Knowledge Transfer Project
Glengarry Glen Ross
Becoming an expert sales professional by game‐based training with NPC‐Leads
The interaction between player and non‐playing characters is important for many games. The common approach is to specify the behavior of NPCs in terms of scripts. The advantage of this approach is stability and control, the downside is a rigid and stereotyped nature of communication. This makes NPCs' behavior often unnatural, which hampers game‐involvement of the player.
A new approach is to model NPCs according to beliefs, desires, and intentions. A BDI‐NPC does not respond to a pre‐specified situation in the scenario (as with scripts), but on an interpretation of the situation. This results in more ‘natural' behavior, and more degrees of freedom in the interaction with the player ‐ advantages of great importance for serious gaming.
In this project, TNO and RANJ develop a game demonstrator using BDI to model the NPCs. The game is named after the movie Glengarry Glen Ross (1992). The film depicts two days in the lives of four real estate salesmen. Their company has just announced that all except the top salesmen will be fired. The salesmen are faced to perform under high‐pressure.
The player in the game is a real estate sales professional. NPCs are potential customers, each with its own knowledge, goals and individual strategies. The goal is to develop NPCs that differ in their characteristics and behave accordingly, act representatively and internally consistent.
Project Participants
TNO Human Factors
RANJ
Contact
Karel van den Bosch, TNO Human Factors, Soesterberg