Games, technical limits and users' acceptation

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Next week, there will be the NetGame conference/4th workshop on Network System Support for Games at the TJ Watson Research Center in Hawthorne, NY. It's going to be more technical than user-centered. However, one of the track stroke me as interesting because it can have relevant impacts on how users play: 'Network Effects on Games':

  • Influence of Network Latency and Packet Loss on Consistency in Networked Racing Games by Takahiro Yasui, Yutaka Ishibashi, Tomohito Ikedo (Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan)
  • The Effect of Latency and Network Limitations on MMORPGs - (A Field Study of Everquest2) by Tobias Fritsch, Hartmut Ritter, Jochen Schiller (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany) [some thoughts about technical limits in mobile games too]
  • Analysis of Factors Affecting Players' Performance and Perception in Multiplayer Games by Matthias Dick, Oliver Wellnitz, Lars Wolf (TU Braunschweig, Germany)

The last one is maybe the most interesting since it takes into account both users' subjective points and technical limits:

In this paper we analyse different factors affecting players’ perception and performance in multiplayer games. We introduce a mean opinion score metric borrowed from the subjective analysis of audio and video content to classify the player’s perceived game quality. With a survey we investigated the player’s view on network latency for a variety of games. Furthermore, we examine four different games under different network conditions and collect data on game score and sub jective perception from every player. During the evaluation, we investigate the effect of latency and jitter on multiplayer games. We use regression analysis methods to identify coherences between delay, jitter, skill, game score, and the sub jective impression of the player. Finally, we compare the results from the survey and the experiments.

Why do I blog this? with Fabien we're working on a paper about how mobile game players deal with uncertainties/technical limits while collaborating to achieve the game goal. We want to explore the findings of Chalmers' team + Benford's team.