Identity, Safety, and Information Management within Communities of Practice in Location-based Augmented Reality Games: A Case Study of Ingress

This research examines play communities of the location-based AR game Ingress to identify and describe community practices specific to these kinds of games. The unique features of location-based AR gameplay result in several novel community standards, behaviors, and practices that impact player safety, privacy, and information security in the Ingress community. We discuss practices related to preserving physical safety and privacy, addressing bullying and harassment, information and operational security, and player apprenticeship. In addition, we identify critical ways that individuals’ real-world identity impacts their play behavior in public spaces, resulting in self-imposed play limitations

Toward Successful Esports Team: How Does National Diversity Affect Multiplayer Online Battle Arena Video Games

Today, esports teams in multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games are often composed of players from around the world. The paper asks whether a greater national heterogeneity of professional esports teams means their higher effectiveness. Desk research data of 13 tournaments of Dota 2 game held in 2011-2018 is used to calculate the teams’ win ratio, i.e., the ratio of skirmishes (in all matches) won to the total number of skirmishes (match is a series of skirmishes). Hence, effectiveness is understood not as ranks or matches won, but as the lowest possible number of lost skirmishes. Multinational teams achieved a higher win ratio, compared to nationally homogenous teams and the analysis includes the role of coaches’ nationalities. Working groups, cognitive diversity, and similarity/attraction theories are used to signal potential reasons and consequences of diversity on team performance. This exploratory study indicates future research threads on esports teams’ national diversity

Measuring social dynamics in a massive multiplayer online game

Quantification of human group-behavior has so far defied an empirical, falsifiable approach. This is due to tremendous difficulties in data acquisition of social systems. Massive multiplayer online games (MMOG) provide a fascinating new way of observing hundreds of thousands of simultaneously socially interacting individuals engaged in virtual economic activities. We have compiled a data set consisting of practically all actions of all players over a period of three years from a MMOG played by 300,000 people. This large-scale data set of a socio-economic unit contains all social and economic data from a single and coherent source. Players have to generate a virtual income through economic activities to `survive' and are typically engaged in a multitude of social activities offered within the game. Our analysis of high-frequency log files focuses on three types of social networks, and tests a series of social-dynamics hypotheses. In particular we study the structure and dynamics of friend-, enemy- and communication networks. We find striking differences in topological structure between positive (friend) and negative (enemy) tie networks. All networks confirm the recently observed phenomenon of network densification. We propose two approximate social laws in communication networks, the first expressing betweenness centrality as the inverse square of the overlap, the second relating communication strength to the cube of the overlap. These empirical laws provide strong quantitative evidence for the Weak ties hypothesis of Granovetter. Further, the analysis of triad significance profiles validates well-established assertions from social balance theory. We find overrepresentation (underrepresentation) of complete (incomplete) triads in networks of positive ties, and vice versa for networks of negative ties...Comment: 23 pages 19 figure

The impact of in-game advertising on brand recall and recognition within non-linear video games

Video games have changed throughout the years and new game releases have shown a shift to more non-linear video games, where players are free to choose what to do without the game forcing them to make a specific choice. This can change the effectiveness of advertisements. Recall and recognition are two variables that have been studied over the past years and are crucial to measure the successfulness in an advertisement, including advertisements integrated in a game. In-game advertising has been studied recently by researchers, with most analyzing the factors that impact recall and recognition levels. However, most studies tend to rely on extremely controlled scenarios where player action and freedom are not allowed. The purpose of this study is to test recall and recognition levels in a non-linear multiplayer video game where players can freely roam the map, almost depicting a real-life scenario. Results suggested that area population and consumer brand involvement are significant as predictors of brand recall and recognition, but advertisement size seemed insignificant. Using decision trees, individual player factors proved to have the same importance (sometimes more) as area population and involvement for predicting recall and recognition. Repetition was the most important predictor, which was measured by the number of times a player saw the advertisement fully on screen. The results are in line with previous research, but in a non-linear video game context. Businesses should be take area population into consideration when placing advertisements in games but should also think about player characteristics.Os videojogos têm sofrido alterações com o tempo e os novos lançamentos mostram uma mudança para videojogos não-lineares, ondes os jogadores têm mais liberdade de escolha no jogo. Isto pode mudar a eficácia dos anúncios no jogo. As variáveis recordação e reconhecimento têm sido estudadas durante anos e são cruciais para medir o sucesso de um anúncio, incluindo anúncios em jogos. Publicidade in-game é um tópico recentemente relevante para investigadores e muitos estudam o que impacta os níveis de recordação e reconhecimento. Contudo, muitos dos estudos tendem a contar com senários extremamente controlados em que a ação e liberdade do jogador são desautorizadas. O objetivo deste estudo é testar os níveis de recordação e reconhecimento num videojogo multiplayer não-linear onde os jogadores são livres de caminhar pelo mapa. Os nossos resultados sugerem que a população da área e o envolvimento do consumidor na marca são variáveis significantes na previsão dos níveis de recordação e reconhecimento, mas o tamanho do anúncio mostrou-se insignificante. Com árvores de decisão, os fatores individuais do jogador pareceram ser preditores tão ou mais importantes que a população da área e o envolvimento do consumidor na marca. Repetição foi o preditor mais importante, tendo sido medida pelo número de vezes um anúncio apareceu completamente no ecrã do jogador. Os nossos resultados estão de acordo com outros estudos, mas num contexto de jogo não-linear. A população da área deve ser considerada por empresas se usarem anúncios em jogos, tendo também em consideração as características dos jogadores

