Automated Play-Testing through RL Based Human-Like Play-Styles Generation

Philosophical Discourse in Video Games. Selected Contexts in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, The Stanley Parable, The Talos Principle The author of this article discusses the problem of presence of philosophical discourses in modern video games. The author distinguishes three main types of usage of such discourses: the anecdotal representation, the parabolic construction and the affective philosophical exercise. To support his claim the author concentrates on the analysis of three games: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, The Stanley Parable, The Talos Principle, which leads to conclusions on textual mechanisms of implementing philosophical contexts into video games. The article also points out several main philosophical topics that can be effectively undertaken by video games in the context of education.

Authoring the AI for non-player characters (NPCs) in modern video games is an increasingly complex task. Designers and programmers must collaborate to resolve a tension between believable agents with emergent behaviours and scripted story lines. Behaviour trees (BTs) have been proposed as an expressive mechanism that let designers create complex behaviours along the lines of the story they want to tell. However, BTs are still too complex for non-programmers. In this paper, we propose the use of plan traces to assist designers when building BTs. In order to make this approach feasible within state-of-the-art video game technology, we generate the planning domain through an extension of the component-based approach, a widely used technique for representing entities in commercial video games.

Modern video games are increasingly becoming a more mature and respected form of storytelling and art. The way in which games can interact with players provides those players with a control over their product that is unmatched by literature or cinema. Games communicate with players in many direct and indirect ways. This paper explores how audio and haptic modes of communication are employed by different types of video games to support both elements of gameplay and the themes and rhetoric that a game possesses. Specifically, this paper focuses on how Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild express different aspects of control and procedural rhetoric through audio and haptic communication. This paper also takes into account philosophical concepts of play, widening the scope of the paper to consider why video games are an essential pastime to generations of players.

Modern video games are increasingly becoming a more mature and respected form of storytelling and art. The way in which games can interact with players provides those players with a control over their product that is unmatched by literature or cinema. Games communicate with players in many direct and indirect ways. This paper explores how audio and haptic modes of communication are employed by different types of video games to support both elements of gameplay and the themes and rhetoric that a game possesses. Specifically, this paper focuses on how Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild express different aspects of control and procedural rhetoric through audio and haptic communication. This paper also takes into account philosophical concepts of play, widening the scope of the paper to consider why video games are an essential pastime to generations of players.

Modern video games, due to their interactive nature and high level of immersion, have become more than just a form of entertainment. They constitute a complex medium that reflects and transforms political and philosophical ideas, modeling social conflicts and testing the boundaries of individual freedom. This paper explores video games as platforms of political socialization, analyzing their role in shaping worldviews, collective identity, and ideological norms under conditions of digitalization. The research focuses on key philosophical and political themes presented in digital games—such as free will, moral choice, identity, and power—and investigates how narrative structures, gameplay mechanics, and online communities contribute to the reproduction or transformation of political values. Particular attention is paid to case studies of popular and narratively complex projects, including Cyberpunk 2077, Metro: Exodus, Counter-Strike 2, Assassin’s Creed: Unity, and Battlefield 1. Methodologically, the study employs qualitative content analysis and case analysis, drawing on political philosophy, social theory, and philosophy of technology. The novelty of this research lies in its comprehensive approach, combining theoretical reflection with empirical analysis of specific game projects, in order to evaluate the potential of video games as instruments of cultural diplomacy, soft power, and ideological influence. The results indicate that video games increasingly act as laboratories of digital experience, where values are tested, social roles are reproduced, and interaction with authority is modeled. Thus, video games should be regarded not only as cultural artifacts but also as active mechanisms of political socialization in the digital era.

As video games expanded their audience and the scope of their content, higher education became a more frequent feature in those games. This chapter examines portrayals of higher education in 69 video games released between 2004 and 2015. Although exceptions do exist, the chapter’s author argues that anti-intellectual themes commonly seen in American culture (e.g., isolated faculty conducting research that does not benefit society) are visible consistently in video games as well.

In most modern video games, content (e.g. models, levels, weapons, etc.) shipped with the game is static and unchanging, or at best, randomized within a narrow set of parameters. However, if game content could be constantly renewed, players would remain engaged longer. To realize this ambition, the content-generating NeuroEvolution of Augmenting Topologies (cgNEAT) algorithm automatically evolves novel game content based on player preferences, as the game is played. To demonstrate this approach, the Galactic Arms Race (GAR) video game, which incorporates cgNEAT, will be presented. In GAR, players pilot space ships and fight enemies to acquire novel particle system weapons that are evolved by the game. The live demo will show how GAR players can discover a wide variety of weapons that are not only novel, but also based on and extended from previous content that they preferred in the past. The implication of cgNEAT is that it is now possible to create games that generate their own content, potentially significantly reducing the cost of content creation and increasing the replay value of games.

