:: Research Goal :: (old)

:: Research Goal ::

The uncharted possibilities of interactive media would be a
fruitful area of research, because of the intellectual stigma that
overlooks video games. This under-explored idiom can potentially express
literary genius and cinematic masterpiece through the creative development
of AI and VR. The field of entertainment technology has created a means
to see the world in ways that real life restricted, not that actions did
not yield consequences, but that one could always go back and discover the
correct or alternative way of doing things. Quite skeptical of the
cooperation between academia and entertainment, I hope to tie these areas
together through scholarship.
Dr. Selmer Bringsjord, a specialist in the logico-mathematical and
philosophical foundations of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive
Science, asks, “is it possible to build dramatically compelling
interactive digital entertainment.” He describes it as a challenge to be
conquered by “seminal advances in the intersection of artificial
intelligence and narratives,” and more specifically the role of character
autonomy. Four primary aspects in character agents of interest are:
dialogue, mobility, personalization, and robust automata. Markku
Eskelinen, an independent scholar and experimental writer of ergodic
prose, interactive drama, critical essays and cybertext fiction, contrasts
with that of Dr. Bringsjord in his conclusion that “gaming mechanisms are
suffering from slow or even lethargic states of development, as they are
constantly and intentionally confused with narrative or dramatic cinematic
mechanisms.” The goal for this research is to observe the evolution of
these aspects within video games and uncover the correlation between
transient and intransient events from the player’s point of view.
The significance of this study is to answer the question, “how can
an interactive narrative intellectually and emotionally engage its user
while effectively communicating a series of volatile yet meaningful
events?” At one end of the spectrum, we’d find movies and theater; while
at the other, we’d find virtual playgrounds of finite causes with
corresponding effects. How do we optimize these two components such that
we have significant plot development in addition to personal sentiment of
the user? The scope of this research is within the artificial
intelligence of character development in virtual worlds; that is, the
dynamic personalities and emotioneering of these quasi-autonomous agents
and their importance towards non-ergodic story telling. It is the
purpose of this study to comparatively analyze the evolution of
intelligent agents and human-agent interactions within the field of
entertainment technology and its potential for constructing elaborate
worlds and inducing revolutionary experiences.