Ambient role playing games: towards a grammar of endlessness

1
Ambient role playing games towards a grammar of
endlessness

• Mark Eyles
• Roger Eglin

Advanced Games Research Group Department of
Creative Technologies - Faculty of Creative and
Cultural Industries
2

• If the seminal 1976 ambient music album Music for
  Airports became a 21st century ambient role
  playing game, what would it play like?

3
Overview

• Games
• Computer role playing games
• Computer technology
• Ambient intelligence
• Pervasive games
• Ambient music
• Ambient games
• Ambient Quest
• Ambient games future

4
What is a computer game?

• An interactive entertainment played against, or
  with the aid of, computer generated characters or
  tokens in a computer generated environment.
• A single player game has a series of interesting
  obstacles to overcome in order to gain rewards.
• A multiplayer game has a series of interesting
  obstacles to overcome at the expense and/or with
  the help of other players to gain rewards.

5
Computer game properties Commitment to play

• Learning curve
• Play time
• Civilization 2 vs. Tetris vs. Hangman

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Computer game properties Location and movement

• Fixed (Console, PC, Set top box)
• Mobile (Mobile phone, Nintendo DS)
• Require movement
• In one location (Football, Eye Toy)
• In many locations (Alternate Reality Game)

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Computer game properties Commitment and movement
8
Pervasive games

• Pervasive games are defined as games that extend
  gaming experiences out into the physical world
• (Waern, 2006)
• I will return to pervasive games later and argue
  that ambient games are a type of pervasive game

9
Role playing games

• To suggest a definition of computer role playing
  games
• Look at the history of RPGs
• Look at the game play in RPGs
• These two approaches then inform a definition of
  role playing games

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History of role playing games

• Pen and paper and computer role playing games
  formalise the playful role playing of childrens
  make believe worlds by adding a set of rules
• This formalisation of role playing allows details
  to be shared, so that the game can be shared and
  seen to be played fairly according to an agreed
  set of rules
• A key component of role playing games is stories

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Story telling

• Spoken
• Pictures
• Cave paintings
• Written
• Gilgamesh (around 2000 BC)
• Moving images
• Cinema (from the 1880s)
• Interactive
• Colossal Cave Adventure (1975ish)

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Table top war-gaming 1

• Kriegspiel
• 19th century
• Lieutenant Johann von Reisswitz based on a design
  of his father Baron von Reisswitz
• Players move tokens representing troops around a
  map, under the guidance of an umpire
• Assured Prussian victories

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Table top war-gaming 2

• Little Wars
• A set of table top war-gaming rules
• H. G. Wells - 1913.
• Commenting on Kriegspiel
• as it is played by the British Army, is a very
  dull and unsatisfactory exercise, lacking in
  realism, in stir and the unexpected, obsessed by
  the umpire at every turn, and of very doubtful
  value in waking up the imagination, which should
  be its chief function. (Wells, 1913)

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Fantasy literature

• J.R.R. Tolkeins The Hobbit, 1937
• The Lord of the Rings trilogy, 1954 to 1955

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War-gaming Fantasy

• Chainmail
• First table top role playing game,1971
• Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren
• Dungeons and Dragons
• Tactical Studies Rules (TSR), 1974
• Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson

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Evolution of computer role playing games

• Start with text adventures
• Advent or Adventure, written by William
  Crowther around 1975 give or take a year
• Expanded by Don Woods to Colossal Cave Adventure
  in 1976

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Evolution of computer role playing games

• Zork, 1978, released by Infocom 1980

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Evolution of computer role playing games

• Add role playing
• Richard Garriotts 1979 Apple II game Akalabeth

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Evolution of computer role playing games

• Character attributes
• Ultima 1, 1980, developed by Richard Garriott,
  published by Origin Systems Inc.

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Evolution of computer role playing games

• Influence of paper based role playing

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Evolution of computer role playing games

• Control a party of characters
• Race and character class mechanisms
• Wizardry Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord,
  1981, Sir Tech Software

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Evolution of computer role playing games

• Advances in technology
• Improvements in graphics
• Increasing sophistication and complexity
• Addition of 3D graphics to Multi User Dungeons

but retaining core RPG mechanisms
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Evolution of computer role playing games

• Expansion into other milieu

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Role playing gameplay mechanisms

• Role playing game mechanisms have remained very
  similar
• Compare Ultima, 1980, with Oblivion, 2006

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Role playing gameplay mechanisms

• Mechanisms commonly found in RPGs

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Role playing gameplay mechanisms - Race

