An Executable Ontology for Social Simulation

Social simulations often need many of the same things – characters, locations, interactions, and relationships to name a few. These regular components of simulators are present in games ranging from major titles like The Sims [1]–[3], indie classics like Dwarf Fortress [4], and experimental interactive experiences such as Bad News (or at least in the simulator Bad News is build off – Talk of the Town) [5], [6]. Not only do these components need reimplementation in each sim, but they are also often difficult for anyone but original developers to modify [7]. In this paper we discuss how social simulators can be declaratively authored from an ontology-based representation while still maintaining playable framerates. We argue that an ontology for these entities allows for the expressive and flexible creation of social simulations. We present a language and ontology, Socialog, which enables one to declaratively author a simulation with these ontological statements while maintaining very good performance.