Showing papers presented at "International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling in 2012"
12 Nov 2012
TL;DR: A non-branching game that simulates branching choices by providing players with choices followed by immediate textual feedback and hypothesize that this game, where player decisions do not significantly change the course of the game, will maintain the player's sense of agency.
Abstract: Games with a strong notion of story are increasingly popular. With the increased amount of story content associated with games where player decisions significantly change the course of the game (branching games), comes an increase in the effort required to author those games. Despite the increased popularity of these kinds of games, it is unclear if a typical player is able to appreciate the rich content of these games, since any given player typically only experiences a small amount of that content. We create a non-branching game that simulates branching choices by providing players with choices followed by immediate textual feedback. We hypothesize that this game, where player decisions do not significantly change the course of the game, will maintain the player's sense of agency. Experimentation showed that in a text-based story with forced-choice points there were in most cases no significant difference in players' reported feelings of agency when they experience a branching story vs. a linear story with explicit acknowledgement of their choices.
39 citations
12 Nov 2012
TL;DR: This paper proposes the STAR framework for formalizing the design of IDS stories for educational interventions, and presents one of the three IDSes designed based on this framework, using one as a case study and its evaluation.
Abstract: Little research in Interactive Digital Storytelling (IDS) has been given to writing stories that convey a set of Learning Objectives (LOs). This is particularly important for educational IDS games. In this paper we propose the STAR framework for formalizing the design of IDS stories for educational interventions. The story is designed as a set of red-herrings and clue puzzle in which the LOs are integrated. We present one of the three IDSes we designed based on this framework; we use one as a case study and present its evaluation. A study was undertaken to evaluate the game effectiveness in conveying the educational message. This study performed with 145 players shows that the players' knowledge improved as a result of playing the game and that the change was statistically significant.
20 citations
12 Nov 2012
TL;DR: This work proposes a model of rereading in interactive stories in which readers are initially rereading to reach some form of closure, and demonstrates this model by using it to explain why inexperienced readers of Mateas and Stern's Facade initially reread to explore the story, but quickly shift to "playing with the system", and do not continue to reread for long.
Abstract: When a non-interactive story is reread, the experience may change, even though the text remains the same. But what if the text is potentially different in each reading session, as is the case in an interactive story --- how does rereading change in the context of interactive stories? In our earlier empirical studies of rereading we found that, surprisingly, readers of interactive stories reported that they do not feel that they are rereading until after they reach an understanding of the story, even if the story is unchanged between readings. To explain this, we propose a model of rereading in interactive stories in which readers are initially rereading to reach some form of closure. After achieving this goal, readers do feel that they are rereading, focusing on their understanding of the story as invariant. We demonstrate this model by using it to explain why inexperienced readers of Mateas and Stern's Facade initially reread to explore the story, but quickly shift to "playing with the system", and do not continue to reread for long.
20 citations
12 Nov 2012
TL;DR: The Advanced Stories Authoring and Presentation System (ASAPS) as mentioned in this paper has been used to build 60 interactive digital narratives (IDN) so far, which is used for teaching in an academic setting, as well as related work.
Abstract: The Advanced Stories Authoring and Presentation System (ASAPS) has been used to build 60 interactive digital narratives (IDN) so far. The paper briefly discusses several salient aspects of the system, including the bottom-up approach of the project and observations from using the tool for teaching in an academic setting, as well as related work. Next, we describe several outstanding examples of ASAPS narratives before analyzing visual styles, narrative genres, and structural aspects, as well as identifying additional narrative strategies.
18 citations
12 Nov 2012
TL;DR: The system is a narrative simulation in a fully immersive 3D world in which the user controls a character that can interact with non-player characters (NPCs).
Abstract: This paper describes the current state of a pedagogical immersive 3D story TBI-SIM and the changes that have been made to it. The system is a narrative simulation in a fully immersive 3D world in which the user controls a character that can interact with non-player characters (NPCs). The users achieve goals and make decisions that have an impact on the course of the story.
