Individual performance in team-based online games

Abstract

Complex real-world challenges are often solved through teamwork. Of special interest are ad hoc teams assembled to complete some task. Many popular multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video-games adopt this team formation strategy and thus provide a natural environment to study ad hoc teams. Our work examines data from a popular MOBA game, League of Legends, to understand the evolution of individual performance within ad hoc teams. Our analysis of player performance in successive matches of a gaming session demonstrates that a player’s success deteriorates over the course of the session, but this effect is mitigated by the player’s experience. We also find no significant long-term improvement in the individual performance of most players. Modelling the short-term performance dynamics allows us to accurately predict when players choose to continue to play or end the session. Our findings suggest possible directions for individualized incentives aimed at steering the player’s behaviour and improving team performance.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2018
Source ID
10.1098/rsos.180329

Entities

People

  • Alessandro Bessi
  • Anna Sapienza
  • Emilio Ferrara
  • Kristina Lerman
  • Yilei Zeng

Organizations

  • Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
  • University of Southern California

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

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