, but in how they say. (Bignold) The most important point here is vocal intonation. In real life when one speaks face to face for example to a friend can be coloured with all the varieties of non verbal communication we have. In the end, vocal intonation helps human beings communicate more effectively. It is through the non

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verbal aspects that we decided if the friend is joking around, or serious. Tone is the intention behind what is actually said. People are often more sensitive to tone when people have to take a phone call, or something similar in that nature. When people have that removed, it leaves the brain needing more non verbal use to utilize and glean the nature and intention of the speaker. In video games, tone can be used to a great degree of dramatic effect both in times where the player agent is able to witness the speaker and when the player cannot. A terrified phone call could mask out the intention of a non player agent and thus cause the player agent to panic much like the player agent would in real life. In this way, it can also be used to punctuate a critical moment in time, during a dramatic exposition for example, where all the non verbal points point to distress and agony, and only in those moments, the words that are actually spoken make a complete emotional experience for the gamer. However vocal intonation affect NPC AI is seldom used, if ever to any remarkable degree in AI programming. It may be scripted that two AI fight and argue loudly in sarcastic tones as they fight over a rake and a broom. However, the rest of the AI is largely unaffected, thus decreasing the realism for the player that experiences the argument first hand.

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THE FUTURE As we see in many games there is a need for better AI in terms of video games. While many of the sources here covered psychological factors in some form and utilized some aspects in some games, there is still a lack of the games out there that make a complete cohesive experience out of the video game experience. While some games can benefit from the use different aspects mentioned here, the RPGs and its many variants like action RPGs and the like could use psychological factors in AI due the very nature of their worlds. RPG worlds and open sandbox games use much of the world population at large that the player character has to interact with. If the player cannot interact realistically, the player is drawn away from the experience and instead drawn to the flaws in the game design. The positive things that can come out of AI with personalities may help individuals have games tailored to their personalities. In a way, not only do video games exhibit emergent behaviors for themselves, but also give rise to the identity of the player since the AI reacts to their presence in a more meaningful manner. However there is always the risk of harmful habits that may come from the increasing the forms of immersion through video games. As mentioned before, games like Love Plus for the DS can cater to the extreme examples of human and virtual interaction. As immersion rises perhaps a new breed of

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study can be formed to take on the addicting qualities that make people prefer virtual relationships to real relationships. (Love Plus, 2009) While that raises some ethical issues, the focus here is the mainstream crowd. The mainstream crowd, if educated and aware will find video games that feature current AI to have holes in their realism. The evidence of this is shown in the many complaints against different games that incorporate AI. In conclusion, good game design, much like other films and forms of theatre rely on the suspension of disbelief in order to fully engage the player. It has been shown that there are now games that are able to communicate emotional values through game mechanics without any critical loss of fidelity. While video games are now starting to become more advanced than both films and theatre in terms of immersive factors, once a fully fledged psychological social dynamic is created in games, like those featured in Assassin’s Creed and Fallout 3 then gamers can experience emergent behaviours as game play from such titles. In the end, the focus here really is the emergent properties that gamers can take from good game design through the use of realistic social dynamics. For example, if the gamer can experience solutions through the use of words instead of guns, or the manipulation of social mechanics, it may give the player options and interests into new types of game play. If this happens, gamers will start becoming even more actively engaged agents in the games that they play, and it will minimize the gap between the virtual world and the real world. The only thing left now is the advancement of technology that is able to

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handle the processing needed to render the dynamics between the player and the NPCs. (Fallout 3, 2008, and Assassin’s Creed, 2007)

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PS3Blog.net. Web. 1 Dec 2009. . Davidson, Drew. "Well Played 1.0: Video Games, Value and Meaning ." Lulu. Web. 1 Dec 2009. . Fallout 3. 28 Oct. 2008. Bethesda Softworks. 30 Nov. 2009 The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblvion. 20 Mar. 2006. Bethesda Softworks. 30 Nov. 2009 "Cannabalism, Slavery and Sex in Fallout 3." Kotaku. Web. 1 Dec 2009. . Reeves, Byron, and Clifford Nass. "The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television, and New Media Like Real People and Places." CSI Publications. Web. 1 Dec 2009. . Mass Effect. 20 Nov. 2007. Microsoft Game Studios. 30 Nov. 2009 Isbister, Katherine. Better Game Characters by Design: A Psychological Approach. San Francisco, Ca: Elsevier Inc., 2006. Print. Katamari Damacy. March 18, 2004. Namco. 30 Nov. 2009 Love Plus. September 03, 2009. Konami. 30 Nov. 2009 Humble, Rob. "The Marriage." Web. 1 Dec 2009. . Rohrer, Jason. "Passage." Jason Rohrer. Web. 1 Dec 2009. . Heathfield, Susan M. "Why "Blink" Matters: The Power of First Impressions." About.com Human Resources. Web. 1 Dec 2009. . "Assassin's Creed AI Better on 360?." 1up.com. 29 009 2006. Web. 1 Dec 2009. .

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Doering, Nicola. and Poeschl, Sandra. "Nonverbal Cues in Mobile Phone Text Messages: The Effects of Chronemics and Proxemics" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, TBA, San Francisco, CA, May 24, 2007 . 200905-24 http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p172164_index.html Hahn, Harley. " Time Sense: Polychronicity and Monochronicity ." Harley Hahn. Web. 1 Dec 2009. . Ross, Kimberly. "The Meaning of Time." Peace Corps. Web. 1 Dec 2009. . L. Fogassi et al., Science 308, 662 (2005). Sheppard, Mike. "Proxemics." Web. 1 Dec 2009. . Bignold, Katy. "Case Study: Vocal Intonation Therapy Abstract ." Web. 1 Dec 2009. . Assassin’s Creed. 24 Nov. 2007. Ubisoft. 30 Nov. 2009 "Passage." Jason Rohrer. Web. 7 Dec 2009. . "Gravitation." Gear Crave. Web. 7 Dec 2009. . "Gravitation_2." GB Game’s Blog. Web. 7 Dec 2009. . "The Marriage." Rods Games. Web. 7 Dec 2009. . "Assassin's Creed Acre Crowd." xboxer.tv. Web. 7 Dec 2009. .