17 citations
12 Nov 2012
TL;DR: An experiment designed to measure how well these metrics predict the responses of human readers when asked to measure these same values in a set of four stories concludes that these metrics are able to rank stories similarly to human readers for each of these four dimensions.
Abstract: Conflict is an essential element of interesting stories. In previous work, we proposed a formal model of narrative conflict along with 4 quantitative dimensions which can be used to distinguish one conflict from another based on context: balance, directness, intensity, and resolution. This paper presents the results of an experiment designed to measure how well these metrics predict the responses of human readers when asked to measure these same values in a set of four stories. We conclude that our metrics are able to rank stories similarly to human readers for each of these four dimensions.
16 citations
12 Nov 2012
TL;DR: The premise is that suspending disbelief at narrative improbabilities is a skill required to construct narrative coherence and the concluding argument is that these heightened demands may be turned into rhetorical tools.
Abstract: The paper accommodates Espen Aarseth's concept of virtuality and Samuel Taylor Coleridge's concept of suspension of disbelief to the context of modern story forms. The primary focus will be on the videogame. The premise is that suspending disbelief at narrative improbabilities is a skill required to construct narrative coherence. Constructing narrative coherence of stories that contain virtual elements entails supplementary suspension of disbelief at virtual improbabilities, suspension of virtual disbelief. Since increasing the degree of virtuality often increases the requisite traversal effort, virtuality can be said to set increased demands on story traversal as well. This results in the dilemma of virtual balance: while virtuality has the potential to strengthen diegesis, it on the other hand sets heightened demands on story traversal and narrative coherence. The concluding argument is that these heightened demands may be turned into rhetorical tools.
16 citations
12 Nov 2012
TL;DR: An implementation of Distributed Drama Management is described, which aims to retain the benefits of Emergent Narrative such as believability and agility of response to user actions, but attempts to provide a structurally and emotionally consistent experience.
Abstract: In this technical paper, we describe an implementation of Distributed Drama Management (DDM). DDM is a concept which involves synthetic actor agents in an Emergent Narrative scenario acting on both an in-character level, which reflects the concerns of the characters, and an out-of-character level, which reflects the concerns of a storyteller. By selecting the most "dramatically appropriate" action from a set of autonomously proposed actions, Distributed Drama Management aims to retain the benefits of Emergent Narrative such as believability and agility of response to user actions, but attempts to provide a structurally and emotionally consistent experience.
16 citations
12 Nov 2012
TL;DR: A web-based narrative system able to generate video compilations, framed as event stories, from a shared repository of video recordings of the event itself and possibly of related events, using narrative techniques informed by TV documentary.
Abstract: This paper describes a web-based narrative system able to generate video compilations, framed as event stories, from a shared repository of video recordings of the event itself and possibly of related events. For this, it employs narrative techniques informed by TV documentary. The generated stories are dynamically personalised, in that the system is able to adapt them to the choices and preferences expressed by the active viewers during narration. The system has been prototyped for the case of school concerts. User evaluations indicate that experiences founded on story navigation rather than sharing individual media assets is a rewarding one and point to further areas of development in interactive storytelling in the context of user generated content.
14 citations
12 Nov 2012
TL;DR: This paper proposes a model of the appraisal of moral emotions, and describes an agent architecture that reacts to the occurrence of a moral dilemma with the appropriate emotions.
Abstract: In the narrative realm, emotions in general, and moral emotions in particular, play an important role in conveying moral values to the audience. A paradigmatic case is given by the occurrence of moral dilemmas in stories, where the character must trade off options that cannot be reconciled, each related with a certain moral value. In this paper, we propose a model of the appraisal of moral emotions, and describe an agent architecture that reacts to the occurrence of a moral dilemma with the appropriate emotions.
14 citations
12 Nov 2012
TL;DR: The findings indicate that Aporia mediates a narrative potential, which generates emergent narratives among users rather than mediating an embedded and evoked narrative.
