November 22, 2002

Computer Gaming More Than Child’s Play

Using a virtual world set in the great hall of a thirteenth century castle, Michael Young, assistant professor of computer science at NC State, can create computer programs that tell a story in this world tailored to a student’s interests in and knowledge of history.
Monterey Bay Aquarium, a large, public marine science education center located in California, can be visited virtually using Michael Young’s computer program.

From heroic epics of old to this winter’s blockbuster movies, everyone loves a story. How we experience and enjoy stories, or narratives, has a lot to do with our own cognitive processes and how we understand the physical and social rules at work in the world around us. According to Dr. R. Michael Young, assistant professor of computer science at NC State University, computers can contribute to the process of helping people understand narratives and social context.

Young directs the Liquid Narrative research group, a collection of collaborating professors, graduate students and undergraduates working to apply artificial intelligence (AI) computer programs to the construction of interactive narratives. “My research has to do with putting AI behind the scenes of a computer game or a virtual world, so that the interaction inside that world is different, more engaging, more compelling than it would be without the behind-the-scenes tools,” he said. This increased level of engagement, in turn, yields a higher level of comprehension of the narrative by people playing a computer game or experiencing a virtual world in an educational setting. By creating types of interactions that are more readily understandable, Young and his research team hope to use AI to study cognitive models of comprehension traditionally examined in disciplines such as linguistics, narrative theory and psychology.

For example, online subscription games services such as Everquest or Asheron’s Call, known as Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs), provide tens of thousands of people with an opportunity to interact with other computer game players around the world. Because players can log in and out of the action, they may miss important events;

Young is developing programs that can spin a story-like summary of the action that occurred while the player was absent based on the program’s ability to understand story structure. Typically computers can provide a transcript but not a summary. “Our computer models of storytelling employ abstraction — selecting what elements to leave in or take out to summarize the story,” said Young. Just as cinematographers choose appropriate scenes for a movie to convey the plot to the viewer, Young’s computer models translate cognitive theory into programs that can automatically select elements of the action to summarize.

Although the overall goal of Young’s research is to create computational theories describing how people and computers interact, the practical applications of the research are many. Teaching students about social dynamics is one of the educational applications. For example, Young has created a virtual world set in the great hall of a thirteenth century castle. Young’s computer programs can create a story in this world tailored to a student’s interests in and knowledge of history, and students can observe and understand the social rules that operated in that world as they work through the narrative. The story can be complete or it can contain gaps that the student can fill in by controlling one of the story’s characters. According to Young, “Rather than just being a passive observer, players use their cognitive processes to recognize opportunities for their own action. They see how the world around them works, formulate theories about it, then test those theories out by actually stepping into the story, trying actions and seeing if their theories are right or wrong.”

Studying historical periods this way can make history come alive and be much more engaging, in the same way that seeing one of Shakespeare’s plays performed makes it easier to understand the society of the time than simply reading the play. In the case of Young’s gaming and virtual world programs, users will understand more about the story and its context when the computer program creates a story and tells it in a manner that matches the way people naturally think about narratives. These same techniques carry over from educational applications to ones focused on training. For example, a virtual simulation of a disaster relief operation can use storytelling techniques to effectively train rescue personnel in the best way to manage dynamic, time-critical emergency environments.

Another educational program under development in the Liquid Narrative group is a virtual tour of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, a large, public marine science education center located in California. In this system, the AI program controlling the simulation can tailor the actions of each character in the environment so that the visitor will experience or observe events based on his or her interests. In the virtual tour, the system will make certain that a visitor interested in sea otters, for instance, will view a mother otter feeding her children in one of the large habitats, whereas a visitor to the actual aquarium might not see this event in many visits.

In addition to educational applications, Young’s work shows promise for the computer gaming industry, which generates more than $6 billion in sales per year. Using computer models of narrative comprehension, Young hopes to merge storytelling techniques developed for the film industry with computer gaming. Traditionally, film industry designers have understood how to tell a story but have had little experience incorporating interactive elements. For computer gaming designers, the reverse is true. “We hope to merge these two approaches to create games more like films but that retain the very interactive flow typical of today’s computer games,” said Young. “Action-oriented experiences make a game entertaining, but we hope to improve both the action and the story line using AI.”

Future computer game players may be able to have their computers create alternative endings to the stories that they play through, much like the create-your-own-story books for children that currently exist. Seeing how the different endings play out makes the game more entertaining, increases interactivity and improves cognitive development for the player. Increased understanding of social context is a traditional benefit of storytelling that has found application in the computer age through Young’s work.

— rudd —

Media Contacts:

Dr. R. Michael Young, 919/513-3038, young@csc.ncsu.edu

Linda E. Rudd, 919-515-3848, linda_rudd@ncsu.edu

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