Player Modeling and Adaptation Methods Within Adaptive Serious Games

Abstract

Serious games (SGs) have emerged in recent years as a key method to augment education and training. SGs allow players to experience new concepts while exploring engaging virtual environments. To further extend the educational merit of SGs, adaptive SGs integrate games with adaptive systems to provide a more supportive education. Typically, these adaptive systems either focus on assisting or engaging the player, or on providing a more human-like tutoring experience. For appropriate adaptation, these games make use of player analytics and player modeling to determine what help to provide, predict future player actions, or otherwise model a player’s mental or physical state. To assist researchers in the development of future adaptive SGs, this article reviews and categorizes both player modeling and game adaptation methods from publications over the past ten years. We offer comparisons of various methods to achieve both modeling and adaptation, as well as comprehensive categories for both aspects. Furthermore, we also offer insights for future areas of study in adaptive SGs, as well as possible directions for SG developers.