{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,18]],"date-time":"2026-06-18T22:40:17Z","timestamp":1781822417437,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":33,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,2]],"date-time":"2020-03-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1583107200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Information"],"abstract":"<jats:p>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.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/info11030141","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,3]],"date-time":"2020-03-03T13:06:23Z","timestamp":1583240783000},"page":"141","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":15,"title":["Nature of Attractive Multiplayer Games: Case Study on China\u2019s Most Popular Card Game\u2014DouDiZhu"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Yuexian","family":"Gao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Information Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Nomi 923-1211, Japan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wanxiang","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Information Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Nomi 923-1211, Japan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yuhao","family":"Xiao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Information Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Nomi 923-1211, Japan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7909-8869","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mohd Nor Akmal","family":"Khalid","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Information Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Nomi 923-1211, Japan"},{"name":"Research Center for Entertainment Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Nomi 923-1292, Japan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8412-9837","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hiroyuki","family":"Iida","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Information Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Nomi 923-1211, Japan"},{"name":"Research Center for Entertainment Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Nomi 923-1292, Japan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"274","article-title":"Homo ludens, a study of the play-element in culture","volume":"16","author":"Huizinga","year":"1980","journal-title":"Am. Sociol. Rev."},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"Iida, H. (2020, February 28). Where Is a Line between Work and Play?. Available online: https:\/\/dspace.jaist.ac.jp\/dspace\/handle\/10119\/15366."},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"McGonigal, J. (2011). Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World, The Penguin Press."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1390","DOI":"10.1126\/science.7466396","article-title":"The evolution of cooperation","volume":"211","author":"Axelrod","year":"1981","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_5","unstructured":"Wikimedia (2020, February 28). Dou Dizhu. Available online: https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dou_dizhu."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Iida, H., Takahara, K., Nagashima, J., Kajihara, Y., and Hashimoto, T. (2004, January 1\u20133). An Application of Game-Refinement Theory to Mah Jong. Proceedings of the International Conference on Entertainment Computing, Eindhoven, Netherlands.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-540-28643-1_41"},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"Billings, D. (2020, March 02). Computer Poker. Available online: https:\/\/era.library.ualberta.ca\/items\/a92e1a72-bf40-4ae8-b3fb-eb34723367be."},{"key":"ref_8","unstructured":"Billings, D., Burch, N., Davidson, A., Holte, R.C., Schaeffer, J., Schauenberg, T., and Szafron, D. (2003, January 9\u201315). Approximating Game-Theoretic Optimal Strategies for Full-scale Poker. Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Acapulco, Mexico."},{"key":"ref_9","unstructured":"Zinkevich, M., Johanson, M., Bowling, M., and Piccione, C. (2007, January 3\u20138). Regret minimization in games with incomplete information. Proceedings of the International Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, Vancouver, CA, USA."},{"key":"ref_10","unstructured":"Berlin, D.L.S. (2020, February 28). SPAN: Integrating Problem-Solving Tactics. Available online: https:\/\/pdfs.semanticscholar.org\/0231\/e118c916157c87396dc67da55e9b5597c242.pdf."},{"key":"ref_11","unstructured":"Frank, I., and Basin, D. (2020, February 28). Search in Games with Incomplete Information: A Case Study Using Bridge Card Play. Available online: https:\/\/core.ac.uk\/download\/pdf\/82412244.pdf."},{"key":"ref_12","unstructured":"Myerson, R.B. (2020, February 28). Game Theory. Available online: https:\/\/www.hup.harvard.edu\/catalog.php?isbn=9780674341166."},{"key":"ref_13","unstructured":"Dixit, A.K., and Skeath, S. (2015). Games of Strategy: Fourth International Student Edition, WW Norton & Company."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"139","DOI":"10.1017\/S0140525X03000050","article-title":"Cooperation, psychological game theory, and limitations of rationality in social interaction","volume":"26","author":"Colman","year":"2003","journal-title":"Behav. Brain Sci."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2100","DOI":"10.1016\/j.chb.2012.06.014","article-title":"The influence of competition, cooperation, and player relationship in a motor performance centered computer game","volume":"28","author":"Peng","year":"2012","journal-title":"Comput. Hum. Behav."