Communication Analysis focusing Negative Utterances in Combinatorial Thinking Games

Abstract

We have developed a table game named Innovation Game that supports users in thinking up ideas by combining existing products. There are two kinds of players in the Innovation Game, innovators and investors. While the innovators think up ideas and propose them, the investors criticize the ideas and make decisions whether they invest money to the ideas or not. In the Innovation Game, the innovators do not only propose ideas, but also improve the ideas reflecting comments from investors that represent negative impression to the ideas. Although it has been considered that ideas invested much money might be related to negative comments from investors, the relation has not been validated. We analyzed the communications in the Innovation Game. We have found features of communication in which ideas were invested much money. After a proposal of idea by a innovator, investors give negative comments to the innovator. The innovator accepts the negative comments with positive comments and improve their ideas. Finally, the investors satisfy the idea with positive comments and invest much money to them.