Complex systems science: expert consultation report

Executive SummaryA new programme of research in Complex Systems Science must be initiated by FETThe science of complex systems (CS) is essential to establish rigorous scientific principles on which to develop the future ICT systems that are critical to the well-being, safety and prosperity of Europe and its citizens. As the “ICT incubator and pathfinder for new ideas and themes for long-term research in the area of information and communication technologies” FET must initiate a significant new programme of research in complex systems science to underpin research and development in ICT. Complex Systems Science is a “blue sky” research laboratory for R&D in ICT and their applications. In July 2009, ASSYST was given a set of probing questions concerning FET funding for ICT-related complex systems research. This document is based on the CS community’s response.Complex systems research has made considerable progress and is delivering new scienceSince FET began supporting CS research, considerable progress has been made. Building on previous understanding of concepts such as emergence from interactions, far-from-equilibrium systems, border of chaos and self-organised criticality, recent CS research is now delivering rigorous theory through methods of statistical physics, network theory, and computer simulation. CS research increasingly demands high-throughput data streams and new ICT-based methods of observing and reconstructing, i.e. modelling, the dynamics from those data in areas as diverse as embryogenesis, neuroscience, transport, epidemics, linguistics, meteorology, and robotics. CS research is also beginning to address the problem of engineering robust systems of systems of systems that can adapt to changing environments, including the perplexing problem that ICT systems are too often fragile and non-adaptive.Recommendation: A Programme of Research in Complex Systems Science to Support ICTFundamental theory in Complex Systems Science is needed, but this can only be achieved through real-world applications involving large, heterogeneous, and messy data sets, including people and organisations. A long-term vision is needed. Realistic targets can be set. Fundamental research can be ensured by requiring that teams include mathematicians, computer scientists, physicists and computational social scientists.One research priority is to develop a formalism for multilevel systems of systems of systems, applicable to all areas including biology, economics, security, transportation, robotics, health, agriculture, ecology, and climate change. Another related research priority is a scientific perspective on the integration of the new science with policy and its implementation, including ethical problems related to privacy and equality.A further priority is the need for education in complex systems science. Conventional education continues to be domain-dominated, producing scientists who are for the most part still lacking fundamental knowledge in core areas of mathematics, computation, statistical physics, and social systems. Therefore:1. We recommend that FET fund a new programme of work in complex systems science as essential research for progress in the development of new kinds of ICT systems.2. We have identified the dynamics of multilevel systems as the area in complex systems science requiring a major paradigm shift, beyond which significant scientific progress cannot be made.3. We propose a call requiring: fundamental research in complex systems science; new mathematical and computational formalisms to be developed; involving a large ‘guinea pig’ organisation; research into policy and its meta-level information dynamics; and that all research staff have interdisciplinary knowledge through an education programme.Tangible outcomes, potential users of the new science, its impact and measures of successUsers include (i) the private and public sectors using ICT to manage complex systems and (ii) researchers in ICT, CSS, and all complex domains. The tangible output of a call will be new knowledge on the nature of complex systems in general, new knowledge of the particular complex system(s) studied, and new knowledge of the fundamental role played by ICT in the research and implementation to create real systems addressing real-world problems. The impact of the call will be seen through new high added-value opportunities in the public and private sectors, new high added-value ICT technologies, and new high added-value science to support innovation in ICT research and development. The measure of success will be through the delivery of these high added-value outcomes, and new science to better understand failures