A presentation I gave at an autumn school on serious games and contemporary AI. I address how playing games is more than just abiding by the rules: the complete interaction with the system is important for the experience.

1. Meta Matters in
Stories and Games
Jeroen Linssen | PhD student
Human Media Interaction
University of Twente
2014-10-04

2. ■ Different players, different games, different styles
Intelligent board games
(cont.)
Meta Matters 2/25

3. The game & the experience
Meta Matters
Experience
Bla?
Bla!
*(@#*&(
!!!#@$@
Game
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4. ■ http://vimeo.com/68865491
The Interactive Storyteller
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5. ■ Red skips to the beach.
■ Granny bursts out in tears.
■ Child playing Granny: Because you are leaving me!
■ Hello, says Wolf to Red.
■ Child 1: You have to give him the cake!
■ Child 2: It has to be poisoned first.
■ Child 1: (...) I will do that, alright?
Analysing play
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6. Perspective × Reference
Meta Matters
Reference
Story Game Reality
Character In-character
utterances and
imitations
In-character about
game elements
In-character about
events outside play
Player Action suggestions
referring to story
Communication
about game aspects
Including real-life
events or objects in
play
Person Observations about
events in story
Observations about
interface, opinions
about game
Communication
about events or
objects outside play
Perspective
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7. ■ First:
■ Discuss system mechanics
■ Complain about interface
■ Later:
■ Planning in story
■ Less about system mechanics
■ Playing is more than just the game itself!
Findings
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8. ■ “– 100 XP!”
■ Mass Effect 3 controversy:
mismatched expectations
■ People contain multitudes...
Meta-game thinking
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9. ■ ...so what about virtual agents?
■ In-character vs. out-of-character
The Virtual Storyteller
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10. ■ Out-of-character thinking about the plot
■ Doing ‘interesting’ actions
■ Limiting actions per story phase
Plot control
Meta Matters
Exposition
Rising
action
Climax
Falling
action
Denouement
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11. ■ http://vimeo.com/11836534
Late commitment
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12. ■ Omniscient characters: no deception, no betrayals
■ Limit characters’ perception...
■ ...but how can they plan towards goals?
■ Using assumptions
Perceptions & assumptions
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13. Meta Matters 13/25

14. ■ Agents with emotions
■ Double appraisal
■ Serious ‘game’: player helps character cope
FearNot!
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15. ■ “All games revolve around learning.” (Erik van der Spek)
■ “Learning starts when the game stops.”
■ Lemniscate Model
Serious games: reflection
Meta Matters
Game Learning
15/25

16. ■ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tOCnd8ZHG8
■ Improving social awareness
■ Interaction with virtual agents
■ Cognitive model for social interaction
LOITER: Interaction with
virtual characters
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17. ■ Goals? Meta-goals!
■ Learning goals based on theories from social psychology
■ Examples: recognise stance and adopt a stance
■ Feedback for reflection
■ Explainable AI
■ Supports the learning goals
Learning goals & feedback
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18. ■ (Nordic) live action role play
■ Meta-technique: communicating
out-of-character information
■ Examples: inner monologue,
flashbacks/forwards
Meta-techniques
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19. ■ Provide insight into characters’ minds
■ Inspiration: thought bubbles
from comics, games
■ Not very intrusive to story flow,
still play/reflect cycle
Meta-technique:
‘Inner monologue’
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20. ■ Complexity levels of interaction/learning goals
■ Feedback through discussion: explainable AI
■ More intrusive play & reflect cycle
Meta-technique:
‘Act break’
Meta Matters
Part 1
Act
break
Part 2
Act
break
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21. ■ Tutor agents
■ Breaking the 4th wall
Integrating the meta
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22. ■ Replayability & adaptive difficulty
AI Director
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23. ■ A game is more than its rules
■ Humans are agents too
■ Design for the whole experience!
Reflections
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24. Take Home Message
Be μετά

25. Thanks Thanks for
listening!
listening!
Let’s Let’s discuss...
mail j.m.linssen@utwente.nl
blog jmlin.eu/phd
Virtual Storyteller virtualstoryteller.info
IUALL.nl
And they learned happily ever after...
Meta Matters 25/25

26. ■ Theune, M., Linssen, J.M., & Alofs, T. (2013). Acting, Playing or Talking about
the Story: Children’s Communication during Interactive Digital Storytelling. In
Proceedings of the International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling.
■ Bruijnes, M., Linssen, J.M., op den Akker, H.J.A., Theune, M., Wapperom, S.,
Broekema, C., & Heylen, D.K.J. (2014). Social Behaviour in Police Interviews:
Relating Data to Theories, in Poggi, I., Vincze, L., & Vinciarelli, A. (eds.)
Conflict and Negotiation: Social Research and Machine Intelligence, Springer,
Berlin.
■ Linssen, J.M., Theune, M., & de Groot, T.F. (2013). What Is at Play? Meta-techniques
in Serious Games and Their Effects on Social Believability and
Learning. In Proceedings of the Social Believability in Games Workshop.
■ Linssen, J.M., de Groot, T.F., & Theune, M. (2014). Beyond Simulations: Serious
Games for Training Interpersonal Skills in Law Enforcement. In Proceedings of
the International Conference of the European Social Simulation Association.
■ van Oostendorp, H., van der Spek, E.D., & Linssen, J.M. (2014). Adapting the
Complexity Level of a Serious Game to the Proficiency of Players. EAI Endorsed
Transactions on Serious Games, 14(2).
Publications
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27. ■ Murray, J. H. (1997). Hamlet on the holodeck: The future of
narrative in cyberspace. Simon and Schuster, New York, NY.
■ Belarbi, S., Bergström, K., Ebbehøj, S. L., Hansen, E. E.,
Fatland, E., Giæver, O. P., … Westlund, A. (2010). Nordic
larp. (J. Stenros & M. Montola, Eds.).
■ Swartjes, I. M. T. (2010). Whose story is it anyway? How
improv informs agency and authorship of emergent narrative.
Centre for Telematics and Information Technology University
of Twente.
■ XKCD.com, comic 1089
References (1/2)
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28. ■ Aylett, R., Louchart, S., Dias, J., Paiva, A., & Vala, M.
(2005). FearNot! An experiment in emergent narrative. In
Intelligent Virtual Agents (pp. 305–316).
■ Koops, M., & Hoevenaar, M. (2012). Conceptual Change
During a Serious Game: Using a Lemniscate Model to
Compare Strategies in a Physics Game. Simulation &
Gaming, 44(4), 544–561.
References (2/2)
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29. ■ Mariët Theune, coordinator (2002 – now)
■ Hans ten Brinke, perceptions and assumptions (2014)
■ Thijs Alofs, Interactive Storyteller (2012)
■ Ivo Swartjes, lead designer (2006 – 2010)
■ Pjotter Tommassen, plot control (2009)
■ Nanda Slabbers, language generation (2006)
■ Sander Rensen (2003)
■ Sander Faas (2002)
Virtual Storyteller credits
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30. ■ D&D picture:
http://www.blastr.com/2010/06/easy_version_of_dd_create.php
■ Community screenshot: http://io9.com/5810498/did-you-hear-about-the-
time-nbc-tried-to-kill-communitys-dd-episode
■ Monopoly: http://chnetwork.org/2013/08/parable-of-the-game-by-marcus-
grodi/
■ Little Red Riding Hood lithograph:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11592/11592-h/11592-h.htm
■ Larp picture: Ralf Hüls
■ Left 4 Dead AI director:
http://www.valvesoftware.com/publications/2009/ai_systems_of_l4d
_mike_booth.pdf
Sources
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