Eddie Q. Yan
ABSTRACT
Most user interfaces require the user to focus on one element at a time, but StarCraft 2 is a game where players often control more than a hundred units simultaneously. The game interface provides an optional mechanism called "control groups" that allows players to select multiple units and assign them to a group in order to quickly recall previous selections of units. From an analysis of over 3,000 replays, we show that the usage of control groups is a key differentiator of individual players as well as players of different skill levels---novice users rarely use control groups while experts nearly always do. But players also behave differently in how they use their control groups, especially in time-pressured situations. While certain control group behaviors are common across all skill levels, expert players appear to be better at remaining composed and sustaining control group use in battle. We also qualitatively analyze discussions on web forums from players about how they use control groups to provide context about how such a simple interface mechanic has produced numerous ways of optimizing unit control.
- Blizzard. Wcs season 1 and 2 replays. http://media.blizzard.com/sc2/replays/ WCS-Season1-and-2-Replays.zip. Accessed August 30, 2014.Google Scholar
- Brown, L. D., Cai, T. T., and DasGupta, A. Interval estimation for a binomial proportion. Statistical Science 16, 2 (2001), pp. 101--117.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Card, S. K., Moran, T. P., and Newell, A. The keystroke-level model for user performance time with interactive systems. Commun. ACM 23, 7 (July 1980), 396--410. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Cheung, G., and Huang, J. Starcraft from the stands: understanding the game spectator. In Proceedings of CHI (2011), 763--772. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Faure, G., Chapuis, O., and Roussel, N. Power tools for copying and moving: useful stuff for your desktop. In Proceedings of CHI (2009), 1675--1678. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Fields, B., Wright, P., and Harrison, M. Time, tasks and errors. ACM SIGCHI Bulletin 28, 2 (1996), 53--56. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Forman, G., and Scholz, M. Apples-to-apples in cross-validation studies: Pitfalls in classifier performance measurement. SIGKDD Explor. Newsl. 12, 1 (Nov. 2010), 49--57. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Huang, J., Zimmermann, T., Nagapan, N., Harrison, C., and Phillips, B. C. Mastering the art of war: How patterns of gameplay influence skill in halo. In Proceedings of CHI (2013), 695--704. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Kim, G. sc2reader. http://sc2reader.readthedocs.org/, 2011.Google Scholar
- Kirsh, D., and Rebotier, T. Passing the bubble: Cognitive eficiency of augmented video for collaborative transfer of situational understanding. Tech. rep., DTIC Document, 2003.Google Scholar
- Lauradoux, C. Show me how you play and I will tell you who you are. In Atelier Protection de la Vie Privée (Soreze, France, June 2011).Google Scholar
- Leggett, J., Williams, G., Usnick, M., and Longnecker, M. Dynamic identity verification via keystroke characteristics. International Journal of Man-Machine Studies 35, 6 (1991), 859--870. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Mason, W., and Clauset, A. Friends ftw! friendship and competition in halo: Reach. 375--386.Google Scholar
- Norman, D. A. Emotional design. Ubiquity 2004, January (Jan. 2004), 1--1. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Pagulayan, R. J., Keeker, K., Wixon, D., Romero, R. L., and Fuller, T. User-centered design in games. The human-computer interaction handbook: fundamentals, evolving technologies and emerging applications (2003), 883--906. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Pedregosa, F., Varoquaux, G., Gramfort, A., Michel, V., Thirion, B., Grisel, O., Blondel, M., Prettenhofer, P., Weiss, R., Dubourg, V., Vanderplas, J., Passos, A., Cournapeau, D., Brucher, M., Perrot, M., and Duchesnay, E. Scikit-learn: Machine learning in Python. Journal of Machine Learning Research 12 (2011), 2825--2830. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Strauss, A., and Corbin, J. Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. SAGE Publications, 1998.Google Scholar
- Taylor, T. Raising the Stakes: E-sports and the Professionalization of Computer Gaming. Mit Press, 2012. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Thompson, J. J., Blair, M. R., Chen, L., and Henrey, A. J. Video game telemetry as a critical tool in the study of complex skill learning. PLoS ONE 8, 9 (2013), e75129.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Weber, B., and Mateas, M. A data mining approach to strategy prediction. In Computational Intelligence and Games, 2009. CIG 2009. IEEE Symposium on (Sept 2009), 140--147. Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
- Masters of Control: Behavioral Patterns of Simultaneous Unit Group Manipulation in StarCraft 2
Recommendations
Video game market segmentation based on user behavior
MindTrek '12: Proceeding of the 16th International Academic MindTrek ConferenceGames excited generations in various societies: from the very simple physical form -- to the latest generation of digital games -- in the world where we are living. They always played an important role in every aspect of human life. The initial forces ...
A Data-Driven, Multidimensional Approach to Hint Design in Video Games
IUI '17: Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Intelligent User InterfacesHint systems are designed to adjust a video game's difficulty to suit the individual player, but too often they are designed without analyzing player behavior and lack intelligence and adaptability, resulting in hints that are at best ineffective and at ...
Untangling the Relationship Between Spatial Skills, Game Features, and Gender in a Video Game
IUI '17: Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Intelligent User InterfacesCertain commercial video games, such as Portal 2 and Tetris, have been empirically shown to train spatial reasoning skills, a subset of cognitive skills essential for success in STEM disciplines. However, no research to date has attempted to understand ...
Comments