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Enhancing Social Ties Through Manual Player Matchmaking in Online Multiplayer Games

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HCI International 2020 – Late Breaking Papers: Cognition, Learning and Games (HCII 2020)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 12425))

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Abstract

Beyond skill and performance, there is a large social aspect to online multiplayer games that contributes to the overall gameplay experience. To complement this experience, player matchmaking techniques in those games have evolved from using only simple skill-based data to integrating multitude of different data such as social data, player personality etc. However, these techniques still lack sensitivity to this social aspect of multiplayer gaming. Modern player matchmaking techniques are dominated by automatic matchmaking algorithms which do not provide a way to the players to manually recommend one friend to another. We identify this as a limitation of the existing player matchmaking techniques which restricts players’ ability to leverage their existing ties to enhance their gameplay experience, and perhaps, also deprives them of extending their social ties through online games. We propose that the ability to perform such manual recommendation within online multiplayer games can strengthen the social aspect of online gaming and enhance the overall gameplay experience.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Carleton School of Information Technology, Interactive Media Group, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada

    Md Riyadh, Ali Arya & Gerry Chan

  2. Department of Software Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

    Masud Imran

Authors
  1. Md Riyadh
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  2. Ali Arya
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  3. Gerry Chan
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  4. Masud Imran
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Md Riyadh .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Crete and Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH), Heraklion, Greece

    Constantine Stephanidis

  2. Coventry University, Coventry, UK

    Don Harris

  3. Cranfield University, Cranfield, UK

    Wen-Chin Li

  4. Soar Technology Inc., Orlando, FL, USA

    Dylan D. Schmorrow

  5. Design Interactive, Inc., Orlando, FL, USA

    Cali M. Fidopiastis

  6. Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus

    Panayiotis Zaphiris

  7. Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus

    Andri Ioannou

  8. DePaul University, Chicago, IL, USA

    Xiaowen Fang

  9. Soar Technology, Inc., Orlando, FL, USA

    Robert A. Sottilare

  10. Fraunhofer FKIE, Wachtberg, Germany

    Jessica Schwarz

Appendices

Appendices

1.1 Appendix A

Pre-test Questionnaire

  1. 1.

    Age: _____ years old.

  2. 2.

    Gender:

    • Male

    • Female

    • Prefer not to say

  3. 3.

    How do you typically play?

    • Alone

    • With co-located friends

    • With friends online

    • With strangers online

  4. 4.

    What type(s) of video games do you play? (Select all that apply)

    figure a
  5. 5.

    Please list a few of your favourite video games:

    1. i.

      _________________________

    2. ii.

      _________________________

    3. iii.

      _________________________

  6. 6.

    On average, how much time do you spend playing video games?

    _____ hours/week.

1.2 Appendix B

Survey Questionnaire

  1. 1.

    Automatic player matchmaking in FIFA makes the game more enjoyable

Strongly disagree

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

Strongly agree

○

○

○

○

○

  1. 2.

    It would be enjoyable to play FIFA with players recommended by friends (using the manual player recommendation technique as described in the wireframes)

Strongly disagree

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

Strongly agree

○

○

○

○

○

  1. 3.

    It would be more enjoyable to play FIFA with players recommended by friends (using the manual player recommendation technique as described in the wireframes) compared to playing with strangers automatically matched by FIFA

Strongly disagree

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

Strongly agree

○

○

○

○

○

  1. 4.

    Please rank the following ways of playing multiplayer FIFA in order of your preference. (Indicate the order of preference by using 1, 2, and 3 for each of the following options, where 1 = most preferred, and 3 = least preferred.)

    • ___Playing with friends

    • ___Playing with players recommended by your friends

    • ___Playing with strangers automatically matched by FIFA

Please briefly explain your answer (e.g. why friends over automatic matchmaking?):

figure b
  1. 5.

    Finally, please provide any thoughts or comments about manual player recommendation technique in FIFA that you have in the space below.

    figure c

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Riyadh, M., Arya, A., Chan, G., Imran, M. (2020). Enhancing Social Ties Through Manual Player Matchmaking in Online Multiplayer Games. In: Stephanidis, C., et al. HCI International 2020 – Late Breaking Papers: Cognition, Learning and Games. HCII 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12425. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60128-7_52

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60128-7_52

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-60128-7

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