• The race selected affects the abilities and
  attributes available to the players character
• For example in Morrowind

Argonian Breton Dark Elf Wood Elf High Elf
Imperial Khajiit Redguard Nord Orc
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Role playing gameplay mechanisms - Class

• Classes determine which profession the players
  character is able to pursue
• For example in Star Wars Knights of the Old
  Republic

Scout Soldier Scoundrel
Jedi Guardian Jedi Consular Jedi Sentinel
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Role playing gameplay mechanisms - Attributes

• Attributes give the abilities of a character
• These core elements define what the character is
  capable of

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Role playing gameplay mechanisms - Attributes
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Role playing gameplay mechanisms - Skills

• Skills are learned abilities that improve through
  use in the game
• For example in Deus Ex

Computer Electronics Environmental
Training Lockpicking Medicine
Swimming Weapons Demolition Weapons
Heavy Weapons Low-Tech Weapons
Pistol Weapons Rifle
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Role playing gameplay mechanisms - Experience

• Experience is normally measured in experience
  points that are earned by completing game
  objectives
• When target numbers of experience points are
  achieved players are able to increase the
  attributes of their characters (Level up)

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Role playing gameplay mechanisms Story and
quests

• Role playing games normally contain long and
  involved stories delivered in a series of quests

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Role playing gameplay mechanisms - Combat

• Real time twitch combat
• Deus Ex
• Strategic dice roll combat
• Baldurs Gate
• Or sometimes a combination
• Morrowind

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Role playing gameplay mechanisms - Combat

• Melee
• Range
• Traps

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Role playing gameplay mechanisms Resource
management

• Role playing games typically contain many items
• During games players make strategic choices about
  what they are going to need and what they can
  carry
• See example on next slide (Diablo)

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Role playing gameplay mechanisms Resource
management
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Role playing gameplay mechanisms - Puzzles

• Typical purposes of puzzles include
• Unlocking locations
• Revealing plot
• Gaining items
• Defeating enemies
• Helping non-player character friends
• Puzzles frequently involve using objects
• The word use is a catchall for activating or
  implementing or in some other way applying the
  particular properties of an object

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Role playing gameplay mechanisms - Exploration

• Players search the game world to discover useful
  items and clues
• Environments may contain hidden objects and
  characters used to reveal story elements
• Exploration also facilitates visual (and
  auditory) rewards for players

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Role playing gameplay mechanisms
40
RPG mechanisms in other game genres
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Core features of RPGs

• Choice of player races
• Choice of player classes
• Player attributes
• Player skill development
• Experience points and levels

42
Suggested definition of computer role playing
games

• In computer role-playing games players control
  one or more characters that gain experience
  through the completion of game objectives. The
  experience is manifested as player moderated
  changes in player character attributes
  (strength, intelligence and luck for
  example) which allow the player character to
  evolve over the duration of the game.
• Additional player character customization is
  facilitated through modification of character
  differentia such as race and class when
  initiating a player character ready for play and
  by game-play educed character modification during
  play, such as development and improvement of a
  skill by repeated use of that skill, or the
  spending of skill points gained when levelling
  up.
• The player character descriptors (attributes,
  differentia and game-play educed modifications)
  affect the in-game interactions between the
  player character, non-player characters and items
  in the game environment. The environment,
  objects, characters and interactions are effected
  in a virtual environment.

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Ambient technology

• This section starts with some assumptions about
  ambient games that will be made explicit later
• Ambient games are as ignorable as they are
  interesting (Eno, 1978)
• Consequently it should be possible for the player
  to ignore the game, if they wish, while still
  playing it
• The game should physically surround them
• First we will consider the growth of computer
  technology and its future

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Growth of computer technology
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Growth of computer technology

• One computer Many users
• Charles Babbage designs a computer 1821
• EDSAC 1 (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic
  Calculator) 1949 the worlds first complete and
  fully operational regular electronic digital
  stored program computer (Jones, 2001)

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Growth of computer technology
Digital Rainbow 100 1982 http//pc-museum.com/offi
cewing.htm

• One computer One user
• 1981 IBM introduced the personal computer

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Growth of computer technology

• Many computers One user
• The current state of play

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Growth of computer technology

• Ambient intelligent environments (the future)

Tom Cruise in Minority Report http//www.visionnet
.be/parahologram.html

• Massively many intelligent computers One user

(Everyone is a user, not just Tom Cruise)
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Ambient intelligence

• There are a number of different technologies that
  are enabling the development of ambient
  intelligence
• Interconnectivity
• Artificial intelligence
• The proliferation of computers
• These technologies support ambient intelligence,
  which has
• Ubiquity
• Transparency
• Intelligence
• (Aarts et al., 2001)

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Ambient intelligence - Ubiquity

• A massive number of interconnected computers are
  embedded in the environment
• It is invisible, everywhere computing that does
  not live on a personal device of any sort, but is
  in the woodwork everywhere. (Weiser, 1996)

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Ambient intelligence - Transparency

• Transparency indicates that ambient intelligence
  environments are invisible and in the background
  (Aarts et al., 2001)

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Ambient intelligence - Intelligence

• Intelligence relates to the interfaces and ways
  these interconnected computers respond and
  interact with people through user friendly
  interfaces.

