I am currently working on investigating the formation and structure of interaction and communication between players of multi-player games. Focus is on the collaborative storytelling process and the resulting narrative. The development of interactive media that can mimic human-controlled collaborative communication and -interaction is essential to next-generation simulation- and training software, computer games and persistently online virtual worlds. Current projects include the study of how the narrative development is affected as games migrate from one medium to another, and how the medium influences the generation of tension and emotive responses. This including analysis of how gender and cultural background influences the interactive and collaborative formation of the narrative. It is hoped that these projects will help clarify whether meaningful interactive communication, in a games-based framework, requires a human mind behind it; or whether software, developed by combining artificial intelligence technology with structural data from human-controlled interactive storytelling, can simulate human-controlled interactive communication. |
