Framework Notes

Working Notes, by Zach Tomaszewski

for ICS 699, Fall 2005, directed by Dr. Kim Binsted

Other Frameworks

Aristotle

Action (whole; begin, mid, end); Character + Thought; Diction, Melody, Spectacle -> manner and mode.

Freytag

(Idea), Action, Characters

G+B/Proppian

Story Structure -> specific scenes; autonomous to scripted characters; avatar and animation/rendering

Meadows

POV/perspective

Narratology

Discourse (narrator, plot, POV) vs. Story (chronological events, characters, setting)

Four Elements/Domains of Narrative

Action

AKA: Story events, drama manager, DM, GM, narrator, story structure, scenes, plot points, etc.

• General (A: whole action, F: Idea, G+B/P: structure/general functions) vs. specific instantiations (F: Action, G+B/P: specific scenes/particular instantiations). Thus, 2 internal levels?
• Story structures:
  • navigating existing plot graph (early Oz - live action)
  • generated linear path (Ala improv--determine next step)
  • regenerated linear path (contingency planning preserving history)
  • adversary search (collection of story nodes and evaluation function for permutation) (mid Oz? Mateas/Bates)

Characters

AKA: agents

• PCs/avatars. Controlled by the interactor/user
• NPCs/agents. Spectrum: chatterboxes to goal-driven. Internal states (mind)/Body in world.
• Daemons (bodiless agents) -- weather, items, world manipulators

Setting

AKA: World, environment

• Modelling (what attributes exists?)
• Rules for engagement/interaction between objects/agents (methods/means)
• Ontology (reasoning about objects)
• Example: GiRDLe.

Presentation

AKA: discourse, interface, narrator, rendering, spectacle

• Rendering the world (text, 3D, VRML/X3D, 2D, etc)
• Controls/interaction with user
• Narrator (optional): POV, changed over of narration of events, etc.

(Interactor)

AKA: user, reader, audience, subject, human, player

Comments

• Each domain may have subsets, interface interpreters, internal daemons, etc. For instance, narrator in Presentation. Also, interpreter between story goals, character motivations, and specific agent actions.

Connections/Interfaces

Other Models to consider

• G+B's model: One is the input for the next--Story (general), Story (specific), Character, Rendering.
• Laurel/Mateas' pseudo-Aristotle: essentially G+B's, w/ control/interaction between characters.
• Oz's model (largely adopted here).

My Model

• User interacts through Presentation, controlling Avatar. Also sees world through Presentation (possibly filtered though a Narrator).
• Characters exist in the World (but have separate mental states). Affect each other through, and according to rules of, World.
• DM affects world though agents. [Always true, to the point of requiring invisible "god" or "spirit" agents to manipulate world?]