“Level Up”: Leveraging Skill and Engagement to Maximize Player Game-Play in Online Video Games

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 927-947 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Huang ◽  
Stefanus Jasin ◽  
Puneet Manchanda

We propose a novel two-stage data-analytic modeling approach to gamer matching for multiplayer video games. In the first stage, we build a hidden Markov model to capture how gamers' latent engagement state evolves as a function of their game-play experience and outcome and the relationship between their engagement state and game-play behavior. We estimate the model using a data set containing detailed information on 1,309 randomly sampled gamers' playing histories over 29 months. We find that high-, medium-, and low-engagement-state gamers respond differently to motivations, such as feelings of achievement and need for challenge. For example, a higher per-period total score (achievement) increases the engagement of gamers in a low or high engagement state but not those in a medium engagement state; gamers in a low or medium engagement state enjoy within-period score variation (challenge), but those in a high engagement state do not. In the second stage, we develop a matching algorithm that learns (predicts) the gamer's current engagement state on the fly and exploits that learning to match the gamer to a round to maximize game-play. Our algorithm increases gamer game-play volume and frequency by 4%–8% conservatively, leading to economically significant revenue gains for the company.

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 237-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Mirowski ◽  
Brian P. Harper

With the advent of organized eSports, game streaming, and always-online video games, there exist new and more pronounced demands on players, developers, publishers, spectators, and other video game actors. By identifying and exploring elements of infrastructure in multiplayer games, this paper augments Bowman’s (2018) conceptualization of demands in video games by introducing a new category of ‘infrastructure demand’ of games. This article describes how the infrastructure increasingly built around video games creates demands upon those interacting with these games, either as players, spectators, or facilitators of multiplayer video game play. We follow the method described by Susan Leigh Star (1999), who writes that infrastructure is as mundane as it is a critical part of society and as such is particularly deserving of academic study. When infrastructure works properly it fades from view, but in doing so loses none of its importance to human endeavor. This work therefore helps to make visible the invisible elements of infrastructure present in and around multiplayer video games and explicates the demands these elements create on people interacting with those games.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 185-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Triberti ◽  
Luca Milani ◽  
Daniela Villani ◽  
Serena Grumi ◽  
Sara Peracchia ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Mark Kerins

This article appears in theOxford Handbook of New Audiovisual Aestheticsedited by John Richardson, Claudia Gorbman, and Carol Vernallis. This chapter examines multichannel sound—specifically 5.1-channel surround sound—in video games, using gaming genres to explore the varying ways that games structure the three-way relationship among a multichannel sound track, onscreen visuals, and the game play itself. This approach uncovers distinct strategies of multichannel usage in platformers, first-person shooters, third-person 3D games, and rhythm games, and shows how these differ from traditional cinematic multichannel uses, especially in the way they problematize the relationship between image and sound. These differing approaches to game aesthetics illustrate different ways of conceiving the relationship among players, their in-game avatars, and the game world, with the sound mixing “rules” programmed into a game revealing the type of immersion and interactivity the game can promote. For example, some strategies reinforce the player–avatar connection, whereas others increase the distance between them. The chapter concludes by considering how industrial and technical factors unique to gaming impact multichannel sound usage.


2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Octavianus Prabowo ◽  
Juneman Juneman

Indonesia’s youth has been facing several significant problems such as drug addiction and online-video games addiction. The Indonesia Manual for Classification and Diagnosis of Mental Disorders (PPDGJ III) has not yet included diagnosis criteria for online-video games addiction. This research was the first to find the relationship between online-video games addiction with a predictor that is peer-acceptance and a mediator variable that is loneliness. Path analysis with Structural Equation Model was applied to 133 sample data of Jakartan teenagers aged 12-18. The result showed that hypothesized research model was suitable to the empirical data (÷2 = 1,56; p > 0,05; GFI > 0,90). If the addicted teenagers perceived that they are not accepted by their peers, followed by strong feelings of loneliness, this psychological situation worsened their addiction to online-video games.


2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 14-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Sevin ◽  
Whitney Decamp

Research on the effects of playing video games has been limited by a preoccupation with possible negative repercussions. Nevertheless, research has shown that video games can have positive effects on young players’ social lives. The existing body of research, however, has largely ignored the more computer-related aspects of video game play and its effects. This study provides empirical evidence to support theoretical arguments about the relationship between playing video games and computers. The type of scientific thinking encouraged by video games and the technological abilities needed to play video games is suggested to result in an increase in players’ confidence with computers and interest in computer science. These potential relationships are examined using data from over 1,000 undergraduate students to empirically assess the relationship between video game play and: 1) confidence with computers, and 2) interest in computer science. The results indicate that game play is statistically significant as a predictor of confidence and interest. In comparison to the other predictors in the model, the strength of the effect from playing video games is relatively very strong. The findings suggest that exposure to video games as a recreational technology help inform players’ abilities with non-recreational technology and build an interest in technology in general.