Abstract: The genre of interactive narratives in computer games has been researched extensively in the past. However, it still seems that there is a potential for investigating how a narrative can be conveyed solely through environmental storytelling. This paper reports an experimental study which examines the understanding of a pre-written story which is mediated without the use of characters, dialogue, or words and only through the environment in the prototypical game 'Aporia'. The evaluation of the story construction in Aporia analyses and quantifies written open-ended answers and compares them to the pre-defined elements of the story. The findings indicate that Aporia mediates a narrative potential, which generates emergent narratives among users rather than mediating an embedded and evoked narrative.
12 Nov 2012
TL;DR: A theoretical description of this principle, termed Structural Writing, is proposed, which leads to a general architecture for interactive drama that may help authors and researchers to design systems that better exploit the principle of structural writing.
Abstract: Computer-based highly interactive drama involves different authoring approaches, compared to linear media. Underlying design principles needs to be understood in order to guide the authoring process, to teach authors and to design better systems. This paper identifies a fundamental design principle termed Structural Writing that underlies some of the most generative approaches in interactive drama. A theoretical description of this principle is proposed, which leads to a general architecture for interactive drama that may help authors and researchers to design systems that better exploit the principle of structural writing.
12 Nov 2012
TL;DR: IDS can thus offer users an opportunity to reflect upon various aspects of their performance, including un- and subintentional aspects, and open up for authors the ability to explore the creation of vastly complex and dynamic storyworlds that highlight contingency and probability.
Abstract: Much of the research and development effort in the IDS community is guided by a design approach, according to which user desires, expectations and agency are central. This approach may place unnecessary limitations on the design space. I argue for the validity and significance of an alternative, expressive approach, which may be more appealing to artists, and offer some formal parameters of IDS-as-Art. These open up for authors the ability to explore the creation of vastly complex and dynamic storyworlds that highlight contingency and probability; and the possibility of manipulating agency as subject matter to implicate users, through userly performance, in the storyworld's meaning. IDS can thus offer users an opportunity to reflect upon various aspects of their performance, including un- and subintentional aspects.
12 Nov 2012
TL;DR: The results show that the virtual environment version can deliver an engaging story experience, and might therefore potentially inspire for a solution to the narrative paradox.
Abstract: This paper explores how the user experience and diegetic time changes when a specific roleplaying scenario is played via a virtual environment and headsets, compared to a traditional playthrough A case-study roleplaying scenario is developed to investigate the change in user experience qualitatively, and a virtual environment matching this scenario is created The players using the virtual environment version spent the entire time communicating within the story, and the diegetic time equated real time for the entire playthrough, compared to approximately 4/5 of the time in the traditional playthrough Additionally, there are indications that this adherence to the diegesis resulted in a higher suspense The results show that the virtual environment version can deliver an engaging story experience, and might therefore potentially inspire for a solution to the narrative paradox
12 Nov 2012
TL;DR: An outline of how a selection of action sequences as backstory experiences can be used to derive configuration parameters for an affective agent architecture is presented.
Abstract: The authoring and configuration of affective characters for interactive narratives presents a significant problem for the viability of interactive digital storytelling. Motivated by work on exploring the author's perspective on character creation, we present an outline of how a selection of action sequences as backstory experiences can be used to derive configuration parameters for an affective agent architecture. Potential planning paths that include the action sequences provide the foundation for setting concrete values for the importance of goals, standards, and tastes of the character as well as for determining the availability of implicated plans during runtime.
12 Nov 2012
TL;DR: A comic sketch model for autonomous agents with affective reasoning is presented that prepares the timing of the comic punchline by reasoning about emotional states in a process called Emotional Escalation.
Abstract: The growing interest for Interactive Storytelling has lead the research into the exploration of this new media in classical story genres. In our research, we develop autonomous agents that act in a storytelling context with a comic purpose. We present a comic sketch model for autonomous agents with affective reasoning. The agents that use this model prepare the timing of the comic punchline by reasoning about emotional states in a process called Emotional Escalation. The punchline used for our test scenario, as well as the personality of the comic characters is based on the humour theory of incongruity-resolution.