Past research indicates strong monetary motives for gambling often elevate an individual's risk of experiencing symptoms of gambling disorder, with personal relative deprivation (PRD) and upward mobility (UM) identified as key factors in this relationship. Nevertheless, few studies have examined how financial motives, PRD, and UM might interact for people playing modern video games-many of which offer financial incentives to encourage participation. Due to the overlap between gambling and (video) gaming, evidence suggests disordered gambling and disordered gaming might also share similarities. Therefore, the present study explored whether PRD influences associations between playing video games for financial motives, symptoms of Internet gaming disorder (IGD), and UM in two samples: 797 college students (Study 1) and 179 adult gamers over 25 years old (Study 2). Results from Study 1 revealed more PRD predicted more IGD symptoms, with higher financial gaming motives mediating the relationship. In Study 2, PRD also predicted IGD severity, but only coping motives appeared to mediate the positive association between PRD and IGD severity. In both samples, perceived UM inversely moderated the effect of PRD on one's financial or coping gaming motives. These findings suggest financial motives for video games might lead to more problematic forms of participation for younger adults and negative perceptions of PRD and UM might interact, similar to gambling, to elevate a gamer's vulnerability for IGD.

Trust is a critical factor in human-robot interaction. This study investigates how using human data to train reinforcement learning (RL) agents affects perceived performance and trust. We conducted two experiments: an online study using the video game Seaquest, and a physical robot study involving a wire loop task. In both, RL agents were trained using demonstrations from human users with varying skill levels, as well as without human data. Participants then rated the agents’ performance and how much they trusted them. Our results for the online study indicate that RL agents trained with expert human data received significantly higher trust ratings than other agents, and that trust was higher in replay and long training conditions compared to short and no training. Videos showing beginner players were also trusted, despite lower performance, although these differences did not always reach statistical significance. This highlights that trust is influenced by factors beyond mere performance, suggesting a role for cues such as perceived human involvement. In the physical robot study, our findings indicate that trust was significantly influenced by the type of training data, with data from an experienced human having a positive effect under certain training conditions. Performance ratings were influenced primarily by the training approach, with replay receiving higher ratings than short training. Although trust was notably higher under certain conditions, performance ratings did not always align with trust, indicating a partial dissociation between the two measures. Together, these results suggest that training with high-quality human data can enhance the trustworthiness of RL agents under appropriate training conditions. However, trust depends not only on performance, but also on how human-like an agent's behavior appears. Designing agents for trust-sensitive applications may therefore benefit from aligning behavior with user expectations, rather than optimizing performance alone.

This paper aims to create a shorthand for video game history – from video games’ infancy to the current subscription model that is dominating gaming. In this essay, I will apply the practices of historical media scholarship that have helped parse out television history (e.g., TV I, TV II, TV III, and TV IV) and film history (e.g., Cinema 1, 2, and 3.0) to define the various shifts in video game history. Gaming I represents the arcade and home system boom up until the 1983 video game Crash, Gaming II describes the post-Crash console period, and finally, Gaming III materializes due to the arrival of modern video game subscriptions. Rather than constructing an exhaustive account of video game history, this essay means to generate more studies on what video game history can mean in the context of the established academic studies on visual media.

By their nature, video games create perspectival relationships between the game space, with its mechanics, characters, etc. and their players. Perspectival mechanics in games like Monument Valley and Fez require one to simultaneously transform the environment, the objects in the environment, and one's egocentric reference frames, illustrating the complex nature intrinsic to video game spaces. The authors seek to investigate the ways perspectival mechanics in video games are both created and experienced using postphenomenological inquiry. This investigation is situated within the indie genre of games in particular, a context where these mechanics are intentionally being explored. In addition, this chapter draws parallels between indie games and indie music, contexts where boundary pushing is the norm. In addition to explicating the phenomenon of perspectival shifts in indie games, the authors review research related to spatial thinking, conjecturing affordances of indie games as geometric gifts, possibly well positioned to support spatial thinking.

