Ray Ito

Ray Ito

Although advancements in game character AI aim to enhance player engagement, evidence suggests that perceiving an opponent as artificial can diminish the psychological experience. This paper presents a scoping review and meta-analysis of empirical studies focusing on player enjoyment when competing against human versus computer opponents. First, the scoping review was conducted to map the landscape of 20 included studies, detailing their study designs, outcome measures, and research foci. Second, a three-level meta-analysis synthesizing baseline comparisons from nine studies quantitatively assesses the differences in enjoyment. The results demonstrate a statistically significant, medium-to-large pooled effect size, indicating a psychological penalty in computer-opponent conditions. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the extant knowledge on this topic, and underscores the necessity for further research in order to fully understand and resolve the penalty of the computer opponent context.

Ray Ito, Junichiro Takahashi

Several attempts have been made to implement text command control for game agents. However, current technologies are limited to processing predefined format commands. This paper proposes a pioneering text command control system for a game agent that can understand natural language commands expressed in free-form. The proposed system uses a large language model (LLM) for code generation to interpret and transform natural language commands into behavior branch, a proposed knowledge expression based on behavior trees, which facilitates execution by the game agent. This study conducted empirical validation within a game environment that simulates a Pokémon game and involved multiple participants. The results confirmed the system's ability to understand and carry out natural language commands, representing a noteworthy in the realm of real-time language interactive game agents. Notice for the use of this material. The copyright of this material is retained by the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence (JSAI). This material is published here with the agreement of JSAI. Please be complied with Copyright Law of Japan if any users wish to reproduce, make derivative work, distribute or make available to the public any part or whole thereof. All Rights Reserved, Copyright (C) The Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence.