Proceedings now available through the ACM Digital Library
INT3 Presentation Schedule
| Session
1: Improv |
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| 8:30 - 9:00 |
Riedl (Paper #16) |
|
| 9:00 - 9:30 |
Magerko (Paper #8) |
|
| 9:30 - 10:00 |
Magerko (Paper #15) |
|
| 10:00 -
10:30 BREAK |
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| Session
2: Interactive Storytelling |
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| 10:30 - 11:00 |
McCoy (Paper #10) |
|
| 11:00 - 11:30 |
Lee (Paper #13) |
|
| 11:30 - 11:45 |
Sullivan (Paper #11) |
|
| 11:45 - 12:00 |
Rowe (Paper #14) |
|
| 12:00 -
1:30 LUNCH |
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| Session
3: Story Authoring |
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| 1:30 - 2:00 |
Tanenbaum (Paper #6) |
|
| 2:00 - 2:30 |
Orkin (Paper #3) |
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| 2:30 - 2:45 |
Tearse (Paper #12) |
|
| 3:00 -
3:30 BREAK |
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| Session
4: Narrative Discourse |
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| 3:30 - 4:00 |
Tomai (Paper #9) |
|
| 4:00 - 4:30 |
Niehaus (Paper #7) |
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| 4:30 - 4:45 |
Hills (Paper #1) |
|
| 5:00 -
5:15 BREAK |
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| Session
4: Applications |
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| 5:15 - 5:30 |
|
|
| 5:30 - 5:45 |
Madden (Paper #5) |
|
INT3 List of Accepted Papers
| 1: A
Conversational Framework for Emergent Collaborative Storytelling
Abstract. This paper proposes
a framework that incorporates shared narration through the design and
evaluation of a creativity support system that promotes meaning and
sense-making for collaborative storytelling in a situated context. The
approach is to develop a holistic system that enables the processes
during a group
conversation, or the situated modalities associated with oral storytelling. |
| 2: Predicting Reader Response in
Narrative Abstract. This paper sketches
a theory of how readers (or users, or players, or viewers) respond to
narratives. Such a theory can be useful for developing evaluation
functions to allow for narrative outcomes that have maximum impact at
particular times on the reader. The reader’s response is viewed in
terms of character evaluations, namely judgments of sympathy or
antipathy for the agent involved in that outcome. Character development
is computed in terms of transitions in reader evaluations for an agent
over the time course of the narrative. To formally model character
evaluations, we begin with a representation of the narrative fabula in
terms of the events, their participant roles, and their temporal
relations. This representation is implemented on a corpus of narratives
with existing tools and standards. Reader evaluations are annotated on
events in the fabula. Once high reliability in human character
evaluations has been proven, a character evaluation tagger will be
trained on these evaluations.
|
| 3:
Semi-Automatic Task Recognition for
Interactive Narratives with EAT & RUN Abstract. Mining data from
online games provides a potential alternative to programming behavior
and dialogue for characters in interactive narratives by hand. Human
annotation of course-grained tasks can provide explanations that make
the data more useful to an AI system, however human labor is expensive.
We describe a semi-automatic methodology for recognizing tasks in
gameplay traces, including an annotation tool for non-experts, and a
runtime algorithm. Our results show that this methodology works well
with a large corpus from one game, and suggests the possibility of
refactoring the development process for interactive narratives.
|
| 4: Maths4Kids
– Telling Stories with Maths Abstract. In this paper, we
describe a novel approach to teaching early mathematical concepts to
young children. This approach aims to merge storytelling and Maths.
Evidence show that through dramatic games and role-playing activities
young children (aging from 5-7 years old) learn to master new
knowledge, to fit in a new school setting and to socially relate with
their peers. So taking this evidence into account, it is possible to
devise an innovative collaborative learning scenario that teaches early
mathematical concepts by telling and creating stories. More than doing
it in the traditional formats (oral or theatrical form), we are
investigating the possibility to take this scenario to an innovative
computerised platform – Microsoft SurfaceTM.
