The Game Trace Archive

Yong Guo, Alexandru Iosup

Research output: Chapter in Book / Report / Conference proceedingConference contributionAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Spurred by the rapid development of the gaming industry and the expansion of Online Meta-Gaming Networks (OMGNs), many gaming studies and measurements have been conducted in recent years. However, few or no traces of games and OMGNs are publicly available to game researchers and practitioners. Moreover, the few traces that are available are shared using diverse formats. This situation is an obstacle in exchanging, studying, and using game traces. To address this problem, we design the Game Trace Archive (GTA) to be a virtual meeting space for the game community. We identify three main requirements to build an archive for game traces, and address them with the GTA. We propose a unified format for game traces, and introduce a number of tools associated with the format. With these tools, we collect, process, and analyze 9 traces of both games and OMGNs. We collect in the GTA traces corresponding to more than 8 million real players and more than 200 million information items, spanning over 14 operational years. We also show that the GTA can be extended to include a variety of real-game trace types. Finally, we discuss possible applications of the GTA in gaming area such as game resource management, Quality of Experience for players, and advertisement. © 2012 IEEE.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication11th Annual Workshop on Network and Systems Support for Games, NetGames 2012, Venice, Italy, November 22-23, 2012
Pages1-6
Number of pages6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2012
Externally publishedYes
Event2012 11th Annual Workshop on Network and Systems Support for Games, NetGames 2012 - Venice, Italy
Duration: 22 Nov 201223 Nov 2012

Workshop

Workshop2012 11th Annual Workshop on Network and Systems Support for Games, NetGames 2012
Country/TerritoryItaly
CityVenice
Period22/11/1223/11/12

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