Talk given at Computational modelling in games at BIRS, Banff, Canada in May 2016. Michael Mateas and Andy Nealen who organised the event had provided me with an abstract to use as a starting point: “What are the different representational areas/aspects of narrative systems (e.g. dialog, story progression, etc.) and what kinds of formalisms support modeling these areas? What are the authoring tradeoffs that arise with different commitments to computational representations of narrative? For combinatorial narrative systems, how can player-perceived qualities of the narrative be modeled for guiding the combinatorial space? What might the design space look like for different approaches for player interaction with narrative systems?” I started out making a talk where each of the questions were adressed in a section. It became a quite long and arid deck of slides. Then it struck me that 1. many of the creators of the systems I would talk about would be in the very same room, and 2. the talk was supposed to be inspirational and seed conversations for the workshop. So I re-made the talk. I started out listing the challenges for computational narrative that we came up with at a similar seminar, one that was held in Dagstuhl in 2012. Interestingly, a lot has happened in those 4 years, much as an effect that the literacy in building expressive systems has dramatically increased - I can’t see another explanation for that there has been so many really good and ambitious - successfully ambitions - projects released lately. I’m thinking of IceBound, Blood and Laurels, and 80 Days among others. At the same time, there is the notion that the field of computational narrative has harped on unceccessfvlly hopping into rabbit holes, fighting wind-mills and chased impossible grails. In the talk, I made the argument that the field of computational narrative can only seen has having failed (illustrated by a screenshot from wikipedia) if you have a very fixed and narrow image of what the grail that is being chased actually look like. If you instead look at what is actually out there, both in terms of novels coming alive, games with high quality narrative, and story making games - well the reality speaks for itself. Computational narrative is thriving. The talk was video-taped, and is accessible here: http://www.birs.ca/events/2016/5-day-workshops/16w5160/videos/watch/201605161034-Eladhari.html

1. COMPUTATIONAL NARRATIVE AND NARRATIVE SYSTEMS
BIRS Workshop on Computational Modeling in Games, May 2016
Mirjam Palosaari Eladhari

2. ABOUT ME
➤ Game designer, researcher, and indie
developer.
➤ Research associate at Institute of Digital
Games in Malta, and at Dept. of
Computer and System Sciences at
Stockholm University
➤ Recently founded Otter Play - one person
indie studio
➤ Current interests: Story Making Games,
co-creation of believable agents, and
watercolour painting
➤ Past: Game Programmer 2000-02, Liquid
Media
Tech Lead, Zero Game Studio, Interactive
Institute 2002 - 04
Then: 10+ years of game research &
faculty work, mostly in Game AI &
Design.

3. computational narrative
Ruth Aylett, Mirjam Eladhari, Richard Evans, Paolo
Burelli, Ana Paiva, R. MichaelYoung
Dagstuhl 2012

4. techniques
• sandbox + human game master
• Improv and role play
• AI Director
• Planning: top-down, bottom-up and
heterogeneous

5. state of the art:
commercial games
• extremely limited use
of computational
narrative ideas
• when used, not
particularly significant
in scope, impact or
novelty
state of the art:
research systems
• correspondingly
fragmented
• few completed
systems (with one
remarkable
exception), mostly
frames used for
evaluation

6. some areas have focuses
problems and many methods
problems
some areas have focuses
problems and many methods
approaches

7. some areas have core
techniques addressing many
problems
problems
approaches

8. computational narrative has many
challenges, many methods
problems
approaches

9. • an ideal visualizer/realization system
• ability for expressive model of unfolding story to
be influenced by player action -- the reconciliation
of narrative structure with interactivity
• the generation of narratives in which characters
evolve, grow or experience internal dynamics
• construction of stories from game play logs, in
particular MMO data
• computer-assisted role play for training
challenges
(in no particular order)

10. • ability for expressive model of unfolding
story to be influenced by player action
• character progression
• Camera control
• system where players can add narrative
content meaning for group in game world
challenges
(in no particular order)

11. the future
we discussed ideas for the longer-term
future of computational narrative.

