Take that, bot (Image: UbiSoft Entertainment/Games Press)

GONE are the days when video gaming was a private pursuit. Gaming services such as Microsoft’s Xbox Live not only connect players in living rooms the world over, they can also record every move each gamer makes. Academic researchers are learning to use information mined from this mountain of data to build more stimulating games – and commercial games designers are beginning to take notice.

“All of the big games publishers are getting into data mining,” says Julian Togelius of the Center for Games Research at the IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark. “They’re …