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 Chatbots and Multiverse

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Tristan
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Tristan


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PostSubject: Chatbots and Multiverse   Chatbots and Multiverse EmptySun 18 Dec - 23:46

Hello everyone,

For the past few months, I've been working on developing a 'chatbot', which is semi-realistic artificial entity that you can talk to, either through text-chat or through speaking to it. A good example can be found here: http://cleverbot.com/. Some of you may have heard of these in the news recently, where two bots talked to each other, and the conversation somehow managed to cover the existence of God and unicorns!


I have been developing a similar entity for a Japanese learning website (http://japanese.lingualift.com) that I have been working for part-time. The idea is to create a bot that users can practice their conversation and written Japanese with, and to create a more engaging user experience (the usual experience-enriching stuff!)

So far, my chat bot isn't particularly intelligent, as translating all the files into Japanese takes a lot of time and effort, so I've got nothing to show you as of yet Razz



The reason I'm telling you all about this, is because I intend to create a plugin for Multiverse, that let's developers have their own chatbots in their worlds.

So, instead of having a boring, scripted NPC that just stands there and displays some quest text as a popup, you can give users theability to have an actual conversation with them. Using AIML (Artificial Intelligence Markup Language), which is incredibly similar to XML, I should be able to integrate a simple bot and create an engaging NPC from it.

Normally, if you are walking around a town, there are usually lots of characters just standing around doing nothing, perhaps following some pre-defined route to make them look like they're doing something.

Instead of that, you can attach the script, and when you 'target' them (in this case, more like a focus, as opposed to a combat target), a dialogue will open up, and you can talk directly to this NPC. This NPC would have an actual personality, and you could ask him what his name is, how old he is, his favourite sports, his preference of opera, absolutely anything! The bot will have a properties file, so that you can define personality traits like those, and create responses to a variety of questions.

As opposed to having a dialogue box, with the sort of multiple choice conversation you get in games like Fallout, Elder Scrolls and so on, you could type "Where were you born?", or "Where are you from?", or even "Which city were you born in?", and the bot will automatically realise that they are different ways of asking his place of birth, and will respond according to the entry in his properties file.


There are lots of ways to utilize these chatbots, and I think they would be great to have in any MMO, especially ones that do not have a lot of players online at any one time - the player would be less likely to become bored, as they'd have plenty of semi-realistic NPCs to chat to!


As I mentioned before, I'm working on integrating this into the Multiverse system, and will be available as a plugin at some point in the next few months (probably March).
Once it's complete, it will be available to purchase from the Multiverse Marketplace, an the money will go towards our hosting fees, and general development.


What do you all think? Would this be something you'd be interested in?


Tristan


Last edited by Tristan on Tue 20 Dec - 5:47; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : I originally wrote this on my iPhone, and AutoCorrect was not particularly helpful..)
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gabzo
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PostSubject: Re: Chatbots and Multiverse   Chatbots and Multiverse EmptyFri 30 Dec - 1:18

I am currently working on a chatbox using pandorabot, I love them so much... it would be cool if I was able to add my own bot to my game. I would create different bots for different characters....
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Xangis
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PostSubject: Re: Chatbots and Multiverse   Chatbots and Multiverse EmptyTue 29 May - 3:40

I'd be in favor of being able to set up chatbot-style NPCs. I added AIML chatbot support to my MUD a long time ago. It was fun, but I never really had the time to develop full personalities for the NPCs that used it.

The idea was that during the course of a conversation the "happy" or "angry" level of an NPC could change based on what the player said. If they said something dumb or offensive the NPC could get so angry that they attacked, and responses would be more grumpy/curt if the NPC was in a bad mood. If they made friends with the NPC they could get some sort of reward ("here, you can borrow my magic sword, just give it back once you've killed the dragon"). It was never quite finished, but it was still neat even with partial functionality.
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Tristan
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PostSubject: Re: Chatbots and Multiverse   Chatbots and Multiverse EmptyTue 29 May - 4:58

That sounds interesting, Xangis!

I haven't worked much on my bots for a month or so, due to my aforementioned academic circumstances, but once things clear up, I'd very much like to get back on that project.

I was sent a document by the AIML founder, Dr Richard Wallace, and it lists different game applications, including Second Life, and things like IRC. I'll send it over to you once I find it.

A Canadian studio are using similar technology in their game (I think it might be the Game of Thrones MMO), and you have to actually talk to NPCs to get quests and buy items, as opposed to having pre-determined 'click to say this' dialogue that most RPGs have nowadays... Seems interesting.

Would a Multiverse plugin be something of interest to you, Xangis?
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Xangis
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PostSubject: Re: Chatbots and Multiverse   Chatbots and Multiverse EmptyWed 30 May - 11:18

Sure, it'd be something interesting to have available. Smile

It probably wouldn't see any use in my main project, which is likely to have no roleplaying or questing, but you never know.
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Tristan
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PostSubject: Re: Chatbots and Multiverse   Chatbots and Multiverse EmptyThu 31 May - 3:40

Awesome Smile

I actually need to send you a somewhat lengthy email regarding Platform and Foundation stuff, so I'll attach the file then, and we can go from there, as a little side-project perhaps
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