Synthetic group dynamics in entertainment scenarios: creating believable interactions in groups of synthetic characters

ABSTRACT

Today, many interactive games and virtual communities engage several users and synthetic characters, all interacting in the same virtual environment. In addition, these interactive scenarios, often present tasks to the participants that must be solved collaboratively. However, to achieve successful and believable interactions between users and such synthetic characters, the latter must be able to show a coherent and set of behaviours. Thus, in scenarios where users and syn-thetic characters interact as a group, it is very important that the interactions follow a believable group dynamics. Focusing on this problem, we have developed a model that supports the dynamics of a group of synthetic characters, inspired by theories of group dynamics developed in human social psychological sciences. The dynamics is driven by a characterization of the different types of interactions that may occur in the group. This characterization addresses socio-emotional interactions as well as task related interactions.We have implemented the model into the behaviour of synthetic characters that collaborate with the user in the resolution of tasks within a collaborative game. This game was used in an evaluation experiment which showed that the model had a positive effect on the users' social engagement in the group, namely on their trust and identification with the group.

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INDEX TERMS

General Terms:
Design, Experimentation, Human Factors

Keywords:
autonomous synthetic characters, callaboration, group dynamics, human-computer interaction