This document discusses adding emotion to games to make them more engaging. It outlines that while today's games focus on visual realism and simulations, they are still limited in emotional realism and social complexity. The document argues that for the next big leap, games would benefit from adapting to players' emotional states and enhancing the social and emotional complexity of game characters and narratives. It provides background on emotion research and affective computing methods that could be applied to game design.

1. Affective Gaming: Making Games More Engaging by Adding Emotion WPI 1 October 2009 Eva Hudlicka Psychometrix Associates Blacksburg, VA [email_address] psychometrixassociates.com

4. In Terms of the Full Potential of Gaming.. We Are About Here…

11. Emotion Generation via Appraisal Stimuli Recalled Perceived Imagined Appraisal Process Emotions Existing emotions, moods, traits (personality) Goals (desires, values, standards) Beliefs, Expectations

12. What Does Emotion Do Once It’s Been Generated?

14. Emotion Effects on Behavior Emotion Facial expression Gestures Posture Behavior Blah blah blah

17. KISMET - Cynthia Breazeal, MIT Media Lab

18. Max - Becker-Asano et al.

20. Central Role of Affective Models MAX (Becker, Prendinger et al.) Breazeal De Rosis Affective Models

25. Affective Architectures Control Agent Behavior Effects of Emotions (on cognition & behavior) Generation of Emotions (via cognitive appraisal) Agent Architecture Emotions Stimuli

28. Black Box Models Directly map stimuli onto emotions: Character gains points ---> Happy Character loses points ---> Sad Character outsmarted ---> Angry Character ridiculed --> ????? Ooops! No rule for that one Now what?

30. STIMULI Novelty Valence Goal relevance Outcome probability Urgency Goal congruence Agency Coping potential Norms high high v. high low other low low high FEAR Componential View: Appraisal Variables

31. Stimuli --> Appraisal Variables --> Emotion(s) This is the difficult part! N-Dim Appraisal Vector Distance measure (Euclidean dist.) World & Self Emotions ? N-Dim Emotion Space

33. Modeling Emotion Effects on Attention, Perception & Cognition Effects of Emotions (on cognition) Cognitive-Affective Architecture Situations Expectations Goals Cognitive Appraisal Emotions Stimuli

37. Modeling Methodology: Overview (Hudlicka, MAMID) Individual Differences individual behavior influenced by ... ‘ Ignore friend’ vs. ‘ Ask for help’ vs. ‘ Kill (by mistake)’ Architecture Parameter Calculation Cognitive-Affective Architecture Cognitive-Affective Architecture Parameters architecture processing controlled by..... Behavior Outputs different individual profiles manifested in terms of different

38. Possible NPC Architecture & Constructs (Hudlicka, MAMID) Cues Actions Attention Cues: State of the world (“Enemy seen” “ Resources adequate”) Situation Assessment Situations: Perceived state ( “Able to capture enemy” ) Expectation Generator Expectations: Expected state (“Enemy successfully captured”; “ Game points gained”; “Game won”) Goal Manager Goals: Desired state (“Game points high”) Action Selection Actions: to accomplish goals (“Capture enemy”) Affect Appraiser Affective state & emotions : Valence: Positive Happiness: High Anxiety: Low

39. Personality & Emotions As Parameters Traits Extraversion Stability Conscientiousness Aggressiveness STATES / TRAITS Processing Structural Module Parameters Construct parameters Architecture topology Long-term memory speed, capacity Cue selection & delay …. Data flow among modules Content & structure Affective States Anxiety Anger Sadness Joy COGNITIVE ARCHITECTURE Attention Action Selection Situation Assessment Goal Manager Expectation Generator Affect Appraiser ARCHITECTURE PARAMETERS

40. Modeling Threat Bias Processing Parameters - Cue selection - Interpretive biases ... Process Threat cues Process Threatening interpretations Traits Low Stability MAMID TRAITS / EMOTIONS COGNITIVE ARCHITECTURE PARAMETERS COGNITIVE ARCHITECTURE Attention Action Selection Situation Assessment Goal Manager Expectation Generator Emotion Generation Emotions Higher Anxiety / Fear Predisposes towards Preferential processing of Threatening stimuli Threat constructs Rated more highly

45. Questions? affectivegaming.org Broekens & Hudlicka