Affect and believability in game characters:a review of the use of affective computing in games

Virtual agents are important in many digital environments. Designing a character that highly engages users in terms of interaction is an intricate task constrained by many requirements. One aspect that has gained more attention recently is the effective dimension of the agent. Several studies have addressed the possibility of developing an affect-aware system for a better user experience. Particularly in games, including emotional and social features in NPCs adds depth to the characters, enriches interaction possibilities, and combined with the basic level of competence, creates a more appealing game. Design requirements for emotionally intelligent NPCs differ from general autonomous agents with the main goal being a stronger player-agent relationship as opposed to problem solving and goal assessment. Nevertheless, deploying an affective module into NPCs adds to the complexity of the architecture and constraints. In addition, using such composite NPC in games seems beyond current technology, despite some brave attempts. However, a MARPO-type modular architecture would seem a useful starting point for adding emotions

A Model of Emotion as Patterned Metacontrol

Adaptive systems use feedback as a key strategy to cope with uncertainty and change in their environments. The information fed back from the sensorimotor loop into the control architecture can be used to change different elements of the controller at four different levels: parameters of the control model, the control model itself, the functional organization of the agent and the functional components of the agent. The complexity of such a space of potential configurations is daunting. The only viable alternative for the agent ?in practical, economical, evolutionary terms? is the reduction of the dimensionality of the configuration space. This reduction is achieved both by functionalisation —or, to be more precise, by interface minimization— and by patterning, i.e. the selection among a predefined set of organisational configurations. This last analysis let us state the central problem of how autonomy emerges from the integration of the cognitive, emotional and autonomic systems in strict functional terms: autonomy is achieved by the closure of functional dependency. In this paper we will show a general model of how the emotional biological systems operate following this theoretical analysis and how this model is also of applicability to a wide spectrum of artificial systems

Modelling environmental attitudes of the users of Kilombero Valley Wetlands, Tanzania

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Software systems engineering: a journey to contemporary agile and beyond, do people matter?

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Software systems engineering: a journey to contemporary agile and beyond, do people matter?

It is fascinating to view the evolution of software systems engineering over the decades. At the first glance, it could be perceived that the various approaches and processes are different. Are they indeed different? This paper will briefly discuss such a journey relating to findings from an empirical study in some organisations in the UK. Some of the issues described in the literature and by practitioners are common across different software system engineering approaches over the time. It can be argued that human-element of software development plays an integral part in the success of software systems development endeavour. After all, software engineering is a human-centric craft. In order to understand such issues, we crossed the discipline to other disciplines in order to adapt theories and principles that will help to better understand and tackle such matter. Other disciplines have well established human related theories and principles that can be useful. From Japanese management philosophies, we have adapted Lean and knowledge management theories. From psychology, we have adapted Emotional Intelligence (EI). With such an interdisciplinary view, some of the issues can be addressed adequately. Which bring the question: is it really the process or the people? The second author will reflect on his experience attending the first SQM conference 25 years ago. The reflection will discuss the evolution of software systems engineering, and what was changed since then, if at all changed