Research Hypothesis

As part of the capstone process, each graduate student (which for this project is just me!) has to have a research topic that is associated with the game. I've already talked a little bit about my general topic: dynamically generated stories using the Micro Missions architecture. Now, I think, the time has come to define more clearly my research hypothesis - what am I attempting to prove or disprove with my research?
So, without further ado, my research hypothesis is:

With a base architecture of modular, independent mini-games connected into cause-and-effect chains through discrete output, we can generate engaging and understandable semi-abstract stories using a "just-in-time" story generator which will choose and populate the next piece of content on-demand based on current story context and a basic model of narrative structure.

And here is what it means in the context of Micro Missions:

Most video game stories rely on the story designer anticipating and authoring every choice a player can make with respect to the story, and the consequences of these choices. With this method, the quality of the interactive aspect of the story depends in large part on whether the author anticipated a particular player's desired story-related choices. This method also places a great burden on the story designers, since they must author and test all the possible combination of player actions and story consequences.

The Micro Missions architecture allows a designer to create stories out of mini-games by connecting these mini-games through their inputs and outputs. Mini-games can take in a variety of variables that define the current context and environment; gameplay is adjusted using these variables, and after a mini-game ends, a series of values is output. Each of these values is in a discrete, pre-defined range. For each possible output value of each output, the designer of the story specifies what the next Interaction (mini-game, cutscene, or special event) should be.

The prototype developed at the end of Winter quarter served as a proof-of-concept to demonstrate that the described architecture can be used to hand-author stories that are understandable and fun to play through. The research question is whether we can build a story generator on top of that architecture that would generate stories which are comparably understandable and at least as engaging as the hand-created stories.