Online Gamers Classification using K-means

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10422-5_22In order to achieve flow and increase player retention, it is important that games di culty matches player skills. Being able to evaluate how people play a game is a crucial component for detecting gamers strategies in videogames. One of the main problems in player strategy detection is whether attributes selected to define strategies correctly detect the actions of the player. In this paper, we will study a Real Time Strategy (RTS) game. In RTS the participants make use of units and structures to secure areas of a map and/or destroy the opponents resources. We will extract real-time information about the players strategies at several gameplays through a Web Platform. After gathering enough information, the model will be evaluated in terms of unsupervised learning (concretely, KMeans). Finally, we will study the similitude between several gameplays where players use di erent strategies

Study of Computational Intelligence Algorithms to Detect Behaviour Patterns

In order to achieve the game flow and increase player retention, it is important that games difficulty matches player skills. As a consequence, to evaluate how people play a game is a crucial component, because detecting gamers strategies in video-games, it is possible to fix the game difficulty. The main problem to detect the strategies is whether attributes selected to define the strategies correctly detect the actions of the player. To study the player strategies, we will use a Real Time Stategy (RTS) game. In a RTS the players make use of units and structures to secure areas of a map and/or destroy the opponents resources. In this work, we will extract the real-time information about the players strategies using a platform base on the RTS game. After gathering information, the attributes that define the player strategies are evaluated using unsupervised learning algorithm (K-Means and Spectral Clustering). Finally, we will study the similitude among several gameplays where players use different strategies.A fin de lograr que el flujo del juego mejore y la captación de jugadores aumente, es importante que la dificultad del juego se ajuste a las habilidades del jugador. Como consecuencia, evaluar como juega la gente un juego es un aspecto importante, porque detectando las estrategias de los jugadores en los vídeo juegos, permite adapta la dificultad del juego. El problema principal para detectar las estrategias es si los atributos seleccionados para definir las estrategias definen correctamente las acciones del jugador. Para estudiar las estrategias de los jugadores, usaremos un juego de estrategia en tiempo real (Reat Time Strategy (RTS) en inglés). En un RTS los jugadores hacen uso de unidades y estructuras para asegurar áreas del mapa y/o destruir los recursos de los oponentes. En este trabajo, extraeremos información en tiempo real acerca de las estrategias usando una plataforma basada en un juego de RTS. Después de recoger la información, los atributos que definen las estrategias de los jugadores son evaluados mediante algoritmos de aprendizaje no supervisado (K-Means y Spectral Clustering). Finalmente, estudiaremos la similitud entre diversas partidas donde los jugadores utilizar diferentes estrategias.Este trabajo ha sido financiado por Airbus Defence & Space (Proyecto Savier: FUAM-076914) y parcialmente por TIN2010-19872

The suspension of disbelief in videogames

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel UniversityThis thesis explores the ways in which suspension of disbelief works in digital games. Primarily concerned with how players relate imaginatively to the often major dissonance between gameplay and narrative in digital games, this thesis questions how the literate players of games reconcile these complex texts imaginatively. Proposing that Samuel Taylor Coleridge's concept of suspension of disbelief is a complicated process often cited rhetorically rather than given its theoretical due, this thesis aims to rehabilitate the term and turn it into a useful, sharpened tool for games studies. Digital games themselves are also seen to be an intense new realm of possibilities for the suspension of disbelief, and textual analysis of games which approach the fourth wall or the suspension of disbelief on their own terms helps to make this clear. Beginning by defining the differences of games compared to other media, the thesis goes on to define suspension of disbelief in both its historical and modern contexts and see how it fits with games, isolating three key problems with uniting the concept with the medium. The three chapters which follow looked in more depth at the problems of the skilled reader, fundamental activity and dissonance through investigations into games’ textual construction, the mindsets they engender in players and their reformulation of the fourth wall. The final section looks at the conclusions working together to achieve the dual aims of proposing a new model for game reading which centres around a willed disavowal of presence on the part of the gamer combined with the gamer's taking up of a role offered by the game-text, and rehabilitating both the term and the concept of suspension of disbelief

Navigating Toxic Identities Within League of Legends

Toxicity is an inevitable part of online gaming for many individuals that participate in the activity. How individuals navigate this behavior affects not only the community but the players themselves. In essence, online world environments affect the identity of the individual within them. The magic circle separates the gaming world and the real world into two separate and distinct places, however crystalized selves posits that the identity of an individual in one sphere is part of the individual in another. Understanding the connection between these two ideas gives rise to the question of whether or not toxic behaviors in a game carry outside of the game. This study aimed at defining toxicity from the point of view of gamers in League of Legends and then determined whether or not the behaviors from in the game carried outside of the game. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty individuals currently a part of the game League of Legends. Results indicated that participants view toxicity in unique ways but at the same time all share communal definitions of what is toxic. Further, behaviors and identities in game were not as separate as the magic circle describes, with participants indicating that their online identities and behaviors converged with the real world the older they get. Overall, the findings of the study suggest that the real world and play world are more connected than some theories suggest, and that toxicity is a phenomenon that is as unique as it is universal

Finding hope within hopelessness: an exploration of critical dystopiaand its use in modern video games

