Abstract
At no point in history has there ever been so much data available on game players that can service game development as there is now. With the right tools and channels, developers can obtain detailed information on player behavior across the entire population of players, thanks to tracking software. They can also obtain information on infrastructure performance and development processes (see Chaps. 2,6, and 7). This information can in turn be used to inform decision-making processes from the smallest of design issues all the way up to strategic decision-making as emphasized in Chap. 3, and seen in examples discussed in various chapters in this book.
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About the Authors
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.
André Gagné is a game user researcher at THQ. He received his Bachelor’s degree from UBC, Computer Science and his master’s from Simon Fraser University. His Master’s work investigates the analysis of player progression.
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.
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Drachen, A., Gagné, A., Seif El-Nasr, M. (2013). Sampling for Game User Research. In: Seif El-Nasr, M., Drachen, A., Canossa, A. (eds) Game Analytics. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4769-5_9
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