Games as a Metaphor for Interactive Systems

Abstract

We present the use of games as a metaphor for constructing and organizing interactive systems, with particular attention to the provision of Knowledge-Based Front-Ends (KBFEs) to software packages. Interaction is viewed as a rule governed activity which may usefully be regarded as a game. Given a specification of the rules, implementation of an interactive system requires construction of an umpire, a component that enforces compliance of the players with the rules and thereby controls the interaction. Advice giving components added to the system are analogous to games played in the presence of an advisor who recommends moves to the participants. Complex interactive systems are constructed as compound games built up from simpler sub-games; coordination of moves chosen from the sub-games is then a key issue. We exemplify these points by showing how the games metaphor is employed in the design of a complex interactive system providing a KBFE to the statistical package GLIM. We also sketch an alternative design in order to illustrate how the games metaphor can impose discipline on the developers of a complex interactive system.