The article examines the gamification of politics, the process of integrating game elements and mechanics into the political sphere, as well as the use of video games as a tool for influencing public opinion. The subject of the study is video games as a sociocultural and political phenomenon, their role in shaping public opinion and political education. The purpose of the research is to study the role of video games as a tool for influencing public opinion. The authors aim to identify the mechanisms of gamification in politics, assess the potential of video games in manipulating public consciousness, and forecast some trends in the development of this sociocultural phenomenon. The research tasks include analyzing the theoretical aspects of political gamification, investigating video games as a tool for political communication, assessing their educational potential, and developing recommendations for promoting national interests. The main hypothesis of the research is that video games are not only an entertainment product but also a tool for influencing public opinion, capable of manipulating consciousness, political education, and preserving historical memory. The methodological foundation of the research is the theoretical analysis of domestic and foreign studies dedicated to public opinion and the gamification of politics. Qualitative methods are used, including case studies (when analyzing cases involving video games). The sources include academic articles, statistics from the gaming industry, official regulatory legal acts, and statements from Russian authorities regarding the regulation of the video game industry. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the comprehensive analysis of video games as a tool for shaping public opinion and political education. The article shows that video games contain political symbols, images, and discourses capable of engaging players and influencing their consciousness. The global video game market is estimated at $185 billion, and in Russia, 88 million people over 18 have tried playing video games at least once. Cases such as "Black Myth: Wukong" and "Immortal Symphony" demonstrate the educational potential of video games and their impact on cultural preferences. In conclusion, it is noted that video games are an important element of modern political communications and require government support to create competitive products, especially in the context of sanctions. It is recommended to develop mechanisms for controlling the content of video games and continue research on their impact on political communications.

Modern computer games have become far more sophisticated than their ancestors. In this process the requirements to the intelligence of artificial gaming characters have become more and more complex. This paper describes an approach to evolve human-competitive artificial players for modern computer games. The agents are evolved from scratch and successfully learn how to survive and defend themselves in the game. Agents trained with standard evolution against a training partner and agents trained by coevolution are presented. Both types of agents were able to defeat or even to dominate the original agents supplied by the game. Furthermore, we have made a detailed analysis of the obtained results to gain more insight into the resulting agents.

Reinforcement learning (RL) is one of the fundamental areas of machine learning and is widely regarded as a necessary component of artificial general intelligence (AGI). While RL has been researched for a few decades, the advent of deep learning has resulted in the so-called deep reinforcement learning algorithms that utilize deep neural networks and large-scale computing power to significantly improve the capabilities of RL. They have resulted in computer programs that play video games and board games at super human level and even beat handcrafted computer programs, e.g., chess program AlphaZero beat the best handcrafted program Stockfish 8. Besides video and board games, RL is being applied to enable robots to learn complex tasks in autonomous driving and industrial automation. This chapter covers the fundamental concepts of RL and the taxonomy of RL algorithms. In the next chapter, you will learn some of the key algorithms in reinforcement learning. An understanding of this chapter will provide you with a good feel for RL.

Purpose: The article sought to answer research questions regarding investigated branded content generated by players in simulation video games. How does the process work in video games? What are the characteristics of branded user-generated content in video games? To what extent players are willing to participate in branded content creation? Methodology: I conducted 20 in-depth interviews among Polish players, with the application of snowball sampling. The study participants were adult users of chosen simulation video games: The Sims, Second Life, and Euro Truck Simulator 2. Findings: We can distinguish content based on game mechanism, official add-ons, or game modding. Players frequently check some brands from a set offered by game developers and create content (e.g. in The Sims users can design house interiors with IKEA furniture). Some players are not satisfied by what a game offers and generate content based on modding (e.g. DHL trucks or McDonald’s restaurants inside the Euro Truck Simulator 2). In this respect, the article refers to Smith’s, Fischer’s, and Yongjian’s content dimensions. Branded game modifications described by respondents are characterized by a high level of similarity towards real brands and positive brand sentiment (valence). I noted no statement about player and marketer (brand) communication in gathered material. The biggest challenge for practitioners in the field of UGC in video games is how to manage brand messages. Practical Implications: Brand-related user-generated content is an important phenomenon in terms of the brand-building process and its impact on brand reception, which all require marketers’ attention. For game developers, such a content is a source of information about customer expectations. Players show their personal expectations by game modding. Originality/Value: Brand-related content generated by users is frequently associated with social media. The scholarship shows a lack of knowledge of branded user-generated content in video games.