What Kind of Stories Should a Virtual Human Swap?

Telling stories is an important aspect virtual agents designed to interact with people socially over time. We describe an experiment designed to investigate the impact of the identity, presentation form, and perspective of a virtual storyteller on a human user who engages in a story-swapping activity with two virtual characters. For each interaction, the user was given 10 "ice-breaker" questions to ask a virtual character and respond to the character's reciprocal request. Participants also filled out a post-interaction survey, measuring rapport with the character and impressions of the character's personality. Results generally show that participants prefer characters who tell first person stories, however there were some interactions with presentation order. No significant preferences were established for the form or identity variables.