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Ambient intelligence predictions

• By 2010, when Intel expects that every chip it
  produces will have an antenna, there will be
  around 1,000 microprocessors per person
• Harbor Research predicts that by 2010 worldwide
  revenues from network-related devices and
  associated services will be 800bn, around half
  of which will come from valued-added apps and
  services.
• Department for Trade and Industry
  http//www.nextwave.org.uk/docs/markets.htm

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Ambient intelligence commercial future

• Our vision for 2020 is that we will live in a
  world of interconnected, smart, distributed,
  responsive devices and services.
• http//www.research.philips.com/technologies/syst_
  softw/ami/ideas.html

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Ambient intelligence

• Ambient intelligence environments offer a
  promising technology for creating pervasive games
• We will now consider pervasive games and ambient
  games

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Pervasive games

• Pervasive games are games which extend gaming
  experiences into the real world
• They include locative games in which players move
  into the real world while playing and their
  position and actions in the real world affect,
  and are affected by, events in a virtual world
• (Waern, 2006)

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Pervasive games

• Location based games, especially using mobile
  technologies
• Example Uncle Roy All Around You
• Street Players use handheld computers to search
  for Uncle Roy, using the map and incoming
  messages to move through the city.  Online
  Players cruise through a virtual map of the same
  area, searching for Street Players to help them
  find a secret destination.
• http//www.uncleroyallaroundyou.co.uk/

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Pervasive games - Augmented reality

• Overlaying computer information onto the real
  world
• Example ARQuake at the University of South
  Australia
• http//wearables.unisa.edu.au/projects/ARQuake/www
  /index.html

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Pervasive games - Alternate reality

• "...an obsession-inspiring genre that blends
  real-life treasure hunting, interactive
  storytelling, video games and online
  community... (Borland, 2005)

• A game in which events occurring online in a game
  world affect and are affected by game events in
  the real world
• Example Perplexcity
• http//www.perplexcity.com/

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Pervasive games

• Ambient games are a type of pervasive game
• The pervasive game examples mentioned vary from
  ambient games in
• The intention of the games (ambient games create
  moods, they are not treasure hunts)
• The commitment the player makes to the game (they
  do not have to put on back packs of computer
  equipment)
• The level of attention required from the player

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Pervasive games, ambient games and ambient
intelligence
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Ambient music

• Ambient music informs ambient games
• Brian Eno coined the term ambient music on his
  1978 album Ambient 1 Music for Airports
• In the sleeve notes of Music for Airports Brian
  Eno gives a definition of ambient music
• Ambient Music must be able to accommodate many
  levels of listening attention without enforcing
  one in particular it must be as ignorable as it
  is interesting (Eno, 1978)

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Ambient music

• I wanted to make a kind of music that would
  actually reduce your focus on this particular
  moment in time that you happened to be in and
  make you settle into time a little bit better.
  (Eno, 2003)
• Think about the ways games might do this while
  accommodating many levels of attention and
  intervention

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Defining ambient games

• Progress Quest - a game that requires minimal
  player intervention

(www.progressquest.com (Fredricksen, 2004))
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Defining ambient games

• All a player needs to do to play Progress Quest
  is set the game running
• The game displays the players characters role
  playing statistics and lists the completed quests
  and so on
• The player need not intervene again as Progress
  Quest continues to play, all gameplay decisions
  are made automatically

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Defining ambient games

• Imagine a game similar to Progress Quest, call it
  Ambient Quest, in which, when the player starts
  the game, their actions in the real world affect
  progress in the game world

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Defining ambient games

• The Ambient Quest game world consists of a
  virtual environment containing quests to complete
  (achieved by defeating monsters at various
  locations)

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Defining ambient games

• The player chooses the degree to which they wish
  to manage events in the game
• At one extreme the game runs itself, gathering
  data from the players actions in the real world
  and automatically applying this to the game world
• At the other extreme the player can determine how
  the real world data is applied in the game world,
  micromanaging game interactions.

