Towards expressive input for character dialogue in digital games

Abstract

While there has been work in interactive narrative built using theory and practice from theater, it has mostly focused on the structure of narrative and how a player's interaction with the plot alters that structure. How a player interacts has usually been tied to common game interaction paradigms. There is an understanding that a videogame player exists somewhere between an audience member and a stage actor - -but rarely are players allowed to express themselves in a manner similar to an actor. This paper argues that the acting and directing knowledge of theater is a potentially bountiful resource for designing player and NPC interactions. To illustrate this, the paper presents a literature review of theatrical methodology, its existing relationship to games, and a survey of projects in the interactive narrative and character interaction spaces. The chosen theater practices provide a useful basis for a new type of interaction between players and non-player characters. Additionally, particularly when looking at acting practices, their major concerns with the relationship between character and actor provide useful language to describe and further explore the relationship between the player and their avatar. Finally, this paper proposes one possible way of building systems to encourage new modes of play and alter the relationship between designers, systems, and players.