What do games teach us about designing effective human-AI cooperation? - A systematic literature review and thematic synthesis on design patterns of non-player characters

Wittmann M, Morschheuser B (2022)


Publication Language: English

Publication Type: Conference contribution, Original article

Publication year: 2022

Publisher: CEUR Workshop Proceedings

Pages Range: 95−104

Conference Proceedings Title: Proceedings of the 6th International GamiFIN Conference

Event location: Tampere, FI FI

URI: http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3147/paper10.pdf

Open Access Link: http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3147/paper10.pdf

Abstract

Effective cooperation between humans and technologies powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) is decisive to fully exploit AI’s economic and social potentials. However, the adoption of AI is often opposed by a lack of humans’ trust in AI systems and a dearth of interest in working with them. Turning to games for getting inspiration on how to optimize human-AI cooperation seems promising, since games engage humans almost effortlessly in interacting and cooperating with artificial non-player characters (NPCs). However, a structured overview on how game design can optimize human-AI cooperation is missing in existing gamification research. Therefore, this paper presents a systematic review of NPC design patterns and elaborates on what developers of AI systems can learn from game design. Guided by a thematic analysis, we present a structured overview of relevant design patterns clustered along six focus fields - namely I) NPC responsiveness, (II) appearance of NPCs, (III) NPC communication patterns, (IV) emotional aspects, (V) behavioral characteristics, and (VI) player-NPC and NPC-NPC team structures – which advance our understanding of designing and investigating cooperation between humans and NPCs. The insights of this paper can guide practitioners and future research regarding the design of more effective AI systems, the gamification of human-AI cooperation, and the development of innovative NPC approaches.

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APA:

Wittmann, M., & Morschheuser, B. (2022). What do games teach us about designing effective human-AI cooperation? - A systematic literature review and thematic synthesis on design patterns of non-player characters. In Mila Bujić, Jonna Koivisto, Juho Hamari (Eds.), Proceedings of the 6th International GamiFIN Conference (pp. 95−104). Tampere, FI, FI: CEUR Workshop Proceedings.

MLA:

Wittmann, Maximilian, and Benedikt Morschheuser. "What do games teach us about designing effective human-AI cooperation? - A systematic literature review and thematic synthesis on design patterns of non-player characters." Proceedings of the GamiFIN Conference 2022, Tampere, FI Ed. Mila Bujić, Jonna Koivisto, Juho Hamari, CEUR Workshop Proceedings, 2022. 95−104.

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