Date of Award

6-2023

Degree Name

MS in Computer Science

Department/Program

Computer Science

College

College of Engineering

Advisor

Foaad Khosmood

Advisor Department

Computer Science

Advisor College

College of Engineering

Abstract

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) are one of the most

popular genres in video games that combine massively multiplayer online genres with

role-playing gameplay. MMORPGs’ featured social interaction and forms of level pro-

gression through quest completion are the core for gaining players’ attention. Varied

and challenging quests play an essential part in retaining that attention. However,

well-crafted content takes much longer to develop with human efforts than it does to

consume, and the dominant procedural content generation models for quests suffer

from the drawback of being incompatible with dynamic world changes and the feeling

of repetition over time. The proposed solution is to dynamically generate contextu-

ally relevant quests with real-time information collected from the players. This thesis

is to show that it is possible to generate contextually dynamic quests that could fit

into the background story with only the information gathered from the players in

real-time.

To validate the proposed solution, a text-based MMO scenario is generated from

the Panoptyk Engine, an information-driven game engine designed to run massively

multiplayer online games (MMOs) without the distinction between NPCs and human

players. The engine is intended to serve as a platform for simulating human/robot

interaction. In this case, a quest simulation is built where quests are given by the NPC

faction leaders utilizing the information gathered through ongoing events; players or

robots belonging to certain factions will be taking and completing the quests.

ivThe results of the 14-person survey showed some successes and some limitations.

There was strong agreement in players understanding of what the quest was asking

for, quests were related to other agents the player had seen in the world, quests

involved agents that the player had interactions with, quests were related to things

happening in the game world, quests were interesting. There was regular agreement on

players understanding of quests that were designed entirely before the player started

playing, quests were generated using a basic template with details filled in based

on the player’s actions, and quests were dynamically generated. It was inconclusive

with players understanding of quest motivation and previous quests the player had

completed having an impact on the next quests.

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