Role playing games and emotions in dispute resolution environments

Electronic contracting, mostly through software agents, led to an impressive growth in electronic transactions, but also in the number of disputes arising out of these transactions. Paper-based courts are however unable to efficiently deal with this increase in disputes. On the other hand, current Online Dispute Resolution methodologies are impersonal and cold, leaving aside important information such as the disputants’ body language and emotions. In that sense, in this paper we propose the creation of environments for dispute resolution that can complement the existing tools with important context information. This, we believe, will lead to dispute resolution tools that will more efficiently achieve mutually satisfactory outcomes.The work described in this paper is included in TIARAC - Telematics and Artificial Intelligence in Alternative Conflict Resolution Project (PTDC/JUR/71354/2006), which is a research project supported by FCT (Science & Technology Foundation), Portugal

Enriching conflict resolution environments with the provision of context information

It is a common affair to settle disputes out of courts nowadays, through negotiation, mediation or any other mean. This has also been implemented over telecommunication means under the so-called Online Dispute Resolution methods. However, this new technology-supported approach is impersonal and cold, leaving aside important issues such as the disputants’ body language, stress level or emotional response while being based on forms, e-mails or chat rooms. To overcome this shortcoming in this paper it is proposed the creation of intelligent environments for conflict resolution that can complement the existing tools with important knowledge about the context of interaction. This will allow decisionmakers to take better framed decisions based not only on figures but also on important contextual information, similarly to what happens when parties communicate in the physical presence of each other.This work is part-funded by ERDF - European Regional Development Fund through the COMPETE Programme (operational programme for competitiveness) and by National Funds through the FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) within project FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-028980 (PTDC/EEI-SII/1386/2012) and PEst-OE/ EEI/UI0752/2011. The work of Davide Carneiro is also supported by a doctoral grant by FCT (SFRH/BD/64890/2009).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A computational approach towards conflict resolution for serious games

Conflict is an unavoidable feature of life, but the development of conflict resolution management skills can facilitate the parties involved in resolving their conflicts in a positive manner. The goal of our research is to develop a serious game in which children may experiment with conflict resolution strategies and learn how to work towards positive conflict outcomes. While serious games related to conflict exist at present, our work represents the first attempt to teach conflict resolution skills through a game in a manner informed by sociological and psychological theories of conflict and current best practice for conflict resolution. In this paper, we present a computational approach to conflict generation and resolution. We describe the five phases involved in our conflict modeling process: conflict situation creation, conflict detection, player modeling and conflict strategy prediction, conflict management, and conflict resolution, and discuss the three major elements of our player model: assertiveness, cooperativeness, and relationship. Finally, we overview a simple resource management game we have developed in which we have begun experimenting with our conflict model concepts.peer-reviewe

A computational approach towards conflict resolution for serious games

Conflict is an unavoidable feature of life, but the development of conflict resolution management skills can facilitate the parties involved in resolving their conflicts in a positive manner. The goal of our research is to develop a serious game in which children may experiment with conflict resolution strategies and learn how to work towards positive conflict outcomes. While serious games related to conflict exist at present, our work represents the first attempt to teach conflict resolution skills through a game in a manner informed by sociological and psychological theories of conflict and current best practice for conflict resolution. In this paper, we present a computational approach to conflict generation and resolution. We describe the five phases involved in our conflict modeling process: conflict situation creation, conflict detection, player modeling and conflict strategy prediction, conflict management, and conflict resolution, and discuss the three major elements of our player model: assertiveness, cooperativeness, and relationship. Finally, we overview a simple resource management game we have developed in which we have begun experimenting with our conflict model concepts.peer-reviewe

Striking a Balance between Property and Personality. The Case of the Avatars

Virtual worlds, as powerful social platforms of intense human interaction, gather millions of users worldwide, producing massive economies of their own, giving rise to the birth of complex social relationships and the formation of virtual communities. By enabling the creativity of the player and figuring as an outstanding example of new online collaborative environments, virtual worlds emerge as context for creation, allowing for users to undertake a digital alter-ego and become artists, creators and authors. Nevertheless, such digital egos are not merely creations, but a reflex of their creators, an extension of their personalities and indicia of their identities. As a result, this paper perceives the avatar not only as a property item (avatar as the player’s or [game-developer’s] property) but also, and simultaneously, as a reflex of our personality and identity (avatar as the projection of one self in the virtual domain, as part of an individual persona). Bearing in mind such hybrid configuration, and looking at the disputes over property rights in virtual words, this essay makes three fundamental arguments. Firstly, it proposes a re-interpretation of intellectual property rights (namely of copyright law) according to its underlying utilitarian principles, as such principles seem to have been forgotten or neglected in the sphere of virtual worlds. The idea is to re-balance the uneven relationship between game owners and players perpetuated by the end-user license agreements (EULAs), recognising property rights to users over their own virtual creations. In order to evaluate whether a user’s contribution to the virtual world amounts to an original and creative work and is worthy of copyright protection, the essay proposes the image of a jigsaw puzzle as a tool and criteria to carry out such examination

Rebooting Empathy for the Digital Generation Lawyer

There is a growing preference in today’s technology-saturated society for online interaction via email, text messages, social networks, and instant messaging, rather than real-world interaction through face-to-face or telephonic conversations. For today’s young people—the Digital Generation—this is more than a mere preference; it is a way of life. Research indicates that the movement toward virtual communication comes with negative consequences, such as poor real-world communication skills and underdeveloped social skills. Most significantly, research suggests that the Digital Generation are less empathic than elder generations are. Some researchers speculate that the rising prominence of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in everyday life may have contributed to the Digital Generation’s decreased empathy.Today’s young ICT devotees are tomorrow’s future legal professionals. And when the Digital Generation enter legal practice they will find it entails far more than just reading cases and spotting issues. They will be called upon to counsel, to advocate, to persuade, and to adjudicate. To succeed in legal practice the Digital Generation will need strong empathic abilities. There are clear negative implications for the legal profession’s future if successful legal practice requires particular interpersonal skills but ICT usage is preventing the Digital Generation from developing these skills.This article analyzes social science literature regarding declining empathy, the Digital Generation, and technology. It establishes the importance of empathy in legal practice and examines prior suggestions for improving the legal profession’s historically fraught relationship with empathy. It then proposes new strategies to reverse this empathy decline so the Digital Generation may become successful legal practitioners despite—or perhaps even because of—their use of ICTs

Games and Narrative: An Analytical Framework

oai:ojs.journals.sfu.ca.loading:article/1The paper considers the recent academic struggle between "narratologists" and "ludologists", and argues that it was exacerbated by two sources of confusion. The first confusion was differing concepts of immersion as an outcome of mediated experience. "Suspension of disbelief" and "flow" are both immersive states, but they grow out of fundamentally different processes of engagement. The second confusion was the conflation of "story" with the concept of a narrative arc. Interaction necessarily interferes with authorial control over the timing and the details of the narrative arc, and makes it a misleading focus for analysis or understanding of game narrative. The paper maintains that if we ignore the concept of a grand narrative arc, we are free to examine other parameters of story within the game, which may be more limited, but are also more relevant. These narrative components - character, storyworld, emotion, narrative interface, and micro-narrative - are useful channels for focusing a more accurate analysis of the role of narrative within the design of the game and the experience of gameplay