A Framework for Exploring and Evaluating Mechanics in Human Computation Games

Human computation games (HCGs) are a crowdsourcing approach to solving computationally-intractable tasks using games. In this paper, we describe the need for generalizable HCG design knowledge that accommodates the needs of both players and tasks. We propose a formal representation of the mechanics in HCGs, providing a structural breakdown to visualize, compare, and explore the space of HCG mechanics. We present a methodology based on small-scale design experiments using fixed tasks while varying game elements to observe effects on both the player experience and the human computation task completion. Finally we discuss applications of our framework using comparisons of prior HCGs and recent design experiments. Ultimately, we wish to enable easier exploration and development of HCGs, helping these games provide meaningful player experiences while solving difficult problems.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Topologies for combining the Internet of Things and Serious Games

Serious Games have been established over recent years as a means of utilising gaming for applications other than entertainment.With the emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm, a new direction for serious games arises, where data gathered from the physical environment can be utilised towards new novel applications. This literature survey uncovers existing topologies that can be applied for combining IoT with Serious Games. This paper presents findings from extensive research into IoT, Serious Games, Pervasive Games and Gamification, IoT topologies and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), to identify the requirements of a topology for Serious Games and IoT. By understanding the topological requirements for combining IoT and Serious Games, the development process is reduced, allowing for the advancement in the mentioned field. Three topologies are presented for combining IoT with Serious Games and a detailed topology for developing a Serious Game that monitors student attendance is presented. Also included, is an insight into the new paradigm of Smart Serious Games (SSGs). This paper will aid future research and development in SSGs determine effective network topologies

On Video Game Balancing: Joining Player- and Data-Driven Analytics

Balancing is, especially among players, a highly debated topic of video games. Whether a game is sufficiently balanced greatly influences its reception, player satisfaction, churn rates and success. Yet, conceptions about the definition of balance diverge across industry, academia and players, and different understandings of designing balance can lead to worse player experiences than actual imbalances. This work accumulates concepts of balancing video games from industry and academia and introduces a player-driven approach to optimize player experience and satisfaction. Using survey data from 680 participants and empirically recorded data of over 4 million in-game fights of Guild Wars 2, we aggregate player opinions and requirements, contrast them to the status quo and approach a democratized quantitative technique to approximate closer configurations of balance. We contribute a strategy of refining balancing notions, a methodology of tailoring balance to the actual player base and point to an exemplary artifact that realizes this process.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figure

Video game preservation in the UK: a survey of records management practices

Video games are a cultural phenomenon; a medium like no other that has become one of the largest entertainment sectors in the world. While the UK boasts an enviable games development heritage, it risks losing a major part of its cultural output through an inability to preserve the games that are created by the country’s independent games developers. The issues go deeper than bit rot and other problems that affect all digital media; loss of context, copyright and legal issues, and the throwaway culture of the ‘next’ game all hinder the ability of fans and academics to preserve video games and make them accessible in the future. This study looked at the current attitudes towards preservation in the UK’s independent (‘indie’) video games industry by examining current record-keeping practices and analysing the views of games developers. The results show that there is an interest in preserving games, and possibly a desire to do so, but issues of piracy and cost prevent the industry from undertaking preservation work internally, and from allowing others to assume such responsibility. The recommendation made by this paper is not simply for preservation professionals and enthusiasts to collaborate with the industry, but to do so by advocating the commercial benefits that preservation may offer to the industry

Artificial Intelligence in Education as a Rawlsian Massively Multiplayer Game : A Thought Experiment on AI Ethics

In this chapter, we reflect on the deployment of AI as a pedagogical and educational instrument. When AI enters into classrooms, it becomes as a project with diverse members who have differing stakes, and it produces various socio-cognitive-technological questions that must be discussed. Furthermore, AI is developing fast and renders obsolete old paradigms for, e.g. data access, privacy, and transparency. AI may bring many positive consequences in schools — not only for individuals, or teachers, but for the educational system as a whole. On the other hand, there are also serious risks. Thus, the analysis of the educational uses of AI in future schools pushes us to compare the possible benefits (for example, using AI-based tools for supporting different learners) with the possible risks (for example, the danger of algorithmic manipulation, or a danger of hidden algorithmic discrimination). Practical solutions are many, for example the Solid protocol by Tim Berners-Lee, but are often conceived as solutions to single problems, with limited application. We describe a thought experiment: "education as a massively multiplayer social online game". Here, all actors (humans, institutions, AI agents and algorithms) are required to conform to the definition of a player: which is a role designed to maximise protection and benefit for human players. AI models that understand the game space provide an API for typical algorithms, e.g. deep learning neural nets or reinforcement learning agents, to interact with the game space. Our thought experiment clarifies the steep challenges, and also the opportunity, of AI in education.Peer reviewe