Author(s):  
Meredith DiPietro

There is current interest from the field of education into the value of video games to support learning. Research investigating outcomes associated with video game play has just begun to scratch the surface of their educational potential. Further exploration needs to focus on the internal processes of the play, specifically the relationship between the utilization of cognitive skills, the learning process, and a player’s experience with playing video games. Drawing support from the field of expertise, the research presented in this chapter looks at this relationship by comparing the processes used by video game players based on their level of experience. Results from this study add to the understanding of the relationship between experience, cognition, and learning from video game play. The results of this research also have implications for educational game design and the pedagogical techniques used to make effective learning opportunities available to all learners.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1096-1104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yemaya J. Halbrook ◽  
Aisling T. O’Donnell ◽  
Rachel M. Msetfi

Video games are a source of entertainment for a wide population and have varied effects on well-being. The purpose of this article is to comprehensively examine game-play research to identify the factors that contribute to these disparate well-being outcomes and to highlight the potential positive effects. On the basis of existing literature, we argue that the effects of gaming on well-being are moderated by other variables, such as motivations for gaming and video-game characteristics. Specifically, the inclusion of social activity can benefit prosocial behaviors and affect the relationship between violent video games and aggression that some studies have demonstrated. Moreover, the research on the relationship between violent video games and aggression depends greatly on individual and sociocontextual variables outside of game play. The inclusion of physical activity in games can provide an improvement in physical health with high levels of enjoyment, potentially increasing adherence rates. Overall, following our review, we determined that the effects of gaming on well-being are moderated by and depend on the motivation for gaming, outside variables, the presence of violence, social interaction, and physical activity. Thus, we argue that there is potential for an “optimal gaming profile” that can be used in the future for both academic- and industry-related research.


Author(s):  
Justine Pila

This book offers a study of the subject matter protected by each of the main intellectual property (IP) regimes. With a focus on European and UK law particularly, it considers the meaning of the terms used to denote the objects to which IP rights attach, such as ‘invention’, ‘authorial work’, ‘trade mark’, and ‘design’, with reference to the practice of legal officials and the nature of those objects specifically. To that end it proceeds in three stages. At the first stage, in Chapter 2, the nature, aims, and values of IP rights and systems are considered. As historically and currently conceived, IP rights are limited (and generally transferable) exclusionary rights that attach to certain intellectual creations, broadly conceived, and that serve a range of instrumentalist and deontological ends. At the second stage, in Chapter 3, a theoretical framework for thinking about IP subject matter is proposed with the assistance of certain devices from philosophy. That framework supports a paradigmatic conception of the objects protected by IP rights as artifact types distinguished by their properties and categorized accordingly. From this framework, four questions are derived concerning: the nature of the (categories of) subject matter denoted by the terms ‘invention’, ‘authorial work’, ‘trade mark’, ‘design’ etc, including their essential properties; the means by which each subject matter is individuated within the relevant IP regime; the relationship between each subject matter and its concrete instances; and the manner in which the existence of a subject matter and its concrete instances is known. That leaves the book’s final stage, in Chapters 3 to 7. Here legal officials’ use of the terms above, and understanding of the objects that they denote, are studied, and the results presented as answers to the four questions identified previously.


2021 ◽  
Vol 99 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 218-219
Author(s):  
Andres Fernando T Russi ◽  
Mike D Tokach ◽  
Jason C Woodworth ◽  
Joel M DeRouchey ◽  
Robert D Goodband ◽  
...  

Abstract The swine industry has been constantly evolving to select animals with improved performance traits and to minimize variation in body weight (BW) in order to meet packer specifications. Therefore, understanding variation presents an opportunity for producers to find strategies that could help reduce, manage, or deal with variation of pigs in a barn. A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted by collecting data from multiple studies and available data sets in order to develop prediction equations for coefficient of variation (CV) and standard deviation (SD) as a function of BW. Information regarding BW variation from 16 papers was recorded to provide approximately 204 data points. Together, these data included 117,268 individually weighed pigs with a sample size that ranged from 104 to 4,108 pigs. A random-effects model with study used as a random effect was developed. Observations were weighted using sample size as an estimate for precision on the analysis, where larger data sets accounted for increased accuracy in the model. Regression equations were developed using the nlme package of R to determine the relationship between BW and its variation. Polynomial regression analysis was conducted separately for each variation measurement. When CV was reported in the data set, SD was calculated and vice versa. The resulting prediction equations were: CV (%) = 20.04 – 0.135 × (BW) + 0.00043 × (BW)2, R2=0.79; SD = 0.41 + 0.150 × (BW) - 0.00041 × (BW)2, R2 = 0.95. These equations suggest that there is evidence for a decreasing quadratic relationship between mean CV of a population and BW of pigs whereby the rate of decrease is smaller as mean pig BW increases from birth to market. Conversely, the rate of increase of SD of a population of pigs is smaller as mean pig BW increases from birth to market.


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