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Classifying Players For Unique Game Experiences
togelius writes "Whenever you play a game of Tomb Raider: Underworld, heaps of data about your playing style is collected at Eidos' servers. Researchers at the Center for Computer Games Research have now mined this data to identify the different types of player behavior (PDF). Using self-organizing neural networks, they classified players as either Veterans, Solvers, Pacifists or Runners. It turns out people play the game for very different reasons and focus on different parts of the game, but almost everyone falls into one of these categories. These neural networks can now quickly determine which of these groups you belong to based on just seeing you play. In the near future, such networks will be used to adapt games like Tomb Raider while they are played (e.g. by removing or adding puzzles and enemies), so you get the game you want."
Whenever you play a game of Tomb Raider: Underworld, heaps of data about your playing style is collected at Eidos' servers.
Thanks for the heads up, so I won't buy it. I personally don't like having everything I do monitored in some way on some server with a shady privacy policy.
...15 years ago. They change the names and claim it as unique research?
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
How about having a little confidence in your designers and letting me play the game THEY made?
End of lesson. You may press the button.
They seem to have forgotten about the metagamers :)
Using self-organizing neural networks, they classified players as either Veterans, Solvers, Pacifists or Runners ... but almost everyone falls into one of these categories
I didn't RTFA but wouldn't everyone fall into one of the categories? I mean, it sounds like the system does just that: puts the player in one of the categories.
Many players enjoy some variety within a game. I've played all the Hitman games with the aim of completing the missions "cleanly", so I enjoyed the ones which force you to play the last mission as more of a shooter game (they did this in the 1st, 2nd and 4th games, while the third had a finale which offed the chance to play stealthily, but was still designed to produce a massive firefight if not played stealthily).
I would be somewhat annoyed if Eidos based the style of the final level of the next Hitman game on stats from the rest of the game, which seems to be a real possibility since Hitman is a game which offers plenty of chances to choose between stealth and action gameplay.
# cat
Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
The way you play games can change over time. I'm not always in the same mood when I play games, sometimes I like to goof off. Sometimes I like to just race around. If the game adapts to the way I was playing it will limit me the way I want to play the game.
Adaptive difficulty is better. If you have problem beating foo X, then after a while foo X will become easier. If you are stuck in a maze or unable to solve a puzzle, provide hints through game related mechanism (for example, receive a phone call with an hint, or let the PDA "compute" a solution).
Sweet Zombie Jesus, the tin foil hat brigade are out in force today. The game is already awarding you Achievements as you play. You don't like being "spied" on to earn Achievements? Then why are you playing on XBox Live?
Oh, you didn't realize that this only applies to the XBox Live version? You didn't even read the article, you say? I've just earned the "Shocked and Stunned" Achievement.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Valve does this as well. It creates some pretty interesting data, like the maps of where people die the most. It's easy to see how it can help designers.
I hope the games will be forgetful and not lock themselves into a certain kind of play. In some kinds of games, I first run for the finish to experience the game and then crawl through the game again to discover the hidden corners. Or a visiting friend will play in a different way.
This would just result in the players hating the game. Forcing people to learn mathematics, computer programming, or to watch video in a foreign language, even if subtitled, are good examples of why this fails; People are naturally sore losers and they like things better if they are good at them.
most people who use 1984 as a knee-jerk reaction to anything they deem questionable haven't even read that book either.
(No, this is NOT about cybering...)
I want to enjoy MMOs. I really do. But somehow I always wind up on the team with Leeroy @#$% Jenkins.
Someone REALLY needs to add this technology to an MMO -- and then help players to form groups with other people who have the same play style. Let Leeroy and his team of Runners go and have their fun. I'll hang out with some Puzzle-Solvers or Explorers or People Who Actually Read The Quest Dialog or whatever bucket is appropriate for the way I play the particular game. I need help joining the right pick-up group or guild or whatever (if I had social skills, I'd be outside) and an LFG Chat Channel isn't really enough.
THAT would be a customized game experience worth some money ($15/month to whoever could implement it).
-- 77IM
Student: Is it true that the foundation of the universe is paradox?
Master: Well, yes and no.