A) Behavioural modelling is an important part of NPC development for games. Should emotive modelling be part of that development?

As stated behaviour modelling IS an important aspect of NPC development, it exists outside of the video game industry as a social learning theory, where so people learn and develop through experience, and therefore arguably to create realistic NPC’s within video games such an ideology should be included as well. This would mean that an NPC would be coded to learn and adapt to the actions of the player. In the case of emotive modelling, I must say that I also believe that emotive modelling should be part of the process. It makes a game more immersive when the player can believe an NPC is performing how we would expect. “Fundamentally, its not about reality, its about the illusion of reality; creating the feel of something being real.”. (Anon, N/A)

In some cases, in my opinion, games lack that illusion of reality, and immersion is broken when an NPC surprisingly does something ridiculous and unrealistic. For instance if an NPC attempts to stay and fight even when the odds are highly stacked against them. In such a case I believe that emotive modelling could or should be implemented to allow judgements to be made and the possibility for an NPC to flee, the more realistic action in the case of fight or flight.

Some developers do attempt to implement some emotive modelling, as I believe they should, however the problem remains that, “Quite often game AI is developed in a generic manner per character type rather than for a particular character“(Stallwood, James and Ranchhod, Ashokkymar, 2017), making most NPC’s act too similarly, a flaw to emotive modelling…

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B) Consider your favourite video game. If it contains AI controlled agents how individualistic are they and there behaviours, and, how might you set about improving them?

My favourite game is The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The game came out in 2006, so obviously it doesn’t have the most up to date NPC AI, however for its time it did well, especially with the use of Radiant AI. The game has features with the NPC’s that try to make the game for realistic. NPC’s will call for help if they witness you commit a crime, have habits, and some will flee when in danger. Additionally, for  such functions the whole AI are not coded to behave in such a way, guards for instance won’t back down from a fight if you’re caught breaking the law. Whilst merchants on the other hand who may try to intervene won’t stay around for long if they take too much damage. This sense of panic and chaos that surrounds criminal activity in the game, for example, makes the game feel that little bit more realistic.

(Source: http://oceanofgames.com/the-elder-scrolls-4-oblivion-free-download/)

Granted the game isn’t perfect, codes for behaviours are generally categorised and shared by large groups of NPC’s which removes the sense of individuality, additionally the AI are limited to a certain amount of lines of dialogue so the player will often overhear the same repetitive lines. Additionally the behaviour of NPC’s can create problems, especially if you’re trying to talk to an NPC character who wont stop fleeing an area.

Therefore, to improve the game I would suggest improvements within dialogue, and a wider range of characteristics, both would add more personalities and iconic characters, making the AI feel more individual, and the game feel that extra bit more immersive.

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References:

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/behavior-modeling-workplace-10980.html

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220982219_Emotional_agent_model_and_architecture_for_NPCs_group_control_and_interaction_to_facilitate_leadership_roles_in_computer_entertainment

https://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/941875-the-elder-scrolls-iv-oblivion-game-of-the-year-edition/72084091

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_of_The_Elder_Scrolls_IV:_Oblivion

http://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim/b/xbox360/archive/2011/01/17/the-technology-behind-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim.aspx

Bibliography:

Anon, (N/A) Creating Intelligent, Emotive NPC’s [Online] Available from: http://www.virtualworldlets.net/Resources/Hosted/Resource.php?Name=IntelligentEmotiveNPC  [Accessed 05 December]

James Stallwood and Ashokkumar Ranchhod  (2017) The right to remember: Implementing a rudimentary emotive-effect layer for frustration on AI agent gameplay strategy Computers  [Online] Available from: http://www.mdpi.com/2073-431X/6/2/18/htm [Accessed 05 December]