Culturally Appropriate Behavior in Virtual Agents: A Review

Abstract

Social behavior cannot be considered without the culture in which it is expressed. The following is a concise state of the art review of intelligent virtual agents displaying culturally appropriate behavior in games and serious games. In particular, it focuses on agents displaying personality and emotion, and their ability to engage in social interactions with others. The relationship between the characters’ external representation and the cultural believability is highlighted; and the internal and visual aspects of the current state of the art agents are discussed. A schematic view of the literature and the elements required for embodied culturally appropriate agents is presented, offering opportunities for future research.