Player Modeling

Player modeling is the study of computational models of players in games. This includes the detection, modeling, prediction and expression of human player characteristics which are manifested through cognitive, affective and behavioral patterns. This chapter introduces a holistic view of player modeling and provides a high level taxonomy and discussion of the key components of a player’s model. The discussion focuses on a taxonomy of approaches for constructing a player model, the available types of data for the model’s input and a proposed classification for the model’s output. The chapter provides also a brief overview of some promising applications and a discussion of the key challenges player modeling is currently facing which are linked to the input, the output and the computational model.