Friday 13 October, 2006

I couldn’t say anything out of the ordinary or else I would get a canned response. For instance, in order to keep the player on track, the scripting got a bit obvious when Grace kept mentioning wanting to talk about their relationship. Key words such as the wedding picture and Tripp’s parents keep the story moving. When I mentioned a divorce Tripp got angry. I also thought it was cool that they remembered my past comments and brought them up in a fluid way.

TRIP
Amy, come on -- yes or no...

TRIP
Do you really think that...

TRIP
asking if we're okay?...

TRIP
telling me I'm not communicative...

TRIP
suggesting that we get divorced...

TRIP
but especially what you said about giving advice to your wife...

TRIP
and you don't even say 'yes' when I ask you if you want the truth...

TRIP
that we'll somehow realize something about our marriage?

TRIP
Is what you've said tonight supposed to add up somehow, to something?

I find it interesting that you mention "the scripting" when supposedly the characters actions aren't really scripted. They're supposed to be following their own motivations and interests. From what you say, I wonder what it would take to have people "read" the interactions not as coming from a script, but rather from actual characters. For example, what would it take for the player to think of Grace as being rather pushy, and even rude, regarding whatever it is she wants to talk about.

You raise some interesting food for thought! Thanks for the commentary!

I think there needs to be an element of surprise. Like with the story about the unwitting secretary talking to the ELIZA simulation. In that case, ELIZA was effective because the secretary didn’t assume anything, just that ELIZA was another human. Maybe the problem was that I knew too much about the game. Maybe this generation has become too cynical being overexposed to AIM bots and other such simulations and are accustomed to thinking that behind a chatterbot there is a script or like behind a character there is an actor.

Perhaps the computer medium has to be approached in a different way in order for Grace to be convincing. For instance, considering Façade’s play format, what if its setting were changed to a stage play, so that instead of the four walls of the living room, there would be three walls, with the fourth “wall” as some kind of audience (interactive audience maybe?). Then Grace, Tripp, and the player would all bbe playing roles in some kind of drama. Framed like this, Grace and Tripp’s repetition could be excused, since they are just “actors” playing the part of pushy people. This kind of sounds like the Turing imitation test where a computer imitates a human pretending to be either a man or woman. So behind the character Grace, there is an actor played by the computer. Her repetitive actions would bbe interpreted as “staying in character” by the player, such as by being obsessed with herself and thus being pushy or rude. But the actual character is the “actor” who plays Grace. However, these actions would further remove Grace from actually interacting with the real player, so I guess this means non-interactive characters are the most convincing…

Hm, I think I just made that really complicated and I’m not even sure if this is what you mean, lol. This is mind-boggling… But the point is, some sort of surprise would have made Grace more convincing. I really don’t know how I could be convinced that Grace is a character since I was already conscious of the goal of the game.

I guess what I was thinking about is why should it be necessary to add an additional framework (a stage play) in order for the player to "buy" into the idea that Trip and Grace are characters? Shouldn't we buy into that already? Perhaps the problem is that we get carried away and expect Trip and Grace to act like "real" people? If you were to pull a character from a movie or book into a different setting, they would "fall apart", because they are carefully crafted characters for a certain setting/scenario...so, I guess we should, as players, try to take Trip and Grace as characters, rather than people. It's a problem of using the term "AI", people assume AI means an attempt at human intelligence...which is very different from crafting a great (or not) virtual character.