Neuroticism a competitive advantage (also) for IVAs? Christoph - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

2007-09-17 1 Austrian Research Institute for AI (OFAI) - IVA 2007 Paris

Neuroticism – a competitive advantage (also) for IVAs?

Christoph Hermann1, Helmuth Melcher1, Stefan Rank1 Robert Trappl1,2

Robert.Trappl@ofai.at

1Austrian Research Institute

for Artificial Intelligence

http://www.ofai.at/

2Institute for Medical Cybernetics & AI

Center for Brain Research Medical University of Vienna

http://www.ai.meduniwien.ac.at/

2007-09-17 2 Austrian Research Institute for AI (OFAI) - IVA 2007 Paris

Current situation

Market for interactive games on PCs, game consoles, mobile phones is booming Semi-intelligent agents steer virtual actors Simple “personality structure”: motivation is to win fast Human player only challenged with respect to rational, strategic behaviour

2007-09-17 3 Austrian Research Institute for AI (OFAI) - IVA 2007 Paris

Hypothesis

Question:

Is it possible to increase the attractiveness of games by emotionally and/or partially “neurotically” acting agents?

Necessary condition:

Playing strength of this agent not (much) worse than “rational” one

Procedure:

Create an emotional bot for a real-time strategy game that can also act “neurotically”

2007-09-17 4 Austrian Research Institute for AI (OFAI) - IVA 2007 Paris

Bot during final attack

2007-09-17 5 Austrian Research Institute for AI (OFAI) - IVA 2007 Paris

Game: Age of Mythology

Real-Time Strategy (RTS) Economic and military build-up, fighting Scripting system for the Game AI

Low-level action (unit movement) available Standard AI exerts control using predefined high-level scripts Sensory information: position/status of visible units, environmental features

2007-09-17 6 Austrian Research Institute for AI (OFAI) - IVA 2007 Paris

Personality and Emotion Model

Emotion model based on

Big-Five personality traits (OCEAN) Emotion-Connectionist model OCC model

Influence of restrictions of scripts Calculated state variables: Pleasure / Pain, and Clarity / Confusion Change in emotion is the result of an environmental factor, a perception Strength of emotional change is influenced by the personality

2007-09-17 7 Austrian Research Institute for AI (OFAI) - IVA 2007 Paris

Personality and Emotion Model

2007-09-17 8 Austrian Research Institute for AI (OFAI) - IVA 2007 Paris

Character types

Four bot variants with different personality parameters: defensive, aggressive, normal and neurotic Example: Influence of “Neuroticism” High:

irrational assessment of resource value e.g. amount of available timber is overestimated tendency to resort to extreme playing styles: aggressive vs. defensive

Low:

rational adjustment of assessed resource value use game statistics unchanged

2007-09-17 9 Austrian Research Institute for AI (OFAI) - IVA 2007 Paris

Evaluation

Bot-versus-bot setup: The four defined character types against the default Age of Mythology AI script Conditions:

− Two players − Odin’s Vikings − Difficulty “hard” − Strategy “normal” − Map “Alfheim”

Each character setting completed 7 test games

2007-09-17 10 Austrian Research Institute for AI (OFAI) - IVA 2007 Paris

Each character version scored a minimum of 6 wins

• ut of 7 matches, altogether 26 wins out of 28 games

(p<0,0001) → Playing strength at least 232 Elo points higher than the default Age of Mythology AI script

Test results

31:45 min 7 : 0 Neurotic 40:34 min 6 : 1 Normal 35:17 min 6 : 1 Defensive 44:35 min 7 : 0 Aggressive Average winning time Wins : Losses Setting

In this specific situation, neuroticism is a competitive advantage for an IVA

2007-09-17 11 Austrian Research Institute for AI (OFAI) - IVA 2007 Paris

Further work

Further improve playing strength Adapt an appraisal model of emotion for the specific environment of RTS games Test attractiveness of emotional, especially “neurotic” bots in games with human opponents

The End Thank you for your attention!