Artificial Intelligence in Modern Computer Games: A Scoping Review

Background. AI is revolutionizing modern computer games, but there's still a lack of information on its methods, particularly in video games, and on its impact on video games. To better understand its role and techniques, a scoping review is needed to explore its impact on the gaming industry and the technologies involved. Despite differing opinions, AI will continue to shape the future of modern computer games, and it's important to consider its benefits and drawbacks. Materials and Methods. This research was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA-ScR guidelines. The studies were searched in the Scopus database. The studies were selected based on their correspondence with the topic and several other criteria described in the protocol. Titles and abstracts of records obtained were screened. Results. 70 studies were obtained from the search. After all the filtration, 20 of these studies were selected as relevant and included in the study. The majority of these studies were journal articles and conference papers. The most studied AI methods applied in computer games were decision trees and machine learning in general. The least studied were recurrent neural networks and behavior trees. Conclusion. This work identified the principal methods of AI used in computer games, revealed those better studied and those worse studied. In addition, the influence of AI on the game industry. The results could be provided to researchers interested in studying AI applications in computer games.