Creating a learning opponent to counter player's strategies

What is it about?

This study's objective was to assess the potential of an Artificial Intelligence tool (AI) to create opponents that will learn, and then counter the player’s decisions in a strategy game, making it more challenging and engaging. The game used to test this was a more complex version of rock-paper-scissors. The results showed that the opponent was more effective with the help of the countering AI, winning significantly more when it was active. In addition, the level of engagement reported by players increased significantly when they knew it was active.

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Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This is the first study which shows that having one's plays countered by an AI is engaging. This raises questions as to why it might be more engaging, and answering these questions would lead to a better understanding of engagement towards games, and possibly even technology in general.