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Defining ambient games

• The player may choose to manipulate their actions
  in the real world to progress more successfully
  in Ambient Quest
• Alternatively they may ignore the consequences of
  their actions in the real world and play without
  consciously changing their behaviour

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Defining ambient games

• Ambient Quest should be as ignorable as it is
  interesting (Eno, 1978)
• Players can dip in and out of the game
• The game is persistent, running in the
  background, creating a mood, while players are
  engaged in other activities
• They may respond to the game by modifying their
  behaviour to affect their game progress

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Defining ambient games

• Ambient games may be controlled by everyday
  actions (i.e. not using a dedicated game input
  device, mouse or keyboard) in everyday, real
  world environments that have gameplay
  consequences in a virtual game world
• These game play environments may be facilitated
  by ambient intelligent technologies that embed
  the game transparently in the environment

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Defining ambient games

• Ambient games allow the player to have
  experiences that range from superficially shallow
  to profoundly deep
• The player is able to choose how they focus their
  attention on the game, and can alter their degree
  of attention at will
• As with Music for Airports an ambient game should
  accommodate many levels of attention, many levels
  of involvement or intervention, creating a mood
  in the environment

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Defining ambient games

• The involvement of the player in the game is not
  determined by the game
• This is not a push technology, but is
  determined by the player who can choose when to
  pull game experiences from the ambient game

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Defining ambient games
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A definition of ambient games

• Ambient games are designed to create a mood in
  an environment through game interactions with
  players whose behaviours, mediated by an ambient
  intelligent environment or similar transparent
  game interface, create changes in a virtual game
  world.
• Ambient games are persistent and are as
  interesting as they are ignorable, facilitating a
  wide variation in player determined levels of
  involvement, from unaware to intensely attentive
  play.
• In ambient computer role-playing games player
  behaviours affect one or more characters that
  gain experience, and other character
  customizations, through the completion of game
  objectives in a virtual world.

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Ambient Quest single player ambient game
simulation

• Distance walked by players determines progress in
  the virtual game world
• Players may engage more or less with the game by
• Altering, or not altering, distance walked
• Choosing moves for their avatars or letting the
  game move them automatically
• The game is always on

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Ambient Quest single player ambient game
simulation

• Ambient Quest is designed to create a mood in the
  playing environment, overlaying a sense fantasy
  adventure on the real world and giving a hint of
  other hidden worlds

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Future ambient games

• Imagine a job which involves fairly repetitive
  actions which are not in themselves especially
  rewarding.
• Could an ambient game be designed that ran
  alongside this work and brought an element of
  playfulness to the job?

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Future ambient games

• Ambient Shelf Stacking Game
• Imagine an ambient game that drew its data from
  supermarket shelf stacking
• Employees belong to different teams that are
  represented by competing avatars in a virtual
  world

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Future ambient games

• Co-operative gaming
• Ambient Garden Game
• Imagine an ambient game in which players are
  together trying to nurture the plants in a
  virtual garden through their actions in the real
  world
• Interpersonal relationships
• Ambient Relationships Game
• Imagine a Sims like game where the players real
  world actions affect relationships of avatars in
  a Second Life like virtual world

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Future ambient games

• Women playing ambient games
• Ambient games offer interesting possibilities for
  designing games that are tailored to appeal to
  women (who are not already gamers)
• Opportunities for co-operative play
• Opportunities for activity based game play (in
  preference to goal orientated gameplay)
• Ambient games do not place importance on
  achieving high scores or penalising players for
  errors
• (Graner Ray, 2004)

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Final thoughts

• Game players may play even when they are not
  playing!
• Embed mood and behaviour altering game playing in
  the world around us
• Open ended, endless nature of play points towards
  new mechanisms and ways of playing games that
  forces us to consider new grammars of play

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Final thought
A sense of otherworldliness

• It is another world entirely and is enclosed
  within this one it is in a sense a universal
  retreating mirror image of this one, with a
  peculiar geography composed of a series of
  concentric rings, which as one penetrates deeper
  into the other world, grow larger each
  perimeter of this series of concentricities
  encloses a larger world within
• Little Big by John Crowley
• (Crowley, 1981)

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Questions
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Ambient role playing games towards a grammar of
endlessness
Mark Eyles
www.eyles.co.uk
mark_at_eyles.co.uk
Roger Eglin
eglinr_at_port.ac.uk
Advanced Games Research Group Department of
Creative Technologies - Faculty of Creative and
Cultural Industries