|
| 5: User evaluation of virtual reporting agents
Abstract. Many persistent
online environments such as Massively-Multiplayer Online
Games (MMOGs), feature weblogs and/or live reportage of participants' activities in the world. While such reports and commentary can enhance the user's enjoyment and increase their sense of shared experience, the demands of such large scale reporting on the participants can be considerable. To address this problem a number of in-game reporting and commentary systems have been proposed which use virtual "reporter'' agents within the game to produce real-time and post-game commentary tailored to the interests of individual users. However, to date, there has been no evaluation of these systems from a user perspective. In this paper we present the results of a live evaluation study performed using an instance of the online role-playing game Neverwinter Nights augmented with witness-narrator agents to provide in-game and post-game reports. Our results indicate that reporting does increase enjoyment of the game, and that players play for longer when their activities are recorded on a community web page, suggesting that agent-based reporting is a promising approach to community building in online games and social environments. |
| 6: Authoring
Tangible
Interactive
Narratives Using Conceptual Hyperlinks Abstract. Creating content for
different forms of interactive narratives requires a different set of
skills and techniques than writing non-interactive
stories. In this paper we describe a prototype tangible
interactive narrative system called the Reading Glove and outline the
authoring process used to create story content for it. We
begin by discussing different approaches to authoring that are
currently in use in interactive digital storytelling. We
then discuss in detail the process of writing the story for the Reading
Glove and provide an analysis of the fiction created through this
process. From this analysis we put forth the notion of “conceptual
hyperlinks”: a design technique that we believe has utility for the
authors of future interactive narratives. We conclude with a set of
general design recommendations for authoring within interactive
storytelling systems.
|
| 7: A Method for Generating Narrative Discourse to Prompt
Inferences Abstract. Narratives that
prompt inferences can be more interesting in that they provide the
reader with the opportunitity to reason about the
narrative world, participating in its construction.
These narratives can also be more concise and direct,
as details can be filled in by the reader. On
the other hand, narratives that leave out important
information without the opportunity to infer
this information may be incoherent. To generate
narratives that prompt inferences a system must
1) employ a theory of how inferences are prompted and
2) provide a capacity for creating narratives that
satisfy inference goals. This paper presents is a novel algorithm for
generating discourse plans that prompt inferences
according to a theory of online inferencing in narrative
discourse. Though other approaches have generated
narrative and discourse structures to influence
the reader's perception of the narrative , this is the
first approach to present an empirically
based cognitive model of online inference generation.
The algorithm employs a partial-order
planning approach to discourse generation, selecting
events to tell the reader from an input story plan.
|
| 8: Bottoms
Up: Improvisational Micro-Agents Abstract. This paper describes
our current approach in implementing computational improvisational
micro-agents. This approach is intended to foster bottom-up
research to better understand how to build more complex agent behaviors
in a theatrical improvisational setting. Micro-agent designs
are based on our current findings in the Digital Improv Project, a
multi-year study focused on studying real life theatrical improvisers
with an aim towards better understanding the cognition employed in
improvisation at the individual and group level.
|
| 9: Using Narrative Functions as a Heuristic for Relevance
in Story Understanding Abstract. Story understanding
requires a degree of knowledge and expressiveness beyond the current
state of natural language understanding. We present an
approach that addresses these needs, using a large-scale knowledge
base, simplified English grammar and a combination of compositional
frame semantics and abductive reasoning. This in turn raises
a significant challenge disambiguating complex semantic structures,
which requires a pragmatics of narrative for constraint and
guidance. We present a theory of narrative functions that
serve as a heuristic for relevance in narrative, and provide evidence
that this heuristic is effective for disambiguation that leads to
consistent understanding.
|
| 10: Comme il Faut
2: A fully realized model for socially-oriented gameplay
Abstract. Social games—common
patterns of character interactions that modify the social environment
of the story world—provide a useful abstraction when authoring a story
composed of interactive characters, making it possible to create games
with deep possibility spaces that are about social interaction (which
would be intractable if hand-authoring all the options). In this paper,
we detail the workings of a major new version of our social artificial
intelligence system, Comme il Faut, that enables social game play in
interactive media experiences. The workings of Comme il Faut 2 are
shown, with running examples, from both knowledge representation and
process perspectives. Finally, the paper concludes with a plan for
evaluating and demonstrating Comme il Faut 2 through an implementation
of an interactive media experience that consists of a playable social
space.
|
| 11:
Rules of Engagement: Moving Beyond
Combat-Based Quests Abstract. Computer
role-playing games (CRPGs) are known for their strong narrative
structure. Over time, quests have become one of the main mechanics for
leading a player through the story. Quests are given to the player in
the form of a set of tasks to complete with few, if any, options. The
options given to the player instead often revolve around
combat-oriented actions – requiring the player to engage in combat to
progress through the storyline, despite player preference or game story
that hints otherwise. We address this issue with the GrailGM, a
run-time game master which offers quests and actions to the player
based on their history and current world state.
