Approximating Balance in collaborative Multiplayer Games
Key: RGS15-2
Author: Christian Reuter, Stefan Göbel, Ralf Steinmetz
Date: October 2015
Kind: In proceedings
Publisher: Academic Conferences Limited
Book title: Proceedings of the 9th European Conference on Games Based Learning
Keywords: multiplayer, collaborative, cooperative, balancing
Abstract: Multiplayer games allow players to play together, allowing them to train their socials skills and enabling collaborative learning in educational settings. But while balancing a game’s challenge is a well-researched topic, to the best of our knowledge there are no definitions and algorithms taking into account the individual contribution of each player in a collaborative setting. Unequal contributions however can lead to one player completing the game alone while the others are not playing at all in the worst case. In this paper we provide a novel definition for collaborative balancing suited for multiplayer games with fixed and free roles, including metrics for heuristically calculating effort, waiting times and options available for each player. These metrics have also been implemented in a graph-based analysis algorithm, which has been applied to an example game in order to show the feasibility of this approach.
View Full paper (PDF) | Download Full paper (PDF)

The documents distributed by this server have been provided by the contributing authors as a means to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work on a non-commercial basis. Copyright and all rights therein are maintained by the authors or by other copyright holders, not withstanding that they have offered their works here electronically. It is understood that all persons copying this information will adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. These works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.