Abstract
The process of creating a game is a perfect example of a multidisciplinary effort. Development teams are extremely heterogeneous, involving writers, programmers, artists, designers, engineers and architects, just to name a few. Each discipline brings a legacy of assumptions, practices and values that, more often than not, are far from aligned with each other. For example, designers often discuss with programmers in order to modify existing features or introduce new ones based on their past experiences, theoretical assumptions or “gut feelings”. User researchers often act as mediators in these transactions, and starting these discussions based on objective evidence and telemetry data has proven beneficial. It is, therefore, necessary to understand and chart the different possible benefits, biases, angles, needs, costs and requirements that each discipline brings to the table when it comes to game data analysis, since a thorough understanding of these facets can considerably help in defining a strategy to select interesting game variables to monitor.
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Alessandro Canossa, Ph.D. is Associate Professor in the College of Arts, Media and Design at Northeastern University, he obtained a MA in Science of Communication from the University of Turin in 1999 and in 2009 he received his PhD from The Danish Design School and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation. His doctoral research was carried out in collaboration with IO Interactive, a Square Enix game development studio, and it focused on user-centric design methods and approaches. His work has been commented on and used by companies such as Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, and Square Enix. Within Square Enix he maintains an ongoing collaboration with IO Interactive, Crystal Dynamics and Beautiful Games Studio.
Magy Seif El-Nasr, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Colleges of Computer and Information Sciences and Arts, Media and Design, and the Director of Game Educational Programs and Research at Northeastern University, and she also directs the Game User Experience and Design Research Lab. Dr. Seif El-Nasr earned her Ph.D. degree from Northwestern University in Computer Science. Magy’s research focuses on enhancing game designs by developing tools and methods for evaluating and adapting game experiences. Her work is internationally known and cited in several game industry books, including Programming Believable Characters for Computer Games (Game Development Series) and Real-time Cinematography for Games . In addition, she has received several best paper awards for her work. Magy worked collaboratively with Electronic Arts, Bardel Entertainment, and Pixel Ante.
Anders Drachen, Ph.D. is a veteran Data Scientist, currently operating as Lead Game Analyst for Game Analytics (www.gameanalytics.com). He is also affiliated with the PLAIT Lab at Northeastern University (USA) and Aalborg University (Denmark) as an Associate Professor, and sometimes takes on independent consulting jobs. His work in the game industry as well as in data and game science is focused on game analytics, business intelligence for games, game data mining, game user experience, industry economics, business development and game user research. His research and professional work is carried out in collaboration with companies spanning the industry, from big publishers to indies. He writes about analytics for game development on blog.gameanalytics.com, and about game- and data science in general on www.andersdrachen.wordpress.com. His writings can also be found on the pages of Game Developer Magazine and Gamasutra.com.
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Canossa, A., Seif El-Nasr, M., Drachen, A. (2013). Benefits of Game Analytics: Stakeholders, Contexts and Domains. In: Seif El-Nasr, M., Drachen, A., Canossa, A. (eds) Game Analytics. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4769-5_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4769-5_3
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