Is it a problem that our Actors don’t have a memory?
Or do they?
They develop Affection for every Object in the game world through interaction. This means that if they meet an Object again, they “remember” their Affection for this Object and act accordingly.
Is that enough?
What else would they need a memory for?
Do they need to learn?
Only if we want them to appear intelligent.
But intelligence is not required for believability. It’s ok if they seem a bit stupid -I guess. Perhaps it’s even endearing. And it ensures that the player always feels superior. Which is something we may want to exploit: by allowing the player to “take care” of the virtual characters, to protect them and want to help them.
Posted on November 19, 2006 at 11:28 pm
If they could talk, the Drama Princess Actors might need a memory… I ran into some Animal Crossing character today and she was talking about how I should pay the loan on my house and if I did, perhaps I would get a statue near the station. But my proud golden alter ego has been glistening in China*’s sun for month now! Things like this happen all the time in Animal Crossing and it confronts you with the simplicity of the system and reduces the believability of the characters.
But if the actors can’t talk (as is the case in our work), how could they ever give away that they do not know who you are? 8)
*China is the name of our Animal Crossing village, named by my then 8 year old daughter, Martha 🙂