Computational Models of Motivation for Game-Playing Agents

“Merrick’s book helps game designers, programmers and researchers to create Non-Player Characters (NPCs, i.e. agents) that have human like motives. … Throughout the book the reader will find a wealth of modelling approaches and scenarios that can be used directly and applied to real computer games. … Concluding, Computational Models of Motivation for Game-Playing Agents will make a nice addition to the bookshelf of game designers, undergraduate students on computer game development courses and professional game researchers.” (Spyridon Samothrakis, Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines, Vol. 19 (4), December 2018)“This is an interesting book on an interesting topic. It would be of interest to many in the field of AI, particularly those in multiagent systems and game playing.” (Computing Reviews, June, 2017)

• From Player Types to Motivation.- Computational Models of Achievement, Affiliation, and Power Motivation.- Game Playing Agents and Non-player Characters.- Achievement Motivation.- Profiles of Achievement, Affiliation, and Power Motivation.- Enemies.- Pets and Partner Characters.- Support Characters.- Evolution of Motivated Agents.- Conclusion and Future Work.