Now You Can Compete With Anyone

Abstract

When player skill levels differ widely in a competitive First-Person Shooter (FPS) game, enjoyment suffers: weaker players become frustrated and stronger players become less engaged. Player balancing techniques attempt to assist the weaker player and make games more competitive, but these techniques have limitations for deployment when skill levels vary substantially. We developed new player balancing schemes to deal with a range of FPS skill difference, and tested these techniques in one-on-one deathmatches using a commercial-quality FPS game developed with the UDK engine. Our results showed that the new balancing schemes are extremely effective at balancing, even for players with large skill differences. Surprisingly, the techniques that were most effective at balancing were also rated as most enjoyable by both players -even though these schemes were the most noticeable. Our study is the first to show that player balancing can work well in realistic FPS games, providing developers with a way to increase the audience for this popular genre. In addition, our results demonstrate the idea that successful balancing is as much about the way the technique is applied as it is about the specific manipulation.

Individual performance in team-based online games

“…Finally, Vicencio-Moreira et al . [ 18 ] studied individual performance as a tool to balance game design and game-play: the authors defined several statistical models of player performance and associated them to multiple dimensions of game proficiency, demonstrating a concept of an algorithm aimed at balancing individual skills by providing different levels of assistance (e.g. aim assistance, character-level assistance, etc.)…”

Self-Determination Theory in HCI Games Research: Current Uses and Open Questions

“…Crucially, these conflicting approaches to measuring and operationalising intrinsic motivation have quietly carried into the HCI games literature (only Phillips et al [139, p. 4] appear to concede that "there are numerous versions of the measure, with minor variations to certain items"). Some scholars (e.g., [196,62,193]), in line with the scale authors, employed the interest/enjoyment dimension only. Others matched McAuley et al, operationalising intrinsic motivation as a function of interest/enjoyment, perceived competence, effort/importance, and pressure/tension (Table 1).…”

KickAR

“…In a study exploring game balancing mechanics in racing games [10], some balancing mechanisms were rated as unfair by expert players, while there were no effects of balancing on subjective enjoyment for novices. It should be noted that game balancing in non-AR games often has to address effects of visibility and player perception of game balancing [5,43]. In AR table games, these issues become less prevalent, as interference in the form of game balancing cannot be hidden as easily.…”