Hardcore classification: identifying play styles in social games using network analysis

Ben Kirman; Shaun Lawson

Hardcore classification: identifying play styles in social games using network analysis

Theatre, Film, TV and Interactive Media

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Abstract

In the social network of a web-based online game, all players are not equal. Through network analysis, we show that the community of players in a online social game is an example of a scale free small world network and that the growth of the player-base obeys a power law. The community is centred around a minority group of ``hardcore" players who define the social environment for the game, and without whom the social network would collapse. Methods are discussed for identifying this critically important subset of players automatically through analysing social behaviours within the game.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of International Conference on Entertainment Computing (ICEC), Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science
Pages	246-251
Number of pages	6
Volume	5709
Publication status	Published - 1 Sept 2009

Keywords

ARRAY(0x7f06618ec6b0)

Access to Document

http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/2178/

Cite this

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AB - In the social network of a web-based online game, all players are not equal. Through network analysis, we show that the community of players in a online social game is an example of a scale free small world network and that the growth of the player-base obeys a power law. The community is centred around a minority group of ``hardcore" players who define the social environment for the game, and without whom the social network would collapse. Methods are discussed for identifying this critically important subset of players automatically through analysing social behaviours within the game.

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BT - Proceedings of International Conference on Entertainment Computing (ICEC), Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science

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