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SUMMARY:Instrumentation and Iteration in Massively Online Live Service Gam
 ing - Mark Kerr\, Jagex
DTSTART:20250515T130000Z
DTEND:20250515T140000Z
UID:TALK232054@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Fulvio Forni
DESCRIPTION:Massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) bring together milli
 ons of players in shared online worlds. The games industry eclipsed film b
 y revenue in the mid '90s. These huge financial opportunities introduced i
 ncentives both for developers to instrument their games to better understa
 nd player behaviour\, and for malicious parties to exploit these online ga
 mes for their own personal gain. Jagex launched RuneScape\, their flagship
  MMO\, in 2001. RuneScape players inhabit a virtual world in which they so
 cialise\, work\, trade\, and fight--a microcosm of human behaviour. Throug
 h near-weekly updates adding new features and game content\, it has cement
 ed itself as a long-lived and immensely popular game. This talk describes 
 the data collection and analysis that maintains the feedback loop between 
 these regular updates and the player-base\, allowing game developers to de
 light their users\, as well as the tools for identifying bad in-game actor
 s. We will describe how modern games are instrumented\, and then cover thr
 ee main topics: preventing cheating\, advertising\, and in-game economics.
  Finally\, we will discuss how to model ‘emergent behaviours’ as game 
 players learn more about the game world they inhabit. No prior knowledge o
 f the games industry is expected.
LOCATION:JDB Seminar Room\, Department of Engineering and online (Zoom)
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