research-article

Data cracker: developing a visual game analytic tool for analyzing online gameplay

Authors:

Jeff LaneAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '11: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 2365 - 2374

https://doi.org/10.1145/1978942.1979288

Published: 07 May 2011 Publication History

Abstract

Game analytics is a domain that focuses on the systems and methods used to analyze game-related data. In this paper we present how a visual game analytic tool can be developed to analyze player gameplay behavior. Our tool, Data Cracker, was built for monitoring gameplay in Dead Space 2, the latest game in the Dead Space franchise. We use Data Cracker as a case study to inform a larger discussion of designing a visual game analytic tool while working with a game team. Our design approach focuses on increasing the data literacy of a game team. This means getting an entire team interested and involved with game analytics. We found that building our tool during the early game development cycle, creating multiple early visual prototypes and branding the tool to the Dead Space team caused more team members to become interested in our tool. Increasing interest in analytics is also a means, we argue, for changing the common occurrence within the game industry to disband teams after a game is released. Instead, we promote the creation of "live" teams which stay attached to a game long after it is release in order to continue the analysis process. Additionally, we discuss the barriers one might face when developing game analytic tools, such as prejudice against analytics or the technical issues involved when collecting large data sets. All of these examples are presented as insights we gained while coupling analytic tool design to game development.

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Sargolzaei PRastogi MZaman L(2024)Advancing Mixed Reality Game Development: An Evaluation of a Visual Game Analytics Tool in Action-Adventure and FPS GenresProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36770558:CHI PLAY(1-32)Online publication date: 15-Oct-2024
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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '11: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

May 2011

3530 pages

ISBN:9781450302289

DOI:10.1145/1978942

General Chair:
Desney Tan
Microsoft Research
,
Program Chairs:
Geraldine Fitzpatrick
Vienna University of Technology
,
Carl Gutwin
University of Saskatchewan
,
Bo Begole
PARC
,
Wendy A. Kellogg
IBM Research

Copyright © 2011 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 07 May 2011

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May 7 - 12, 2011

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CHI '11 Paper Acceptance Rate 410 of 1,532 submissions, 27%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

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Cited By

Masár DKriglstein S(2024)Towards a Taxonomy of In-Game User Interface VisualizationsProceedings of the 27th International Academic Mindtrek Conference10.1145/3681716.3689454(306-310)Online publication date: 8-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3681716.3689454
Mane SElmqvist N(2024)"Wichita 1-1, Fox Three" - The Role of 3D Telemetry Analysis in Combat Flight SimulationProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36771148:CHI PLAY(1-27)Online publication date: 15-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3677114
Sargolzaei PRastogi MZaman L(2024)Advancing Mixed Reality Game Development: An Evaluation of a Visual Game Analytics Tool in Action-Adventure and FPS GenresProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36770558:CHI PLAY(1-32)Online publication date: 15-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3677055
Kleinman ESeif El-Nasr MPfau JKriglstein SWallner GMelhart DYannakakis GZhu JWatson BHarteveld C(2024)Ethics and Transparency in Game DataCompanion Proceedings of the 2024 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play10.1145/3665463.3678859(466-470)Online publication date: 14-Oct-2024
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MacCormick DZaman L(2022)Echoing the Gameplay: Analyzing Gameplay Sessions across Genres by Reconstructing Them from Recorded DataInternational Journal of Human–Computer Interaction10.1080/10447318.2021.201623739:1(52-84)Online publication date: 3-Jan-2022
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