mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

The Oscars of AI Theater: A Survey on Role-Playing with Language Models

arXiv 2407.11484 ↗First posted 16 Jul 2024cs.AI cs.CLcited by 47

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Abstract (arXiv)

This survey explores the burgeoning field of role-playing with language models, focusing on their development from early persona-based models to advanced character-driven simulations facilitated by Large Language Models (LLMs). Initially confined to simple persona consistency due to limited model capabilities, role-playing tasks have now expanded to embrace complex character portrayals involving character consistency, behavioral alignment, and overall attractiveness. We provide a comprehensive taxonomy of the critical components in designing these systems, including data, models and alignment, agent architecture and evaluation. This survey not only outlines the current methodologies and challenges, such as managing dynamic personal profiles and achieving high-level persona consistency but also suggests avenues for future research in improving the depth and realism of role-playing applications. The goal is to guide future research by offering a structured overview of current methodologies and identifying potential areas for improvement. Related resources and papers are available at https://github.com/nuochenpku/Awesome-Role-Play-Papers.

Key facts. Cited by 47 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 90 of its 119 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 16 Jul 2024.

Builds on

90 of 119 references.

References · 90

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38 more
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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2024: 4; 2025: 26; 2026: 17.

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  1. 2025Lifelong Learning of Large Language Model based Agents: A Roadmapcited by 78
  2. 2024BIG5-CHAT: Shaping LLM Personalities Through Training on Human-Grounded Datacited by 49
  3. 2025Enhancing Persona Consistency for LLMs' Role-Playing using Persona-Aware Contrastive Learningcited by 27
  4. 2025A Survey on Personalized and Pluralistic Preference Alignment in Large Language Modelscited by 25
  5. 2025Towards a Design Guideline for RPA Evaluation: A Survey of Large Language Model-Based Role-Playing Agentscited by 22
  6. 2025AnnaAgent: Dynamic Evolution Agent System with Multi-Session Memory for Realistic Seeker Simulationcited by 21
  7. 2025One Size doesn't Fit All: A Personalized Conversational Tutoring Agent for Mathematics Instructioncited by 17
  8. 2025Thinking in Character: Advancing Role-Playing Agents with Role-Aware Reasoningcited by 14
  9. 2024BEYOND DIALOGUE: A Profile-Dialogue Alignment Framework Towards General Role-Playing Language Modelcited by 13
  10. 2024ControlMath: Controllable Data Generation Promotes Math Generalist Modelscited by 9
  11. 2025Towards Enhanced Immersion and Agency for LLM-based Interactive Dramacited by 9
  12. 2025MOOM: Maintenance, Organization and Optimization of Memory in Ultra-Long Role-Playing Dialoguescited by 8
35 more
  1. 2025The Rise of Darkness: Safety-Utility Trade-Offs in Role-Playing Dialogue Agentscited by 7
  2. 2025Simulating Before Planning: Constructing Intrinsic User World Model for User-Tailored Dialogue Policy Planningcited by 7
  3. 2025Statistical Hypothesis Testing for Auditing Robustness in Language Modelscited by 7
  4. 2025STEER-BENCH: A Benchmark for Evaluating the Steerability of Large Language Modelscited by 6
  5. 2025CogDual: Enhancing Dual Cognition of LLMs via Reinforcement Learning with Implicit Rule-Based Rewardscited by 6
  6. 2025Codifying Character Logic in Role-Playingcited by 5
  7. 2025DPRF: A Generalizable Dynamic Persona Refinement Framework for Optimizing Behavior Alignment Between Personalized LLM Role-Playing Agents and Humanscited by 5
  8. 2025Multi-Agent Collaborative Framework For Math Problem Generationcited by 5
  9. 2025MOA: Multi-Objective Alignment for Role-Playing Agentscited by 5
  10. 2026Character-R1: Enhancing Role-Aware Reasoning in Role-Playing Agents via RLVRcited by 5
  11. 2025MPCG: Multi-Round Persona-Conditioned Generation for Modeling the Evolution of Misinformation with LLMscited by 4
  12. 2024Tell Me What You Don't Know: Enhancing Refusal Capabilities of Role-Playing Agents via Representation Space Analysis and Editingcited by 3
  13. 2025On the Adaptive Psychological Persuasion of Large Language Modelscited by 3
  14. 2025Video2Roleplay: A Multimodal Dataset and Framework for Video-Guided Role-playing Agentscited by 3
  15. 2026The Behavioral Fabric of LLM-Powered GUI Agents: Human Values and Interaction Outcomescited by 3
  16. 2026RoleCDE:Benchmarking and Mitigating Role-Alignment Trade-offs in Role-Playing Agentscited by 3
  17. 2025Pluralistic Alignment for Healthcare: A Role-Driven Frameworkcited by 2
  18. 2026Context-Value-Action Architecture for Value-Driven Large Language Model Agentscited by 2
  19. 2026Beyond Static Personas: Situational Personality Steering for Large Language Modelscited by 2
  20. 2026Enhancing Zero-shot Personalized Image Aesthetics Assessment with Profile-aware Multimodal LLMcited by 2
  21. 2026HomeFlow: A Data Flywheel for Smart Home Agent Training with Verifiable Simulationcited by 2
  22. 2026ArcANE: Do Role-Playing Language Agents Stay in Character at the Right Time?cited by 2
  23. 2026Do AI Personas Grow? Analyzing and Benchmarking Personality Evolution in LLM Agents After Life Eventscited by 2
  24. 2025Evaluating LLM-Generated Versus Human-Authored Responses in Role-Play Dialoguescited by 1
  25. 2025Understanding Generalization in Role-Playing Models via Information Theorycited by 1
  26. 2026HAL: Inducing Human-likeness in LLMs with Alignmentcited by 1
  27. 2026MAGA-Bench: Machine-Augment-Generated Text via Alignment Detection Benchmarkcited by 1
  28. 2026Improving General Role-Playing Agents via Psychology-Grounded Reasoning and Role-Aware Policy Optimizationcited by 1
  29. 2025Personalized Image Generation from an Author Writing Stylecited by 0
  30. 2025Even More Kawaii than Real-Person-Driven VTubers? Understanding How Viewers Perceive AI-Driven VTuberscited by 0
  31. 2026Beyond Prompt: Fine-grained Simulation of Cognitively Impaired Standardized Patients via Stochastic Steeringcited by 0
  32. 2026Reward-Decomposed Reinforcement Learning for Immersive Video Role-Playingcited by 0
  33. 2026The Granularity Axis: A Micro-to-Macro Latent Direction for Social Roles in Language Modelscited by 0
  34. 2026Through the Lens of Character: Resolving Modality-Role Interference in Multimodal Role-Playing Agentcited by 0
  35. 2026An Agentic Approach for Active Data Collection, Travel Behavior Modeling, and Weather-Sensitive Demand Predictioncited by 0