Managing interaction between users and agents in a multi-agent storytelling environment

  • Authors:

  • Mark Riedl;C. J. Saretto;R. Michael Young

  • Affiliations:

  • North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC;Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA;North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC

  • Venue:
  • AAMAS '03 Proceedings of the second international joint conference on Autonomous agents and multiagent systems
  • Year:
  • 2003

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Abstract

This paper describes an approach for managing the interaction of human users with computer-controlled agents in an interactive narrative-oriented virtual environment. In these kinds of systems, the freedom of the user to perform whatever action she desires must be balanced with the preservation of the storyline used to control the system's characters. We describe a technique, narrative mediation, that exploits a plan-based model of narrative structure to manage and respond to users' actions inside a virtual world. We define two general classes of response to situations where users execute actions that interfere with story structure: accommodation and intervention. Finally, we specify an architecture that uses these definitions to monitor and automatically characterize user actions, and to compute and implement responses to unanticipated activity. The approach effectively integrates user action and system response into the unfolding narrative, providing for the balance between a user's sense of control within the story world and the user's sense of coherence of the overall narrative.