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Seif El-Nasr, M., Aghabeigi, B., Milam, D., Erfani, M., Lameman, B., Maygoli, H., and Mah, S. (2010, January 12\u201315). Understanding and evaluating cooperative games. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Atlanta, GA, USA.","DOI":"10.1145\/1753326.1753363"},{"key":"ref_17","unstructured":"Cai, X. (2020, March 02). Why Do Chinese People Like Playing \u201cDoudizhu\u201d?. Available online: http:\/\/36.112.18.13\/article\/detail.aspx?id=37015580."},{"key":"ref_18","unstructured":"Hu, C. (2020, March 02). A Brief Analysis of the Phenomenon of \u201cDoudizhu\u201d. Available online: http:\/\/www.cnki.com.cn\/Article\/CJFD2000-QYWH200008040.htm."},{"key":"ref_19","unstructured":"Weimin, K. (2020, March 02). Poker Guide: Tips for \u201cDouDiZhu\u201d. Available online: https:\/\/book.douban.com\/subject\/4814771\/."},{"key":"ref_20","unstructured":"Lin, J. (2020, March 02). The Application of Game Tree Searching Technology in Card Online Game. Available online: http:\/\/cdmd.cnki.com.cn\/Article\/CDMD-10560-2010042531.htm."},{"key":"ref_21","unstructured":"Liu, X. (2020, March 02). Research and its Application On Dynamic Fuzzy Relational Learning Algorithm. Available online: http:\/\/cdmd.cnki.com.cn\/Article\/CDMD-10285-1011032182.htm."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Whitehouse, D., Powley, E.J., and Cowling, P.I. (September, January 31). Determinization and information set Monte Carlo Tree Search for the card game Dou Di Zhu. Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG\u201911), Seoul, South Korea.","DOI":"10.1109\/CIG.2011.6031993"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zhang, Y., Chen, Z., Zheng, L., Zhang, Z., Ding, M., Meng, K., and Li, S. (2017, January 11\u201312). Research on Hand Discrimination for Doudizhu Game. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Education, Management, Arts, Economics and Social Science (ICEMAESS 2017), Sanya, China.","DOI":"10.2991\/icemaess-17.2017.97"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Jiang, Q., Li, K., Du, B., Chen, H., and Fang, H. (2019, January 10\u201316). DeltaDou: Expert-level doudizhu AI through self-play. Proceedings of the 28th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Macao, China.","DOI":"10.24963\/ijcai.2019\/176"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Panumate, C., Xiong, S., and Iida, H. (2015, January 12\u201316). An Approach to Quantifying Pokemon\u2019s Entertainment Impact with Focus on Battle. Proceedings of the 2015 3rd International Conference on Applied Computing and Information Technology\/2nd International Conference on Computational Science and Intelligence, Okayama, Japan.","DOI":"10.1109\/ACIT-CSI.2015.19"},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Xiong, S., Tiwary, P.P., and Iida, H. (2016, January 28\u201330). Solving the sophistication-population paradox of game refinement theory. Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Entertainment Computing, Vienna, Austria.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-46100-7_28"},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sutiono, A.P., Purwarianti, A., and Iida, H. (2014, January 9\u201311). A mathematical model of game refinement. Proceedings of the International Conference on Intelligent Technologies for Interactive Entertainment, Chicago, IL, USA.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-08189-2_22"},{"key":"ref_28","first-page":"37","article-title":"Quantifying engagement of electronic sports game","volume":"5","author":"Xiong","year":"2014","journal-title":"Adv. Soc. Behav. Sci."},{"key":"ref_29","unstructured":"Dian, S. (2020, March 02). Fight All over the World Invincible Hand. Available online: https:\/\/item.jd.com\/11240301550.html."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Alfred, R., Lim, Y., Haviluddin, H., and On, C. (2020). Quantifying attractiveness of incomplete-information multi-player game: Case study using DouDiZhu. Computational Science and Technology, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-981-15-0058-9"},{"key":"ref_31","unstructured":"Xiong, S., Li, W., Xinting, M., and Iida, H. (2020, February 28). Mafia Game Setting Research using Game Refinement Measurement. Available online: https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/profile\/Hiroyuki_Iida3\/publication\/321822554_Mafia_Game_Setting_Research_using_Game_Refinement_Measurement\/links\/5a331c48458515afb63c599e\/Mafia-Game-Setting-Research-using-Game-Refinement-Measurement.pdf."},{"key":"ref_32","unstructured":"Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2020, March 02). Beyond Boredom and Anxiety. Available online: https:\/\/psycnet.apa.org\/record\/2000-12701-000."},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Yicong, W., Aung, H.P.P., Khalid, M.N.A., and Iida, H. (2019, January 6\u20137). Evolution of Games Towards The Discovery of Noble Uncertainty. Proceedings of the 2019 International Conference on Advanced Information Technologies (ICAIT), Yangon, Myanmar.","DOI":"10.1109\/AITC.2019.8921061"}],"container-title":["Information"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2078-2489\/11\/3\/141\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T09:03:25Z","timestamp":1760173405000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2078-2489\/11\/3\/141"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,2]]},"references-count":33,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,3]]}},"alternative-id":["info11030141"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/info11030141","relation":{},"ISSN":["2078-2489"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2078-2489","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,2]]}}}