Play-Persona: Modeling Player Behaviour in Computer Games

patterns are of an emotional, rational and behavioural kind. They are seen as responsible for
generating actions and responses within game worlds. Later on I will redefine and expand on this
concept.
Experience is, according to the philosopher Immanuel Kant, “empirical knowledge or knowledge by
means of connected perceptions“ [19] and, as we can see from the etymology of the Latin word
(experientia) "knowledge gained by repeated trials", in other words the accumulation of knowledge
or skill that results from direct participation in events (“a player with experience”). But existence in
itself generates experience (“I am experiencing fear”). Since neither English nor Latin render this
double meaning of the term I will make use of the terms “erfahrung” and “erlebnis” as defined by
the philosopher Walter Benjamin of the Frankfurt school. [6]. Erfahrung is “wisdom gained in
subsequent reflection on events or interpretation of them” [36]. It is understanding of life and the
world we live in; it is experience as an ongoing, cumulative and critical-cognitive process;
“journeyed-through” knowledge, mature reflection on events. Erlebnis is “mentally unprocessed,
immediately-perceived event” [36] a one-off encounter, a particular sensation that does not build
towards a greater whole; it is isolated, categorical, without cognition, “lived-through”
aesthetic/ecstatic perception. It is immediate, pre-reflective and personal. In the following
“erfahrung” will be translated into reflective experience or reflection and “erlebnis” into perceptive
experience or perception.
Emotion, in psychology, is defined as a complex, subjective experience that is accompanied by
biological and behavioural changes [31]. Emotions are responses to certain sorts of events of
concern to a subject, triggering bodily changes and typically motivating characteristic behaviour
[14]. Nearly all contemporary cognitive theories of emotion recognize four classes of factors:
• instigating stimuli that generate emotions (subjective experience)
• physiological correlates that accompany the emotion
• cognitive appraisal of the situation that triggered the emotion
• motivational properties of emotional arousal (expressive behaviour).
I am adding to the list cognitive appraisal, derived from the work of Nico Frijda on Emotions [16],
to the three components of a definition laid out by several theorists as quoted by Leino [23, 19].
I suggest that emotions help transforming and processing perceptive experience in reflective
experience in a much faster way than through repeated trials. If strong enough these perceptions
(memorable, indexing and iconic) become fastened in the memory and finally these memorable
experiences gradually help defining personalities. I will try to prove this statement by analyzing the
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