Chinese Island NPCs

Feb 2015

The Chinese Island avatar-NPCs are being retired and replaced with an upgraded, more reliable mesh-based NPC model. The process is under way at the time of writing (Feb 2015) and will hopefully be complete within the next month. This upgrade has been in part driven by our Australian Government funded project which we have titled Virtually Enhanced Languages. You can learn more about the project here:

http://www.virtuallyenhancedlanguages.com

Come say hello to our friendly NPCs (non-player characters) inworld. We have 2 types on the island: avatar-NPCs and prim-NPCs.

Our NPC avatar-chatbots are unlike many that you will find on the internet in that they are specifically programmed with information about topics relevant to the study of Chinese language and culture undertaken by our students. They do not carry out random, circular and often meaningless chat, but rather can do things like carry out a role play on a specific topic in Chinese. Topics include ordering food at a restaurant, inquiring about rental accommodation at a real estate agency, inquiring about the procedure for seeing a doctor and seeing a doctor when you are ill, purchasing a train ticket, etc.

You can interact with our avatar-NPCs by going into Second Life and going to our island (Chinese Island) to meet and chat with them. Don’t forget, they only respond to Chinese characters and fairly simple questions (you can, for example, ask them what their name is and where they are from). In the case of one of our avatar-NPCs, Jingjing who is a waitress at the Tongfu Inn on the island, in addition to talking to her you can also order food from her and you will actually be given the dishes you ordered (they will be placed on the table for you).

As we have to deal with quite large numbers of students (150 in 1st semester of Introductory Chinese), the avatar-NPCs have proved to be a fantastic asset for classroom management. They are able to each simultaneously carry out conversations with many, many students, and can perform a basic range of functions (like accepting payment for objects, rezzing objects, giving things directly to students, show you to a table, etc.), freeing our teaching staff up to go around the computer lab and interact with individual students directly while they work through the set tasks. This enables us to provide much more tailored assistance to individual students (因材施教) as we discuss what they are doing at that moment and help them work through any problems (linguistic and non-linguistic) that they may have run into.

In the near future we hope to cover other topics and to make the scope of our existing NPCs’ dialog even broader and deeper and to make them even be able to carry out even more sophisticated actions that will both aid in the running of lessons and also convey even more information about Chinese culture and customs.

We also have a number of prim-NPCs on the island. These characters are much more static than their avatar-NPC cousins and their range of conversation is, at the moment, quite limited. All of them respond to Chinese character input except for our receptionist on the ground floor of the tall building at the southern end of the island. She speaks English and can answer basic questions about the island.

So, give it a try and have a chat in Chinese with one or all of our NPC chatbots! You can meet them at the following locations on the island:

Jingjing Xuanzang:

Our waitress at the Tongfu Inn 同福客栈, which can be found at the north-east end of the island.

Jingjing our NPC avatar-chatbot waitress

Ying Xuanzang:

Our nurse receptionist in the medical clinic on the 2nd floor of the tall building at the south end of the island.

Ying our NPC avatar-chatbot nurse receptionist

Yan Xuanzang:

Our island doctor who can also be found in the medical clinic in the 门诊室 or outpatients office.

Yan, our NPC avatar-chatbot doctor

Xiaohong Fang:

Our pharmacist in the medical clinic. She can be found in the 药房 or pharmacy next to the outpatients office.

Xiaohong, our NPC avatar-chatbot pharmacist

Pingping Chun:

Our railway station attendant. She can be found, naturally enough, in the railway station behind the ticket counter. The railway station is in the south-west corner of the island.

Pingping, our NPC avatar-chatbot railway employee

Tianming Ying:

Tianming is our fruit and vegetable seller in the fresh fruit and vegetable market. The market can be found in our village at the northern end of the sim. You can buy the various fruit and vegetables displayed from Tianming, but make sure you are wearing your Wallet HUD (available from a number of locations around the island).

Tianming, our NPC avatar-chatbot fresh fruit and vegetable seller

Zhang Rongyu:

The newest member of our team, Zhang Rongyu has a dual role on the island. He is both the travel agent and the real estate agent for the island. He can be found in either the travel agency or the real estate office in the village at the southern end of the island.