12 Nov 2012
TL;DR: A digital interactive narrative application integrated with a "step-by-step" guide to the counselor, which could be adapted to many different situations and contexts where an adult professional counselor (or therapists) needs to establish a trustful and efficient communication with children.
Abstract: In this article we explore the means by which state-of-the-art knowledge on children counseling techniques can be combined with digital interactive narrative tools to facilitate communication with children during counseling sessions. The field of "narrative play therapy" could profit from the reconciliation between free-play and narratives afforded by interactive digital tools in order to promote children's engagement. We present a digital interactive narrative application integrated with a "step-by-step" guide to the counselor, which could be adapted to many different situations and contexts where an adult professional counselor (or therapists) needs to establish a trustful and efficient communication with children. Furthermore, the tool was specifically customized to pediatric audiology counseling. Our evaluation shows that the tool maintains the centrality of the child's perspective thanks to the emergent interactive storytelling process. At the same time the counselor is given the means for obtaining valuable information for guiding and structuring the therapeutic process.
12 Nov 2012
TL;DR: The findings suggest that Aporia appears as a non-linear emergent narrative experience with a high level of engagement facilitating a desire to continue playing the game.
Abstract: This paper is a reflective description of the development and the evaluation of the experimental game 'Aporia'. The project demonstrates an exploration of interactive environmental storytelling and an evaluation of engagement as measured by continuation desire in a non-violent first-person computer game. The test method involves the interruption of the player during gameplay at specific points and assessing their desire to continue. The objective of the interactive experience in the game is to convey a pre-written story through environmental storytelling by the use of pictorial cues in an immersive, atmospheric and aesthetic environment. The findings suggest that Aporia appears as a non-linear emergent narrative experience with a high level of engagement facilitating a desire to continue playing the game.
12 Nov 2012
TL;DR: The use of motion capture devices for recognition of body movements as key elements for designing interactive stories in virtual environments is discussed, presenting the findings in the early stages of development of a serious game that uses Microsoft Kinect.
Abstract: The limitations of current technology in the field of user interaction cause a bottleneck in the development of interactive digital storytelling systems. The use of body language has recently arisen as a simple but expressive approach to human-computer interaction, motion capture devices being used in interactive simulations and videogames. This paper discusses the use of these devices for recognition of body movements as key elements for designing interactive stories in virtual environments, presenting our findings in the early stages of development of a serious game that uses Microsoft Kinect for allowing players to interact in a more sensitive and amusing way.
12 Nov 2012
TL;DR: This short paper examines existing evaluation methods in the area of generative narrative system Riu, and identifies several important properties of stories and reading that have so far been overlooked in empirical studies.
Abstract: Evaluation is one of the major open problems in Interactive Digital Storytelling (IDS) research. As narrative systems grow in their capacities, the community needs a set of well-designed evaluation methods and criteria that can bring insights on the systems as well as the stories they provide. In this short paper, we examine existing evaluation methods in the area of generative narrative system, and identify several important properties of stories and reading that have so far been overlooked in empirical studies. We present our preliminary work of developing a more interdisciplinary evaluation approach that takes into account both the system and cultural aspects of the computational narrative system Riu.
12 Nov 2012
TL;DR: This edition of this workshop series at ICIDS concentrates on artifacts produced or released in the last two years and broadens the perspective by asking participants to present examples of their own choosing to the workshop in order to ensure as much breadth in the understanding of current works as possible.
Abstract: The theoretical understanding of interactive digital narrative must evolve in order to accommodate recent trends and development in the practice of this constantly evolving form of human expression. This edition of our workshop series at ICIDS concentrates on artifacts produced or released in the last two years. In addition, it broadens the perspective by asking participants to present examples of their own choosing to the workshop in order to ensure as much breadth in the understanding of current works as possible. The presented artifacts will then be analyzed and classified with a cutting-edge theoretical perspective based on our continued research into a combined universal theoretical perspective for interactive digital narrative.