AI or not AI in virtual characters...

Characters should be governed by narrative

The role of the user...

Putting psychologically realistic (and intelligent) behavior into virtual characters is an ongoing challenge for video game industry and research labs. But if one considers that video games tend to be a form of drama - interactive drama -, then this quest of realism should be questioned: should characters in a drama be realistic? How should they behave?
Since Aristotle, we know that characters should not be realistic but believable; this is not due to technical limitations but it is a fundamental principal, because the focus of drama lies on global narrative structures rather than individual (local) behaviors. Why a virtual character should act in a certain way? Because its "artificial intelligence" has calculated it should behave this way? Not really. Because first this action is interesting for the course of narrative and second it is believable.
This framework of thought being established, we are continuously developing an interactive drama. On the way, important questions arise: what is the role of the user/player/"spectactor"? How an author is going to write a narrative in this context? What kind of Artificial Intelligence algorithms do we really need?

(( PAPERS
   AAAI'99
   AAAI'01
   Cosign'02
   TIDSE'03
   ICVS'03
   TIDSE'04
   SRMC'04

(( LABS
   Have a look at IDtension...
   LINC
   VR Lab, Macquarie Univ.
   TECFA