Story and discourse: A bipartite model of narrative generation in virtual worlds

In this paper, we set out a basic approach to the modeling of narrative in interactive virtual worlds. This approach adopts a bipartite model taken from narrative theory, in which narrative is composed of story and discourse. In our approach, story elements — plot and character — are defined in terms of plans that drive the dynamics of a virtual environment. Discourse elements — the narrative’s communicative actions — are defined in terms of discourse plans whose communicative goals include conveying the story world plan’s structure. To ground the model in computational terms, we provide examples from research under way in the Liquid Narrative Group involving the design of the Mimesis system, an architecture for intelligent interactive narrative incorporating concepts from artificial intelligence, narrative theory, cognitive psychology and computational linguistics.

[1]  Johanna D. Moore,et al.  Planning Text for Advisory Dialogues: Capturing Intentional and Rhetorical Information , 1993, CL.

[2]  Earl David Sacerdoti,et al.  A Structure for Plans and Behavior , 1977 .

[3]  Robert Michael Young,et al.  Managing interaction between users and agents in a multi-agent storytelling environment , 2003, AAMAS '03.

[4]  T. Trabasso,et al.  Causal relatedness and importance of story events , 1985 .

[5]  J. Bryant,et al.  FACTORS INVOLVED IN GENERATING SUSPENSE , 1982 .

[6]  William C. Mann,et al.  RHETORICAL STRUCTURE THEORY: A THEORY OF TEXT ORGANIZATION , 1987 .

[7]  Robert Michael Young,et al.  Comparing Cognitive and Computational Models of Narrative Structure , 2004, AAAI.

[8]  R. Michael Young,et al.  Cooperative Plan Identification: Constructing Concise and Effective Plan Descriptions , 1999, AAAI/IAAI.

[9]  S. Chatman,et al.  Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film , 1979 .

[10]  Nicolas Szilas,et al.  A New Approach to Interactive Drama: From Intelligent Characters to an Intelligent Virtual Narrator , 2001 .

[11]  Robert Michael Young,et al.  Towards an architecture for intelligent control of narrative in interactive virtual worlds , 2003, IUI '03.

[12]  D. Arijon,et al.  Grammar of Film Language , 1976 .

[13]  Catherine Emmott,et al.  Narrative Comprehension: A Discourse Perspective , 1997 .

[14]  Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan.  Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics , 1983 .

[15]  Nikitas M. Sgouros.  Dynamic Generation, Management and Resolution of Interactive Plots , 1999, Artif. Intell..

[16]  R. Gerrig,et al.  Readers as problem-solvers in the experience of suspense , 1994 .

[17]  Matthew Lombard,et al.  At the Heart of It All: The Concept of Presence , 2006 .

[18]  Fred Charles,et al.  Planning formalisms and authoring in interactive storytelling , 2003 .

[19]  Johanna D. Moore,et al.  Planning Text for Advisory Dialogues , 1989, ACL.

[20]  Marc Cavazza,et al.  Planning characters' behaviour in interactive storytelling , 2002, Comput. Animat. Virtual Worlds.

[21]  Subbarao Kambhampati,et al.  Planning as Refinement Search: A Unified Framework for Evaluating Design Tradeoffs in Partial-Order Planning , 1995, Artif. Intell..

[22]  Johanna D. Moore,et al.  Towards a Principled Representation of Discourse Plans , 1994, Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.

[23]  Johanna D. Moore,et al.  Decomposition and Causality in Partial-order Planning , 1994, AIPS.

[24]  M. J. Rattermann,et al.  Partial and total‐order planning: evidence from normal and prefrontally damaged populations , 2001 .

[25]  R. Michael Young,et al.  Notes on the Use of Plan Structures in the Creation of Interactive Plot , 1999 .

[26]  M. Bal,et al.  Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative , 1988 .