With a title like that, it was hard to resist this book in the context of Drama Princess.
\nThe enthusiasm tempered somewhat, after reading the first quarter of the book, because the target audience is clearly programmers, and not designers. Also, the focus is on NPCs as opponents to the player rather than elements in a narrative.<\/p>\n
The book goes on to summarize the diverse techniques that games have borrowed from A.I. to build NPCs without becoming overly ambitious anywhere. It really is not much more than a very comprehensive first step towards programming NPCs the traditional way. The book virtually exclusively focusses on characters in games that behave like the player, either as opponents or partners. It also exclusively deals with classic A.I. concepts and not with any from the more “behaviorist” side of the A.I. spectrum, which seems more suitable for our goals.<\/p>\n
That last chapter of the book deals with something closer to home: Creating Believable Non-Player Characters<\/em> in which finally the distinction is made between provable<\/em> intelligence and the perception<\/em> of intelligence, or believability. Which is ultimately the only thing that matters, in my opinion.<\/p>\n Disappointingly but not unexpectedly, the writer immediately jumps to the common conlusion:<\/p>\n To truly create an NPC with believable autonomy, interaction, and presence we must focus on the development op the NPC’s mind because it is the essence of behavior that needs to be captured.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Obviously, we disagree. Not necessarily with her conclusion but with the supposed obviousness of it. Since all we care about is the perception of the player, surely expressing<\/em> is more important than capturing<\/em>. And why would the mind be the essence of one’s behaviour anyway?<\/p>\n