What did I do Wrong in my MOBA Game?: Mining Patterns Discriminating Deviant Behaviours

International audienceThe success of electronic sports (eSports), where professional gamers participate in competitive leagues and tournaments , brings new challenges for the video game industry. Other than fun, games must be difficult and challenging for eSports professionals but still easy and enjoyable for amateurs. In this article, we consider Multi-player Online Battle Arena games (MOBA) and particularly, " Defense of the Ancients 2 " , commonly known simply as DOTA2. In this context, a challenge is to propose data analysis methods and metrics that help players to improve their skills. We design a data mining-based method that discovers strategic patterns from historical behavioral traces: Given a model encoding an expected way of playing (the norm), we are interested in patterns deviating from the norm that may explain a game outcome from which player can learn more efficient ways of playing. The method is formally introduced and shown to be adaptable to different scenarios. Finally, we provide an experimental evaluation over a dataset of 10, 000 behavioral game traces

Validating Game Design with Game Analytics in a Location-based Game

Game analytics has grown from a trend to a norm in almost all types of games, and with the availability of tools and information, leveraging benefits has never been easier. Additionally, mobile location-based games are a great platform for applying game analytics due to location information being bound to almost every facet of such games, thus enabling developers to understand where and how their games are played. This thesis is based on a research project at the University of Turku, of which a part was to create a pirate-themed location-based mobile game. The game was then studied in terms of how it was played with the help of telemetry data from the game. In this thesis, the player data is used to find out how the game's design can be validated in terms of healthiness and whether a game's design can have a positive influence on a player's health. The player data was plotted as routes for each individual player, and then inspected for different kinds of behaviour. Players were found out to play in different kinds of areas, and play during or after riding a vehicle, and play the game on the same routes repeatedly. Physical activity of players can be increased by making walking between locations a requirement, but the game mechanics have to be interesting enough, as the novelty of walking in itself is not sufficient. Ultimately, players were shown to increase their physical activity by playing the game, which meant travelling between objectives

Big Data Management for MMO Games and Integrated Website Implementation

With the popularity and success of massively multiplayer Games (MMOGs), the development of MMOGS has got a quantum leap on game's contents and entertainment which attract huge number of players making MMOGs these years a big business which increased to billions of dollars revenue each year worldwide. But with this number of players and these game contents, the data volume produced from games has rapidly increased and used by simultaneously game players around the world. This data require high performance, fault tolerance and scalability. Considering all these demands the popular used relational database becomes a big challenge and cannot overcomes the challenges and cannot meet the requirements for MMOGS data storage. This paper focus on using big data technology tools to completely meet the requirement of MMO games. My work can be divided into two parts: the first part we proposed Cassandra database for MMO games data storing and the integration of Hadoop with Cassandra nodes for high performance in operations process. The second part: we implement a new MMO website with new payment methods, new advertisement program by friend2019;s invitations and other enhanced function. By implementing this website and comparisons of results of our database management, we show the applicability of our approach as well as the relative performance benefits of designing new games or website using our architecture

The Bullying Game: Sexism Based Toxic Language Analysis on Online Games Chat Logs by Text Mining

As a unique type of social network, the online gaming industry is a fast-growing, changing, and men-dominated field which attracts diverse backgrounds. Being dominated by male users, game developers, game players, game investors, the non-inclusiveness and gender inequality reside as salient problems in the community. In the online gaming communities, most women players report toxic and offensive language or experiences of verbal abuse. Symbolic interactionists and feminists assume that words matter since the use of particular language and terms can dehumanize and harm particular groups such as women. Identifying and reporting the toxic behavior, sexism, and harassment that occur in online games is a critical need in preventing cyberbullying, and it will help gender diversity and equality grow in the online gaming industry. However, the research on this topic is still rare, except for some milestone studies. This paper aims to contribute to the theory and practice of sexist toxic language detection in the online gaming community, through the automatic detection and analysis of toxic comments in online games chat logs. We adopted the MaXQDA tool as a data visualization technique to reveal the most frequently used toxic words used against women in online gaming communities. We also applied the Naïve Bayes Classifier for text mining to classify if a chat log content is sexist and toxic. We also refined the text mining model Laplace estimator and re-tested the model’s accuracy. The study also revealed that the accuracy of the Naïve Bayes Classifier did not change by the Laplace estimator. The findings of the study are expected to raise awareness about the use of gender-based toxic language in the online gaming community. Moreover, the proposed mining model can inspire similar research on practical tools to help moderate the use of sexist toxic language and disinfect these communities from gender-based discrimination and sexist bullying