How to create a simulation where participants have a sense of freedom and personal control while still maintaining the structure necessary for an effective story is a difficult task indeed. This book examines how to create an engaging, effective story (necessary to teach participants), while relating practical considerations of building a simulation. It also looks at stories as classic ways of teaching and gathering knowledge and considers other theories of interactive narrative design such as synthetic story creation and management and participant-generated story experiences. It also discusses enabling technologies in artificial intelligence, synthetic characters design and development, speech recognition technology, 3D modelling, and the future of story-driven games. Story Driven Simulations reviews the existing efforts in this field as well as focusing on the recent efforts of Paramount Pictures and The Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California, where this expert author team created successful simulations for the U.S. Army, Department of Defense, as well as other educational simulations. Examines how to create a story, while relating practical considerations of building a simulation. This book also looks at stories as classic ways of teaching and gathering knowledge and considers other theories of interactive narrative design such as synthetic story creation and management and participant-generated story experiences. Introduction xvii Who This Book is For 1(4) PART ONE: CASE STUDIES 5(28) The StoryDrive Engine 7(10) Collaborative Distance Learning 17(8) Branching Storylines 25(8) PART TWO: STORIES AND STORY DEVELOPMENT 33(48) A Good Story (The Simple Answer) 35(6) Other Perspectives on Story 41(6) War Stories and Parables 47(6) Designing Simulation Stories from Tacit Knowledge 53(8) Simulation Stories and Free Play 61(8) Experience Management 69(8) Story Representation in Experience Management 77(4) PART THREE: CHARACTERS 81(30) Creating Multidimensional Characters 83(14) A Really Good Villain 97(10) Synthetic Characters 107(4) PART FOUR: MAN IN THE LOOP vs. THE AUTOMATED GAME MANAGER 111(12) The Instructor as Dungeon Master 113(6) Automated Story Generation 119(4) PART FIVE: COMPLETING THE PYRAMID 123(20) Game Play 125(8) Evaluation and Testing 133(10) PART SIX: BUILDING THE IMMERSIVE ENVIRONMENT 143(68) Content Scripting Tools 145(10) Selecting Media and Platform: An Overview 155(6) Immersive Desktop Experiences 161(6) The Internet 167(8) Interactive Video and Interactive Television 175(10) Real-Time 3D Virtual Worlds 185(10) Audio 195(10) Simulation Integration 205(6) PART SEVEN: STORY STRUCTURES FOR COMMERCIAL GAMES 211(16) Back Story and Free Play 213(6) Stories in State-of-the-Art Serious Games 219(2) Stories in State-of-the-Art Commercial Games 221(6) PART EIGHT: THE FUTURE OF STORY-DRIVEN GAMES 227(10) The Future: The Role of Story 229(6) Immersive Distance Learning Experiences 229(1) Online Collaborative Games and Simulations 230(1) Story-Driven Massively Multiplayer Online Games 231(1) Location-Based Full-Sensory Simulations (Virtual Reality) 231(1) Keeping Track of the Evolution 232(1) Summary 233(2) Conclusion 235(2) Bibliography 237(2) Index 239