Modeling players' behaviors in games has gained increased momentum in the past few years. This area of research has wide applications, including modeling learners and understanding player strategies, to mention a few. In this paper, we present a new methodology, called Interactive Behavior Analytics (IBA), comprised of two visualization systems, a labeling mechanism, and abstraction algorithms that use Dynamic Time Warping and clustering algorithms. The methodology is packaged in a seamless interface to facilitate knowledge discovery from game data. We demonstrate the use of this methodology with data from two multiplayer team-based games: Boom-Town, a game developed by Gallup, and DotA 2. The results of this work show the effectiveness of this method in modeling, and developing human-interpretable models of team and individual behavior.
Currently, there is no formal taxonomy for the activities that users engage in when interacting with and making meaning from spatio-temporal game data visualizations. As data visualization, especially spatio-temporal visualization, becomes more popular for game data analytics, it becomes increasingly crucial that we develop a formal understanding of how users, especially players, interact with and extract meaning from game data using these systems. However, existing taxonomies developed for InfoVis are not directly applicable due to domain differences and a lack of consensus within the literature. This paper presents the beginnings of a taxonomy for user interaction with spatio-temporal data specific to the domain of games, developed from the results of a qualitative user study (n=7) in which experienced players were tasked with using a spatio-temporal visualization system to explore and understand telemetry data from Defense of the Ancients 2 (DotA 2). The taxonomy includes seven activities organized into three categories: Data Interaction, Sense Making, and Validation. We discuss the implications of these activities on design and future research.
Game AI systems need the theory of mind, which is the humanistic ability to infer others' mental models, preferences, and intent. Such systems would enable inferring players' behavior tendencies that contribute to the variations in their decision-making behaviors. To that end, in this paper, we propose the use of inverse Bayesian inference to infer behavior tendencies given a descriptive cognitive model of a player's decision making. The model embeds behavior tendencies as weight parameters in a player's decision-making. Inferences on such parameters provide intuitive interpretations about a player's cognition while making in-game decisions. We illustrate the use of inverse Bayesian inference with synthetically generated data in a game called \textit{BoomTown} developed by Gallup. We use the proposed model to infer a player's behavior tendencies for moving decisions on a game map. Our results indicate that our model is able to infer these parameters towards uncovering not only a player's decision making but also their behavior tendencies for making such decisions.
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