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.

翻译：本综述探讨了语言模型角色扮演这一新兴领域，重点关注其从早期基于人设的模型发展到由大语言模型（LLMs）驱动的先进角色模拟的演进过程。受早期模型能力限制，角色扮演任务最初仅能实现简单的人设一致性，如今已扩展到涵盖角色一致性、行为对齐与整体吸引力等维度的复杂角色刻画。我们对设计此类系统的关键组成部分——包括数据、模型与对齐方法、智能体架构及评估体系——提出了全面的分类框架。本综述不仅梳理了当前方法（如动态角色档案管理、高层次人设一致性实现等）及其面临的挑战，同时为提升角色扮演应用的深度与真实感指明了未来研究方向。旨在通过系统梳理现有方法论并识别潜在改进方向，为后续研究提供指引。相关资源与论文可在 https://github.com/nuochenpku/Awesome-Role-Play-Papers 获取。