Modeling Reality, Part Two

In designing your own game, you need to have the three content types- linear, cyclical, and open ended. Modularity is an important asset meaning you can customize throughout with just one change. There are drawbacks to having a massively multi-online role playing game (MMORPG) like scheduling, how players “act”, and the fact that it’s not fair to others when one person wants to repeat a certain play over and over again and others are ready to move on.
Simulations will never be exact replicas of reality so it’s good to remember that simulations are made to help people, not to replace them. When designing characters you need to give them a personality so they can represent real people. With all the animation given the characters, you can have probabilities attached so the characters are not predictable. The animations are controlled by graphic engines.
One of the simplest simulation models has locations called “states”. This allows backtracking, allows freedom, and has no time limit.
For the dialogue, precision is necessary. You have to be sure that what one character says matches what was said prior and after. It gets expensive to add dialogue due to the recording times needed.
Ideas can be divided into premises and plans. The premises are then sectioned into either negative, neutral, or positive. The plans are either negative or positive. Added to this is interpersonal dialogue. The dialogue adds up quickly and it’s still tough to add all that needs or wants to be spoken. There is no way that all things that need to be said or want to be said will be said!
Artificial intelligence mimics what humans do in using personal influences (PI). Depending on how you react to another's statement, your “ranking” in the group changes. Also the intelligence level needs to be at the right spot so as not to be so smart that the fun factor is gone nor so dumb for the same reason.
There are a lot of good lessons that can be learned from the bots and their design. For instance, if you don’t have the perfect mix of motivation, ingenuity, and drive, then not much will be accomplished. Being a team player is key.