A battle of wit: Applying computational humour to game design

Abstract

There is still a dearth of humour in computer games. To spur the use of humour in games and overcome some of the difficulties in producing humour, we advance that game design can benefit from research in computational humour. The focus of this paper is thus on verbal humour and humour design. Integrating computational humour in games could facilitate humour scripting and solve one of the oldest problems in game humour related to repetition. A humour bot could enhance gamers’ experiences, by stimulating social bonding or supporting comic relief. We believe that the use of computational humour for game design would enhance players’ laughter and designers’ creativity. Last, as game design can benefit from advances in computational humour, so virtual agents can from game research.