Since the term ‘critical dystopia’ was first conceptualised and explored by academics in utopianism studies, including Tom Moylan and Rafaella Baccolini, there has been little research undertaken to exemplify how the form has been utilised in modern screen culture; mostly involving studies based on analysis of literature and cinematic texts rather than all facets of visual art and media. This dissertation aims to not only showcase the theoretical framework surrounding critical dystopia in comparison to its classical form, but to provide insight in to how its use in modern video gaming has proliferated whilst inheriting narrative and aesthetical traits traditionally associated with its literary and cinematic counterparts. This essay also argues that the integration of gameplay dynamics alongside narrative aspects further contributes to them being defined as such and provides a unique way to engage with discussions of world issues; including the integration of morality-based choice making, interactive narratives and a deep level of player immersion through use of realistic physics, sound, graphics and mechanics such as in-game construction. These elements aid in creating a personalised and multi-faceted approach to understanding the implied dystopia, and any utopian impulse or hope for positive progression beyond it

Invisible Teacher: How Might Digital Leisure Games Foster Critical Thinking and Grit?

The ubiquity of mobile devices and the rapid growth of mobile gaming have put digital games into the tiny hands of children, some under 2 years of age. What, if anything, are these games teaching our kids? Could they be learning essential skills that will be useful in the future—or are they just for fun? This research investigates if and how digital leisure games promote critical thinking and grit in children ages 9–12. It will explore game design, motivations of players, stages in child’s development and other factors that may influence learning outcomes. It aims to create a framework for identifying essential future skills and traits and provide future directions for parents and, potentially, educators and game developers

Platform, culture, identities: exploring young people's game-making

Digital games are an important component in the contemporary media landscape. They are cultural artefacts and, as such, are subjected to specific conventions. These conventions shape our imaginary about games, defining, for example, what a game is, who can play them and where. Different research has been developed to understand and challenge these conventions, and one of the strategies often adopted is fostering game-making among “gaming minorities”. By popularising games and their means of production, critical skills towards these objects could be developed, these conventions could be fought, and our perceptions of those artefacts could be transformed. Nevertheless, digital games, as obvious as it sounds, are also digital: they depend on technology to exist and are subjected to different technologies’ affordances and constraints. Technologies, however, are not neutral and objective, but are also cultural: they too are influenced by values and conventions. This means that, even if the means of production of digital games are distributed among more diverse groups, we should not ignore the role played by technology in this process of shaping our imaginary about games. Cultural and technical aspects of digital media are not, therefore, as conflicting as it might seem, finding themselves entangled in digital games. They are also equally influential in our understanding and our cultural uses of these artefacts; but how influential are they? How easy can one go against cultural and technical conventions when producing a game as a non-professional? Can anyone make any kind of game? In this research, I explore young people’s game-making practices in non-professional contexts to understand how repertoires, gaming conventions and platform affordances and constraints can be influential in this creative process. I organised two different game-making clubs for young people in London/UK (one at a community-led centre for Latin American migrants and other at a comprehensive primary school). The clubs consisted in a series of workshops offered in a weekly basis, totalling a minimum of 12 hours of instruction/production at each research site. The participants were aged between 11 and 18 and produced a total of 11 games across these two sites with MissionMaker, a software that facilitates the creation of 3D games by non-specialists through ready-made 3D assets, custom audio and image files, and a simplified drop-down-list-based scripting language. Three games and their production teams were selected as case studies and investigated through qualitative methods and under a descriptive-interpretive approach. Throughout the game-making clubs, short surveys, observations, unstructured and semi-structured interviews and a game archive (with week-by-week saves of participants’ games) were employed to generate data that was then analysed through a Multimodal Sociosemiotics framework to explore how cultural and technical conventions were appropriated by participants during this experience. Discourses, gaming conventions and MissionMaker’s affordances and constraints were appropriated in different ways by participants in the process of game production, culminating in the realisation of different discourses and the construction of diverse identities. These results are relevant since they restate the value of a more holistic approach – one that looks at both culture and technology – to critical videogame production within non-professional contexts. These results are also useful to the mapping of the influence of repertoires, conventions and platforms in non-professional game-making contexts, highlighting how these elements are influential but at the same time not prescriptive to the games produced, and how game development processes within these contexts are better understood as dialogical

PROJECT ADMIRAL AND SINKING SHIP: A DETAILED ANALYSIS FROM DEVELOPING TWO RAPID GAME PROTOTYPES

The purpose of this research is to study and document the process of creating educational procurement games, with the goal being to expand the lexicon of knowledge for Air Force (AF) contracting. We advise two game development teams through the process of integrating contracting learning objectives into virtual games. Working alongside North Carolina State University (NC State), we help develop a tower defense game (Project Admiral) and a digital escape room game (Sinking Ship). We meticulously document our experiences advising student game developers on which contracting elements to employ and how to properly design the game. We also document what we discover about the game development process to inform future research. Our documentation utilizes engaged scholarship methods, treating these games as case studies to provide insights into the process of developing educational procurement games. We evaluate our successes, failures, and lessons learned to inform future educational game development projects. Ultimately, we aim to provide useful guidance for educators and researchers interested in developing their own educational procurement games. Our findings are beneficial both to those newly introduced to the field as well as experienced professionals who desire an update on the current state of contracting game development.Outstanding ThesisCaptain, United States Air ForceCaptain, United States Air ForceApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited