I would like to thank the following people who have, over the years, supported me in my never-ending quest to take over the world: Jerome H. and Patricia A. Vick, who told me I could be and do anything I wanted (and they were right); Melissa J. and Jakob H. Vick, who put up with me on a daily basis; and the rest of my family, who always patiently listen to my next, greatest harebrained idea without letting their eyes glaze over.

I also owe a debt of gratitude to Thomas Rudy McDaniel and Kate Shoup for their unending patience and assistance turning my pidgin typing into readable stuff; Emi Smith for putting up with me and not letting me stop; Andrew Phelps and Jim Leone for making it possible for me to work on this book; Stephen Jacobs for letting me complain a lot and then quietly asking, “So, how’s the book coming?”; the entire faculty of Rochester Institute of Technology’s Department of Interactive Games and Media for all the support, offers to help, offers to point and laugh as I fell behind, etc.; Robert F. Kenny for being my secretary (grin) and enthusiastic supporter; and David Vickers for once threatening to kick my ass if I didn’t take a certain trip (you were right).

I also want to express sincere thanks to my Ph.D. dissertation committee: Jan Canon-Bowers, Clint Bowers, Art Cortez, and Peter Kincaid. Without their support, enthusiasm, dedication, and help, this book would not exist.

A recent graduate student of the Master of Science in Game Design and Development program, Joshua Gilpatrick, took interest in these ideas and created an initial prototype of the expression-blending engine explored in this book. Josh has now graduated and will be sorely missed around R.I.T.

I also want to thank the following people I met while working at Electronic Arts: Glenn Entis, Rick Hall, Jason Osipa, Dave Swanson, Matthew Bookspan, Jim Hjel, Kevin Kralian, and Craig Hoffman, all of whom believed that this crazy stuff could be put in a video game and helped me learn the right ways of thinking about emotive AI in video games.