Towards Design Principles for Humor in Interactive Emergent Narrative

Humor is an essential part of storytelling, but it has not been studied in the field of interactive emergent narrative. We begin with an overview of various theories of humor and use them to examine examples of humor within the digital media field. This juxtaposition aims to bring together concepts from both fields in order to find a feasible direction. We hope to contribute a framework of humor that can be used in the near future for an interactive emergent narrative project. Our conceptualization of humor frames it in terms of “pleasant surprises” which enable players and other emergent AI actors to stretch the boundaries between plot and discourse.

Paidia to Ludus, Non-Commodity to Commodity: Uncovering the Residue of Player Developed Custom Game Modes in ‘Zombies’ and ‘ARAMs’

The Open and the Closed: Games of Emergence and Games of Progression

This paper proposes a conceptual framework for examining computer game structure and applies it to the massive multiplayer game EverQuest.

Player Character Design Facilitating Emotional Depth in MMORPGs

How can we create computer games facilitating emotional depth in the playing experience? When entering into a persistent virtual game world the player leaves the body behind. It is up to the game designer to create a virtual body with skills, needs and drives necessary for survival and pleasure in the game world. Would it be sensible also to create a virtual mind for the player to possess and evolve? Can models like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and ‘being-values’, or the personality trait model popularly called ‘the big five’ be used for character design in a way that suits massive multi-player game form? Based upon a view of the player character as the concentrated mirror of the functionality of an RPG game and adding features inspired from psychology, cognitive science and behavior science, this paper presents the high-level system design of a virtual mind for the player to possess in a MMORPG. The mind model is being implemented in a research demonstration game in which game play emphasizes emotional engagement and dramatic interaction. This research is conducted in the Zero-Game Studio within the frame of the open research MMORPG Ouroboros.

Integrating Emergence and Progression

This paper investigates how structures of emergence and progression in games might be integrated. By leveraging the formalism of Machination diagrams, the shape of the mechanics that typically control progression in games are exposed. Two strategies to create mechanics that control progression but exhibit more emergent behavior by including feedback loops are presented and discussed.

Abstract of Dynamic Range: When Game Design and Narratives Unite

As the clash between Game and Narrative rages on, many attempts to unite the two make their way. As heir of this tradition of reconciliation, the Dynamic Range is a tool brought forth to examine how different game systems can give freedom to the players. In its present state, I am going to use it as a compass to pinpoint the close relationship between game design and narratives, and perhaps understand how such a union can be successful.

Spontaneous Communities of Learning: Learning Ecosystems in Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming Environments

This paper outlines the theoretical rationale behind a doctoral research project currently in progress. Through a multi-method approach, the project examines spontaneously-emerging communities of learning in and around massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) within the context of social learning theory, social networks, self-organisation, online communities and emergence.

Growing Complex Games

Do computer simulation games display emergent behavior? Are they models of complex systems or ‘life’ systems? This paper aims to explore and investigate how games studies can use complexity models and emergent behavior to critical analyzes the computer simulation game. (God Games, Real-Time Strategy Games, and City Building Genre) The developments in and from the natural sciences (Complexity, Emergence, Self-Organization, Non-Linear Dynamic Systems) are important intellectual tools that can aid in the development of this discipline. Computer simulation games have a similar strategy to games like Go or Chess; even though they may have fixed rules they can display unpredictable patterns of play (emergent behavior). This approach is in contrast to current models that are being deployed within the field of games studies. The introduction of complexity and emergence into game studies can allow for computer simulation games not to be dismissed but to be explored and explained, as complex games, rather than just simply simulations.

Pattern Recognition: Gameplay as negotiating procedural form

This paper will examine the relationship of pattern recognition and Gestalt principles to procedural form in gameplay. It will identify key features of pattern based play mechanics and outline important synergies between programming paradigms and procedural form. In the course of the paper I will examine the formal and aesthetic qualities of procedural structures and discuss how they generate the experience of psychological flow. I will also identify the role of these mechanisms and their effects in current game design.