NPCs as People, Too: The Extreme AI Personality Engine
This addresses the issue of underdeveloped NPCs in video games, making them more engaging for players, though it is incremental as it builds on existing personality AI methods.
The paper tackles the problem of non-player characters (NPCs) in video games having flat and predictable personalities by developing Extreme AI, a psychology-based personality engine that creates adaptive NPC personalities using the Five Factor model, resulting in more human-like interactions in game demos.
PK Dick once asked "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" In video games, a similar question could be asked of non-player characters: Do NPCs have dreams? Can they live and change as humans do? Can NPCs have personalities, and can these develop through interactions with players, other NPCs, and the world around them? Despite advances in personality AI for games, most NPCs are still undeveloped and undeveloping, reacting with flat affect and predictable routines that make them far less than human--in fact, they become little more than bits of the scenery that give out parcels of information. This need not be the case. Extreme AI, a psychology-based personality engine, creates adaptive NPC personalities. Originally developed as part of the thesis "NPCs as People: Using Databases and Behaviour Trees to Give Non-Player Characters Personality," Extreme AI is now a fully functioning personality engine using all thirty facets of the Five Factor model of personality and an AI system that is live throughout gameplay. This paper discusses the research leading to Extreme AI; develops the ideas found in that thesis; discusses the development of other personality engines; and provides examples of Extreme AI's use in two game demos.