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）推动的先进角色驱动仿真的演进历程。早期由于模型能力有限，角色扮演任务主要局限于简单的人设一致性；如今，该领域已扩展到涵盖角色一致性、行为对齐与整体吸引力在内的复杂角色刻画。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、智能体架构及评估——提供了全面的分类梳理。本综述不仅概述了当前方法及挑战（例如动态人物档案管理与高层次人设一致性的实现），还指出了未来研究的可能方向，以提升角色扮演应用的深度与真实感。旨在通过对现有方法的结构化梳理及潜在改进领域的识别，为未来研究提供指引。相关资源与论文可在 https://github.com/nuochenpku/Awesome-Role-Play-Papers 获取。