VICTEC (Virtual ICT with Empathic Characters), a European framework V project was carried out between 2002-2005. The project considered the application of 3D animated synthetic characters and emergent narrative to create improvised dramas to address bullying problems for children aged 8-12 in the UK, Germany and Portugal. One of the main aims of the project was to develop synthetic characters that could, through their appearances, behaviours and features allow the user to build empathic relations with them.

The child user interacts with one physical bullying scenario and one relational scenario. After the introduction of the characters, school and situation, users view the first bullying episode, followed by the victimised character seeking rescue in the school library, where it starts to communicate with the child user. Within the initiated dialogue the user selects an advice from a list of coping strategies (shown as a drop down menu). The user also explains his/her selection and what he/she thinks will happen after having implemented the selected strategy, by typing it in.

project lirec