General game playing

From WikiMD's Wellness Encyclopedia

General Game Playing[edit | edit source]

General Game Playing (GGP) refers to the design of computer systems that can play a wide variety of games effectively without human intervention. Unlike specialized game-playing programs, such as those designed for chess or Go, general game players must be able to understand and play any game given only the rules at runtime.

Overview[edit | edit source]

General game playing is a field of artificial intelligence (AI) that focuses on creating systems capable of playing multiple games. These systems must be able to:

  • Interpret game rules provided in a formal language.
  • Develop strategies to play the game effectively.
  • Adapt to new games without prior knowledge.

Game Description Language[edit | edit source]

A key component of GGP is the use of a formal language to describe games. The most commonly used language is the Game Description Language (GDL), which allows the specification of:

  • Game rules
  • Initial game state
  • Legal moves
  • Goal conditions

GDL is based on first-order logic and is designed to be both human-readable and machine-interpretable.

Architecture of General Game Players[edit | edit source]

General game players typically consist of several components:

  • **Game Manager**: Parses the game description and manages the game state.
  • **Reasoning Engine**: Uses logical reasoning to determine legal moves and predict outcomes.
  • **Strategy Module**: Develops strategies using techniques such as Monte Carlo tree search or minimax algorithm.
  • **Learning Component**: Adapts strategies based on past performance and opponent behavior.

Challenges in General Game Playing[edit | edit source]

GGP presents several challenges, including:

  • **Complexity**: Games can vary widely in complexity, requiring flexible and efficient reasoning.
  • **Unknown Opponents**: Players must adapt to different opponents with varying strategies.
  • **Real-Time Decision Making**: Some games require quick decision-making under time constraints.

Applications[edit | edit source]

While primarily a research area, GGP has potential applications in:

Competitions[edit | edit source]

The AAAI General Game Playing Competition is a prominent event where researchers test their GGP systems against each other. Participants are given a set of games, and their systems must play these games without prior knowledge.

See Also[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

  • Love, N., Hinrichs, T., & Genesereth, M. (2008). General Game Playing: Game Description Language Specification. Stanford University.
  • Pell, B. (1993). Strategy Generation and Evaluation for Meta-Game Playing. PhD Thesis, University of Cambridge.

Contributors: Prab R. Tumpati, MD