|
| 12: Minstrel
Remixed: A Rational Reconstruction
Abstract. In this paper, we
describe introduce Minstrel Remixed, a rational reconstruction of
MINSTREL by Scott Turner. In addition to recreating the
landmark story generation system for public usage we also introduce a
number of modifications that were made during the reconstruction that
allow for investigation into the inner workings of the
system. Additionally we introduce Minstrel Remixed as a
platform for use in Interactive Narrative applications and provide a
number of concrete examples.
|
| 13: Investigating Director Agents’ Decision Making in
Interactive Narrative: A Wizard-of-Oz Study Abstract. Interactive
narrative planning offers significant potential for creating engaging
narrative experiences that are tailored to individual users.
Orchestrating all of the events in a storyworld to create optimal user
experiences calls for effective narrative decision-making. A key
requirement of this endeavor is understanding the role that different
knowledge sources play in narrative decision making. To investigate
knowledge sources for interactive narrative, a corpus was collected in
a Wizard of Oz (WOZ) study conducted with a narrative-centered learning
environment. With narrative planning and natural language dialogue
functionalities provided by wizards, the data from the WOZ study offers
insight into the knowledge sources involved in narrative decision
making and suggests how these knowledge sources can be effectively
utilized by a narrative planner to create engaging interactive
narratives.
|
| 14: A
Framework for Narrative Adaptation in Interactive
Story-Based Learning Environments Abstract. Over the past
several years, the intelligent narrative technologies community has
devised a broad range of interactive narrative systems. A key
functionality provided by interactive narrative systems is narrative
adaptation: augmenting story experiences in response to users’ actions,
and tailoring story elements to individual users’ preferences and
needs. However, there is little consensus about how to conceptualize
interactive narrative adaptation across different systems or
applications. This paper presents a framework that synthesizes multiple
approaches to narrative adaptation, as well as experience management
techniques from related fields such as intelligent tutoring systems.
The framework has three components: plot adaptation, discourse
adaptation, and user tailoring. Drawing on examples from the
intelligent narrative technologies literature, the paper discusses
connections to story-based learning systems. The framework is
illustrated with examples from CRYSTAL ISLAND, a narrative-centered
learning environment for middle school microbiology. The framework
offers a first step toward establishing a general model of interactive
narrative.
|
| 15: Shared
Mental Models in Improvisational Performance Abstract. This paper describes
the mental structures called shared mental
models, which are heavily related to group problem solving and cognition, and reports how they are related to theatrical improvisation based on our empirical findings. We have conducted a series of studies on real life improvisers aimed at uncovering the underlying cognition involved in improvisation, with the end goal of having a clear understanding of how to build improvisational synthetic characters. We describe cognitive divergence, when improvisers have conflicting mental models of what is occurring on stage, and cognitive convergence, which is the process of resolving such conflicts within the performance. These findings are supported by examples from our study and are used to make conclusions about improvisational synthetic character design. |
| 16.
Mark
Riedl.
A
Comparison
of Interactive Narrative System Approaches
Using Human
Improvisational Actors Interactive narrative is an approach to interactive entertainment or learning in which a system attempts to tell a story to an interactive participant. In this paper we report on a study to compare the theoretical strengths and weaknesses of two approaches to developing computational interactive narrative systems. We compare two approaches to interactive narrative: emergent approaches utilizing autonomous virtual character agents, and drama management approaches utilizing semi-autonomous virtual character agents. Our study uses improvisational theatre as an idealized, human analogue to computational interactive narrative. Results suggest that, regardless of approach, idealized interactive narrative systems should be nearly indistinguishable in terms of character believability and narrative coherence. Results suggest that drama management systems may have an advantage when particular features are required to emerge in players' interactive experiences. |
| 17: Sherol Chen, Adam
Smith, Arnav Jhala, Michael Mateas. RoleModel: Towards a Formal Model
of Dramatic Roles for Story Generation RoleModel is a novel story generator organized around explicit formal models of character roles. RoleModel expands the expressiveness of stories generated from arbitrarily partial domain specification by using a formal model of roles within an abductive logic programming framework. Authorial goals in the system can be fully or partially specified as constraints in an abductive logic program. In particular, the RoleModel system focuses on representing and satisfying role constraints of the story characters. This paper discusses the basic architecture for the RoleModel approach, demonstrates example output from the system through three use-cases, discusses the authorial expressiveness enabled by a “stageless” abductive logic approach to story generation, and proposes the current and future directions. |