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On the implications of the virtual storyteller’s point of view

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2008

Jesús Ibáñez
Affiliation:
Departamento de Tecnología, Universidad Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain; e-mail: jesus.ibanez@upf.edu
Ruth Aylett
Affiliation:
School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK; e-mail: ruth@macs.hw.ac.uk
Carlos Delgado-Mata
Affiliation:
CINAVI, Universidad Bonaterra, Aguascalientes, Mexico; e-mail: cdelgado@bonaterra.edu.mx
Beatriz Molinuevo
Affiliation:
Departamento de Psiquiatria, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; e-mail: beatriz.molinuevo@uab.es

Abstract

This paper deals with the implications of showing the storyteller’s perspective when telling stories in virtual environments. The paper proposes an open and reusable architecture for the construction of virtual guides who tell stories about the worlds they inhabit from their own perspective. The system consists of two main components: the structure of a knowledge base to code the narrative knowledge about the worlds and a novel hybrid algorithm for the generation of narratives showing the storyteller’s viewpoint. The complete architecture has been developed. Furthermore, we carried out a study with users in order to both validate the implemented storytelling system and test whether the users consider it significantly better or worse (in terms of several aspects related to believability) adding the virtual guide perspective (as both text and animations showing emotions) to the guide discourse. The interesting results are discussed.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press2008

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