Advanced Sequence Analysis

Abstract

This chapter discusses more advanced methods for sequence analysis. These include: probabilistic methods using classical planning, Bayesian Networks (BN), Dynamic Bayesian Networks (DBNs), Hidden Markov Models (HMMs), Markov Logic Networks (MLNs), Markov Decision Process (MDP), and Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs), specifically concentrating on LSTM (Long Short-Term Memory). These techniques are all great but, at this time, are mostly used in academia and less in the industry. Thus, the chapter takes a more academic approach, showing the work and its application to games when possible. The techniques are important as they cultivate future directions of how you can think about modeling, predicting players’ strategies, actions, and churn. We believe these methods can be leveraged in the future as the field advances and will have an impact in the industry. Please note that this chapter was developed in collaboration with several PhD students at Northeastern University, specifically Nathan Partlan, Madkour Abdelrahman Amr, and Sabbir Ahmad, who contributed greatly to this chapter and the case studies discussed.