In the past few years, there have been many examples showing the use of game environments as expe... more In the past few years, there have been many examples showing the use of game environments as experimental platforms to advance science research. For some scientific research questions, specifically pertaining to social psychology, social believability and structure of the game environment and the characters inhabiting this environment is important. In the past year, we have started a collaborative project with psychology researchers utilizing game environments to investigate the relationship between non-verbal behaviors and trust. This study was motivated by psychological findings uncovering evidence suggesting that older adults appear to be less likely to differentiate trustworthy from untrustworthy nonverbal cues. In order to conduct such studies within a virtual environment, the environment needs to have virtual characters that are socially believable, behaviorally consistent yet controllable. This paper discusses a work in progress developing a novel gaming architecture composed of a set of semi-autonomous socially believable characters with different personalities, a scenario system, and a Wizard of Oz interface for psychologists to manipulate characters' behaviors. The paper discusses the current state of the art of the system and future directions of its use.
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Papers by Dinh Nguyen