12. the future: pervasive
narrative
• ARG-like games that blend augmented
reality with conventional game play and
narrative generation to create stories
embedded in the real world

13. the future: a library of
generative classics
• We have effectively one system that
provides an interactive story-like
experience
• One goal for the future is to develop a list
of classic such systems, that can be
experienced, described, reflected upon, etc,
much like lists of classic literature or classic
games are considered today

14. living stories
• long-lasting, never ending stories
• comparable to soap operas in the extended
nature of their plot lines

15. human-robot narrative
systems
systems that automatically create hybrid interaction, where
human players interact with robotic systems as NPCs

16. novels coming alive
• with the publishing of each new novel, a companion
interactive narrative experience is also released
• set in the same story world
• organized around the plot of the novel
• narrative content is created dynamically and adapts to
user interaction, exploration
• maintains both internal coherence and coherence with
the story of the novel

20. • Eliza effect: audience
expectations allow a system to
have additional virtual
complexity.
• Seems smarter than it is
• Tale Spin effect is the inverse of
Eliza effect – the system is more
complex than it looks.
• Smartness not visible
• Sim City Effect - being present
in “systems that shape their
surface experience to enable the
audience to build up an
understanding of a relatively
complex internal structure”
• so smart!
2009

21. RE-TELLING, NARRATIVE, (FAN-FICTION)

22. NARRATIVE POTENTIAL
Deep structure – the antecedent driving forces
of the different actants in the game.

23. NARRATIVE POTENTIAL
Deep structure – the antecedent driving forces
of the different actants in the game.
A story is a fixed temporal sequence of events
and the actors that take part in these.
Discourse: The ordering of the sequence - by
author, or by player/reader choosing how to
traverse.

24. NARRATIVE POTENTIAL
Deep structure – the antecedent driving forces
of the different actants in the game.
A narrative is a story the way it is told.
A story is a fixed temporal sequence of events
and the actors that take part in these.
Discourse: The ordering of the sequence - by
author, or by player/reader choosing how to
traverse.

25. RE-TELLING, NARRATIVE, (FAN-FICTION)

27. Deep structure - actants and driving forces
Story - a sequence of
events: ordered by author
or as traveled by player/
reader (discourse)
Narration - how the
story is told/realized
Retelling/narrative

28. Deep structure - actants and driving forces
Story - a sequence of
events: ordered by author
or as traveled by player/
reader (discourse)
Narrative Systems
allow manipulation
on a sliding scale on
deep-structure and
story + discourse
levels
Narration - how the
story is told/realized
Retelling/narrative

29. EXAMPLES
Successful applications

30. Facade
• InteractiveStory.net

31. TBSim

32. IDTension -> TBSim

33.
Prom Week
promweek.soe.ucsc.edu

38. • http://www.aigameresearch.org/portfolio-item/versu/

44. HIGH QUALITY INTERACTIVE FICTION, HERE REPRESENTED BY EMILY SHORT

45. 80 DAYS

51. LARP LATELY - JUST KEEPS GROWING IN SCANDINAVIA
➤ EDU LARPS common. 2 schools in Denmark who do their
whole curriculum via larping.
➤ LARP at the Swedish National Scene (Royal Dramatic
Theatre)

52. Story Making Games

53. Story Making Games

54. NOW
➤ Common for success:
➤ high quality authoring
➤ approaches for co-creation
that support high quality input
from players/readers through
➤ Design
➤ Skilled game mastering.
➤ Carefully designed
interfaces for making input
to systems with PCG
➤ Increased literacy and proficiency
in computational expression

55. Computational modeling in Games 2016 -
Computational Narrative and Narrative Systems
Identify
New Approaches
New Solutions
New Opportunities
New Challenges