Nature of Attractive Multiplayer Games: Case Study on China’s Most Popular Card Game—DouDiZhu

Abstract

DouDiZhu, a multiplayer game with incomplete information, is the most popular card game in China. Although there are many DouDiZhu card games in the world, the specific characteristics of classical DouDiZhu card games are a harmonious combination of player numbers, player characters (landlords and peasants), deck numbers, and scoring systems. However, research on the complexity and attractiveness of DouDiZhu has not established. Therefore, in this paper, artificial intelligence (AI) players of different levels of DouDiZhu game were constructed for research, self-game simulation was conducted for DouDiZhu AI players, and game refinement measures were used to evaluate and identify the best Settings of the game. The results show that classical DouDiZhu provides the most complex game setup for all types of DouDiZhu AI players, while also clarifying its popularity.