Assessing the Believability of Computer Players in Video Games: A New Protocol and Computer Tool

In this paper, we address the challenge of believability in multiplayer video games. Our contribution is a system for assessing the believability of computer players. The state of the art examines existing methods and identifies seven distinguishing features that differ considerably from one assessment to the next. Our investigation reveals that assessment procedures typically alter gameplay, posing a considerable danger of bias. This is a major flaw since computer players are evaluated in a specific context rather than in the context of the game as it should be played, potentially skewing the findings of the evaluation. As a result, we begin on a trial-and-error process, with each new proposal building on the achievements of the previous one while removing the flaws. New proposals are tested with new assessments, a total of three experiments are then presented. We created a computer program that partially automates the execution of the assessment procedure, making these trials easier to implement. At the end, thanks to our proposal, gamers can assess the believability of computer players indirectly by employing reporting forms that alert users to the presence of bots. We assume that the more a bot is reported, the less credible it becomes. We ran a final experiment to test our proposal, which yielded extremely encouraging results.

Single and Multiplayer Video Gamers: Looking at Their Experiences and Psychosocial Well-Being During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted our lives in many different ways. One significant impact on daily life was the increased indoor time due to quarantine measures. Data collected suggests video games have become more popular than ever during these unprecedented times (Epstein, 2020). This study aims to explore the experiences and psychosocial well-being of individuals who played single and multiplayer video games during the pandemic. Data was collected through a questionnaire distributed to multiple online communities and forums from June 28th to July 29th, 2021. The total collected responses were n=260. 132 participants identified themselves as playing mostly single-player video games and 128 identified themselves as playing mostly multiplayer games. The results show during the pandemic individuals spent more time playing both types of video games. Motivations for playing single-player games trended towards decreasing anxiety and stress, and avoiding real life, whereas multiplayer motivations tended to trend towards socialization rather than decreasing stress or anxiety. During the pandemic, 40-50% of single and multiplayer gamers indicated decreased mental health. However, both types of players reported improvement in mental and social well-being while playing video games. More multiplayer gamers reported improved social well-being while playing compared to single-player gamers. The survey respondents tended to report having more positive experiences with single-player and multiplayer video games during the pandemic. Results presented video games as a way for individuals to socialize or decrease stress and anxiety. In addition, the comparison between the two types of gamers revealed that single-player respondents tended to play for relaxation, stress reduction, and perhaps improvement in mental health, while multiplayer gamers play to increase social interaction and improve social well-being. Further research is needed to explore the long-term effects of video games during the pandemic after everyone has returned to a pre-pandemic state.

“Grandma! Grandpa! Let`s play together!” – Effects of game mode in multiplayer video games on intergenerational social interaction: A randomized field study. (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Maintaining social relationships is a basic human need and especially essential in old age, for instance, when seniors live in retirement homes. Multiplayer video games can promote the maintenance of social relationships., because they can facilitate positive social interactions between players (also of different generations). However, specific situations require targeted integration of specific game elements and characteristics (e.g., score systems). In order to systematically investigate possible effects of game characteristics on intergenerational social interactions, the game Myosotis FoodPlanet has been developed. In the present study, the impact of three different game modes on intergenerational social interaction were tested in a controlled field trial. OBJECTIVE The study aims at comparing the impacts of three different game modes (competitive, cooperative and creative) on social interactions (verbal and nonverbal communication) of players from different generations during game play. METHODS The study was conducted in a Swiss retirement home in a controlled field trial. Participants were residents from the retirement home (N=10; mean age = 84.8, SD = 5.85). Each pair played the three game modes in randomized order resulting in N=30 twenty-minute game sequences. A within-subject design was applied with Game Mode as within-factor (competitive, cooperative, creative mode) - and Social Interaction as the outcome variable. To assess the quality of social interaction the 30 video-recorded game sequences were analyzed with regard to verbal and nonverbal communication sequences based on an event sampling method. RESULTS ANOVA for repeated measurements revealed significant effects: The total duration of verbal communication was significantly higher in the creative mode than in the cooperative mode (P=.04) with strong effect size (f=0.611). A deeper examination of verbal communication showed that more game-related communication took place in the creative mode than in the cooperative mode (P=.01) and competitive mode (P=.09) with marginally significant effects and strong effect sizes (f=0.841). Moreover, Friedman test showed that in the creative mode significantly more biography-related communication occurred compared to the cooperative mode (P=.03) with strong effect size (r=0.707). Regarding durations of nonverbal communication (e.g., body contact and laughing together), descriptive data show that this was lowest in the creative mode. However, the results did not yield significance. CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, results show that game mode can be an important factor shaping social interactions of players while playing together. Creative game modes can increase verbal communication – stimulating both game-related and biography-related talk stronger than other modes. This has important implications on game design and the use of computer games for promoting intergenerational social interaction in practice. CLINICALTRIAL The study is not liable to registration according to Swiss Federal Human Research Act (HRA) or WHO International Standards (it is not a clinical trial) & in accordance with the principles of WMA Declaration of Helsinki.

Elements of Infrastructure Demand in Multiplayer Video Games

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.

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

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.

Predictive feedback augmentation for manual control of an unmanned aerial vehicle with latency

Teleoperation of unmanned aerial vehicles is hampered by communication delay, which causes feedback from command inputs to take considerable time to be displayed to the operator. For an international internet connection, round trip latencies can reach 500 ms. The satellite connections used for military unmanned aerial vehicles can have latencies in the order of seconds. This delay presents a substantial control problem, which has been solved in the past by control abstraction (instead of “roll left” the aircraft might be instructed “go to these coordinates”). Manual control remains difficult. This study borrows the client-side prediction concept from multiplayer video games to attempt to address the control delay to allow manual control. An estimate of the change in the vehicle state due to the commands that are yet to affect the feedback is computed and then the feedback that the pilot receives is modified to reflect this predicted change. Because of this change, the pilot can see immediately the effect of the control inputs. This study has explored the concept and built a prototype system functional in real time for flight testing with qualitative results presented.

Playing in the Virtual Sandbox

Researchers, teachers, and the news media have touted Minecraft as an effective, engaging way to promote students' 21st century skills, including collaboration. However, little is known about what collaboration looks like in Minecraft, including what factors support and undermine high quality collaboration. The current exploratory study investigated this question through an analysis of middle school students' collaborative processes while playing Minecraft in small groups of 2-4 players. Analyses of the discourse functions used by players during gameplay revealed a number of factors affecting the success of their collaboration, such as prior social ties, gaming experience, and responsiveness to other players. The findings contribute new insight into the nature of more and less effective collaborations in multiplayer video games. These insights will be useful to educators who are interested in using Minecraft and other multiplayer games to promote collaboration among their students.