Deal

Abstract

In order for game characters to be believable, they must appear to possess qualities such as emotions, the ability to learn and adapt as well as being able to communicate in natural language. With this paper we aim to contribute to the development of believable non-player characters (NPCs) in games, by presenting a method for managing NPC dialogues. We have selected the trade scenario as an example setting since it offers a well-known and limited domain common in games that support ownership, such as roleplaying games. We have developed a dialogue manager in State Chart XML, a newly introduced W3C standard 1 , as part of DEAL -a research platform for exploring the challenges and potential benefits of combining elements from computer games, dialogue systems and language learning.