Skip to main content

Towards Capturing and Enhancing Entertainment in Computer Games

  • Conference paper

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 3955))

Abstract

This paper introduces quantitative measurements/metrics of qualitative entertainment features within computer game environments and proposes artificial intelligence (AI) techniques for optimizing entertainment in such interactive systems. A human-verified metric of interest (i.e. player entertainment in real-time) for predator/prey games and a neuro-evolution on-line learning (i.e. during play) approach have already been reported in the literature to serve this purpose. In this paper, an alternative quantitative approach to entertainment modeling based on psychological studies in the field of computer games is introduced and a comparative study of the two approaches is presented. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) and fuzzy ANNs are used to model player satisfaction (interest) in real-time and investigate quantitatively how the qualitative factors of challenge and curiosity contribute to human entertainment. We demonstrate that appropriate non-extreme levels of challenge and curiosity generate high values of entertainment and we discuss the extensibility of the approach to other genres of digital entertainment and edutainment.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Champandard, A.J.: AI Game Development. New Riders Publishing (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Csikszentmihalyi, M.: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper & Row, New York (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Funge, J.D.: Artificial Intelligence for Computer Games. A. K. Peters Ltd (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Holland, J.H.: Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems. University of Michigan Press (1975)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Iida, H., Takeshita, N., Yoshimura, J.: A Metric for Entertainment of Boardgames: its implication for evolution of chess variants. In: IWEC2002 Proceedings, pp. 65–72. Kluwer, Dordrecht (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Laird, J.E., van Lent, M.: Human-level AI’s Killer Application: Interactive Computer Games. In: Proceedings of the 7th National Conf. on AI, pp. 1171–1178 (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Malone, T.W.: What makes computer games fun? Byte 6, 258–277 (1981)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Montana, D.J., Davis, L.D.: Training feedforward neural networks using genetic algorithms. In: Proceedings of the 11th IJCAI, pp. 762–767. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco (1989)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Nareyek, A.: Review: Intelligent Agents for Computer Games. In: Marsland, T., Frank, I. (eds.) CG 2001. LNCS, vol. 2063, pp. 414–422. Springer, Heidelberg (2002)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  10. Sugeno, M.: Indstrial Applicatios of Fuzzy Control. North-Holland, Amsterdam (1985)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Taatgen, N.A., van Oploo, M., Braaksma, J., Niemantsverdriet, J.: How to construct a believable opponent using cognitive modeling in the game of set. In: Proceedings of the fifth international conference on cognitive modeling, pp. 201–206 (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Yannakakis, G.N., Hallam, J.: Evolving Opponents for Interesting Interactive Computer Games. In: From Animals to Animats 8: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Simulation of Adaptive Behavior, pp. 499–508. The MIT Press, Cambridge (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Yannakakis, G.N., Hallam, J.: A Generic Approach for Obtaining Higher Entertainment in Predator/Prey Computer Games. Journal of Game Development 3(1), 23–50 (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Yannakakis, G.N., Hallam, J.: A Generic Approach for Generating Interesting Interactive Pac-Man Opponents. In: Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Games, pp. 94–101 (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Yannakakis, G.N., Hallam, J.: A Scheme for Creating Digital Entertainment with Substance. In: Proceedings of the Workshop on Reasoning, Representation, and Learning in Computer Games, 19th IJCAI, pp. 119–124 (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Yannakakis, G.N., Hallam, J.: Towards Optimizing Entertainment in Computer Games. Applied Artificial Intelligence, June 2005 (submitted)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Yao, X.: Evolving Artificial Neural Networks. Proceedings of the IEEE 87, 1423–1447 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Zadeh, L.: Fuzzy Sets. Information and Control 8, 338–353 (1965)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Yannakakis, G.N., Hallam, J. (2006). Towards Capturing and Enhancing Entertainment in Computer Games. In: Antoniou, G., Potamias, G., Spyropoulos, C., Plexousakis, D. (eds) Advances in Artificial Intelligence. SETN 2006. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 3955. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11752912_43

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11752912_43

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-34117-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-34118-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics