Multiplayer First-person Shooter Games Research Articles

Reinforcement Learning as an Approach to Train Multiplayer First-Person Shooter Game Agents

Artificial Intelligence bots are extensively used in multiplayer First-Person Shooter (FPS) games. By using Machine Learning techniques, we can improve their performance and bring them to human skill levels. In this work, we focused on comparing and combining two Reinforcement Learning training architectures, Curriculum Learning and Behaviour Cloning, applied to an FPS developed in the Unity Engine. We have created four teams of three agents each: one team for Curriculum Learning, one for Behaviour Cloning, and another two for two different methods of combining Curriculum Learning and Behaviour Cloning. After completing the training, each agent was matched to battle against another agent of a different team until each pairing had five wins or ten time-outs. In the end, results showed that the agents trained with Curriculum Learning achieved better performance than the ones trained with Behaviour Cloning by a matter of 23.67% more average victories in one case. In terms of the combination attempts, not only did the agents trained with both devised methods had problems during training, but they also achieved insufficient results in the battle, with an average of 0 wins.

Cheating in online gaming spreads through observation and victimization

AbstractAntisocial behavior can be contagious, spreading from individual to individual and rippling through social networks. Moreover, it can spread not only through third-party influence from observation, just like innovations or individual behavior do, but also through direct experience, via “pay-it-forward” retaliation. Here, we distinguish between the effects of observation and victimization for the contagion of antisocial behavior by analyzing large-scale digital trace data. We study the spread of cheating in more than a million matches of an online multiplayer first-person shooter game, in which up to 100 players compete individually or in teams against strangers. We identify event sequences in which a player who observes or is killed by a certain number of cheaters starts cheating and evaluate the extent to which these sequences would appear if we preserve the team and interaction structure but assume alternative gameplay scenarios. The results reveal that social contagion is only likely to exist for those who both observe and experience cheating, suggesting that third-party influence and “pay-it-forward” reciprocity interact positively. In addition, the effect is present only for those who both observe and experience more than once, suggesting that cheating is more likely to spread after repeated or multi-source exposure. Approaching online games as models of social systems, we use the findings to discuss strategies for targeted interventions to stem the spread of cheating and antisocial behavior more generally in online communities, schools, organizations, and sports.

Children’s perspectives and attitudes towards Fortnite ‘addiction’

Playing digital games is increasingly pathologized as an addiction or a disorder, but there is limited research into the impact of game addiction discourse on children who play digital games. In this article, we present results from a study into the digital play of twenty-four 9–14-year-olds, attending to our participants’ perspectives and attitudes towards ‘game addiction’ and how it interacts with their play and identity. Focused primarily on the online multiplayer first-person shooter game Fortnite, we examine how children encounter and attempt to negotiate game addiction discourse and demonstrate how the discourse in and of itself produces challenges for young people whose interests and passions revolve around games. This article subsequently discusses how the discursive frameworks that are perpetuated in the media around ‘problematic play’ need to incorporate and be inclusive of the child’s right to play, and the relevance of our findings to the study of media panic and children’s critical media literacies.

A self-determination theory-based laboratory experiment on social aspects of playing multiplayer first-person shooter games

Addressing gaps in existing research, the current laboratory experiment (n = 139) examined the role that social facets play in the video gaming experience that multiplayer first-person shooter games provide. First, three different social settings of playing were compared concerning the amount of enjoyment and well-being they induced and second, a structural model based on self-determination theory was tested that aimed to investige connections between social facets of playing, game-based satisfaction of competence and relatedness needs, and positive psychological outcomes of playing. The results indicate that also among supposedly unsocial first-person shooter games social interactions among fellow players and the presence of human co-players are important factors that can shape effects of playing positively. Structural equation modeling further indicated that communicating with fellow players and team play can help players of first-person shooter games to satisfy essential psychological needs that, in turn, is connected to increases in well-being and enjoyment.

Online-only friends, real-life friends or strangers? Differential associations with passion and social capital in video game play

The present study tests a recently proposed model in which social video game play supports wellbeing by contributing to a harmonious type of engagement with the game. Players (N = 2030) of the online-only multiplayer first-person shooter game, Destiny, reported the frequency they played with real-life friends, online-only friends and strangers, their type of engagement with the game – measured as harmonious and obsessive passion, and completed a wellbeing measure of social capital. Telemetry data also recorded their total time playing over the duration of the study. A structural equation model supported the prediction that harmonious – but not obsessive – passion would mediate the positive association between playing with others and social capital. The findings also supported a supplementary hypothesis that the three types of social relationships would be differentially associated with two forms of social capital – bridging versus bonding – as a function of the closeness of social ties. Real-life friends was positively associated with bonding, strangers with bridging, and online-only friends with both. Overall, these results emphasise that social interactions in (and around) online multiplayer video games are effective for building social capital, and do so by ensuring game play is in harmony with other goals and values.

Sex role stereotyping is hard to kill: A field experiment measuring social responses to user characteristics and behavior in an online multiplayer first-person shooter game

Sex role stereotyping by players in first-person shooter games and other online gaming environments may encourage a social environment that marginalizes and alienates female players. Consistent with the social identity model of deindividuation effects (SIDE), the anonymity of online games may engender endorsement of group-consistent attitudes and amplification of social stereotyping, such as the adherence to gender norms predicted by expectations states theory. A 2×3×2 virtual field experiment (N=520) in an online first-person shooter video game examined effects of a confederate players’ sex, communication style, and skill on players’ compliance with subsequent online friend requests. We found support for the hypothesis that, in general, women would gain more compliance with friend requests than men. We also found support for the hypothesis that women making positive utterances would gain more compliance with friend requests than women making negative utterances, whereas men making negative utterances would gain more compliance with friend requests than men making positive utterances. The hypothesis that player skill (i.e., game scores) would predict compliance with friend requests was not supported. Implications for male and female game players and computer-mediated communication in online gaming environments are discussed.