A Culture Model for Non-Player Characters' Behaviors in Role-Playing Games

Video game players often seek more profound experiences with non-player characters (also known as NPCs). Believable game characters should then react emotionally, reveal personality traits, and exhibit social behavior. With these challenges in mind, we propose a different strategy for modeling game character behaviors. In our new approach, character behavior modeling is not only based on the emotions and personality traits but also on the culture of the region in which the NPC lives in the game world. We propose a pragmatic model to simulate game characters' cultural behavior closely aligned with well-known emotion and personality models. Our goal is to reproduce cultural behavior based on six different dimensions: time, wealth, dignity, politeness, collectivism, and rationality. We propose the integration of these dimensions with the concepts of trust (or confidence) level, prejudice, personality, and emotion. Also, we tested the proposed model by developing an experimental Role Playing Game.