Predicting Beliefs from NPC Dialogues

Jason T. Bowey; Julian Frommel; Brandon Piller; Regan L. Mandryk

doi:10.1109/CoG52621.2021.9619099

Predicting Beliefs from NPC Dialogues

Jason T. Bowey
, Julian Frommel
, Brandon Piller
, Regan L. Mandryk

Multimedia

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Game designers and developers benefit from gathering data from players; however, interrupting play with questionnaires can harm experience. Previous work has suggested that embedding questionnaires into games, such as through dialogue choices when interacting with non-player characters (NPCs) can help, but there is no evidence that dialogue choices can model the real-world beliefs of players. In this study we demonstrate two methods of successfully predicting responses to validated scales of sexist beliefs from NPC dialogues that do not differ in their resulting narrative engagement. Our findings open opportunities for better tailoring games and game experiences by modeling players through their in-game interactions.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	2021 IEEE Conference on Games, CoG 2021
Publisher	IEEE
ISBN (Electronic)	9781665438865
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/CoG52621.2021.9619099
Publication status	Published - 2021
Event	2021 IEEE Conference on Games, CoG 2021 - Copenhagen, Denmark Duration: 17 Aug 2021 → 20 Aug 2021

Publication series

Name	IEEE Conference on Computatonal Intelligence and Games, CIG
Volume	2021-August
ISSN (Print)	2325-4270
ISSN (Electronic)	2325-4289

Conference

Conference	2021 IEEE Conference on Games, CoG 2021
Country/Territory	Denmark
City	Copenhagen
Period	17/08/21 → 20/08/21

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was funded by NSERC and the NSERC SWaGUR CREATE.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 IEEE.

Funding

This work was funded by NSERC and the NSERC SWaGUR CREATE.

Keywords

beliefs
dialogues
games user research
GUR
modeling
questionnaires
surveys

Access to Document

10.1109/CoG52621.2021.9619099

Cite this

@inproceedings{b717c59efdd74a27a183c6746dfb3f13,

title = "Predicting Beliefs from NPC Dialogues",

abstract = "Game designers and developers benefit from gathering data from players; however, interrupting play with questionnaires can harm experience. Previous work has suggested that embedding questionnaires into games, such as through dialogue choices when interacting with non-player characters (NPCs) can help, but there is no evidence that dialogue choices can model the real-world beliefs of players. In this study we demonstrate two methods of successfully predicting responses to validated scales of sexist beliefs from NPC dialogues that do not differ in their resulting narrative engagement. Our findings open opportunities for better tailoring games and game experiences by modeling players through their in-game interactions.",

keywords = "beliefs, dialogues, games user research, GUR, modeling, questionnaires, surveys",

author = "Bowey, \{Jason T.\} and Julian Frommel and Brandon Piller and Mandryk, \{Regan L.\}",

note = "Funding Information: This work was funded by NSERC and the NSERC SWaGUR CREATE. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 IEEE.; 2021 IEEE Conference on Games, CoG 2021 ; Conference date: 17-08-2021 Through 20-08-2021",

year = "2021",

doi = "10.1109/CoG52621.2021.9619099",

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AU - Frommel, Julian

AU - Piller, Brandon

AU - Mandryk, Regan L.

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N2 - Game designers and developers benefit from gathering data from players; however, interrupting play with questionnaires can harm experience. Previous work has suggested that embedding questionnaires into games, such as through dialogue choices when interacting with non-player characters (NPCs) can help, but there is no evidence that dialogue choices can model the real-world beliefs of players. In this study we demonstrate two methods of successfully predicting responses to validated scales of sexist beliefs from NPC dialogues that do not differ in their resulting narrative engagement. Our findings open opportunities for better tailoring games and game experiences by modeling players through their in-game interactions.

AB - Game designers and developers benefit from gathering data from players; however, interrupting play with questionnaires can harm experience. Previous work has suggested that embedding questionnaires into games, such as through dialogue choices when interacting with non-player characters (NPCs) can help, but there is no evidence that dialogue choices can model the real-world beliefs of players. In this study we demonstrate two methods of successfully predicting responses to validated scales of sexist beliefs from NPC dialogues that do not differ in their resulting narrative engagement. Our findings open opportunities for better tailoring games and game experiences by modeling players through their in-game interactions.

KW - beliefs

KW - dialogues

KW - games user research

KW - GUR

KW - modeling

KW - questionnaires

KW - surveys

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85122962001

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DO - 10.1109/CoG52621.2021.9619099

M3 - Conference contribution

AN - SCOPUS:85122962001

T3 - IEEE Conference on Computatonal Intelligence and Games, CIG

BT - 2021 IEEE Conference on Games, CoG 2021

PB - IEEE

T2 - 2021 IEEE Conference on Games, CoG 2021

Y2 - 17 August 2021 through 20 August 2021

ER -

Predicting Beliefs from NPC Dialogues

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

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