Game Writing and Narrative in the Future - Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing - page 178

Young woman: It's true. I'm unhappy.
ELIZA: Do you think coming here will help you not to be unhappy?
Young woman: I need some help, that much seems certain.
ELIZA: What would it mean to you if you got some help?
Young woman: Perhaps I could learn to get along with my mother.
ELIZA: Tell me more about your family.
Young woman: My mother takes care of me.
ELIZA: Who else in your family takes care of you?
Young woman: My father.
ELIZA: You r f a t he r.
Young woman: You are like my father in some ways.
ELIZA: What resemblance do you see?
Young woman: You are not very aggressive but I think you don't want
me to notice that.
ELIZA: What makes you think I am not very aggressive?
Young woman: You don't a r gu e wi t h me .
ELIZA: Why do you think I don't argue with you?
Young woman: You a r e a f r a i d o f me .
ELIZA: Does it please you to believe I am afraid of you?
Young woman: My father is afraid of everybody.
ELIZA: What else comes to mind when you think of your father?
Young woman: Bullies.
ELIZA: Does that have anything to do with the fact that your boyfriend
made you come here? 2
As you can probably tell, ELIZA is little more than a clever mimic, picking up on
certain keywords and throwing your own answers or comments back at you in the
form of new questions or pat psychological observations.
A chatterbot perhaps of more interest to game writers is PARRY, a program that
instead of asking questions answers them, while simulating the personality of a para-
noid. As you read this actual conversation a user reportedly had with PARRY, imag-
ine it taking place in a game environment, with the player as interviewer and Parry
as an NPC in the world.
2 Joseph Weizenbaum, Computer Power and Human Reason (New York: Freeman, 1976) 3-4.