Publications

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 …

Date
June 20, 2018
Authors
Anna Sapienza, Yilei Zeng, Alessandro Bessi, Kristina Lerman, Emilio Ferrara
Journal
Royal Society open science
Volume
5
Issue
6
Pages
180329
Publisher
The Royal Society Publishing