What Contributes to Success in MOBA Games? An Empirical Study of Defense of the Ancients 2

Abstract

With the development of computer science and Internet technology, online games have become one of the most important sources of entertainment in daily life. Meanwhile, increasing attention has been paid to top international electronic sports (eSports) tournaments in which competitive pressure is becoming increasingly more serious. Therefore, how to win such games is a problem worth exploring. This article proposes a set of evaluation indicators for testing gameplay in Defense of the Ancients 2, which is a popular multiplayer online game. The analysis shows that the multiplayer killing indicator is an effective predictor of the game result. Furthermore, the evaluation indicators are divided into two categories: operational skills and tactical awareness. The functions of the indicators in each category are discussed. The results show that, for professional eSports teams, tactical awareness affects the multiplayer killing indicator and the game result more so than operational skills.

Keywords

effective predictor Dota 2 tactical awareness operational skills multiplayer

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Armitage

(2003). An experimental estimation of latency sensitivity in multiplayer Quake 3. ICON2003 the 11th IEEE International Conference on Networks (pp. 137–141). Piscataway, NJ: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi:http://doi.org/10.1109/ICON.2003.1266180

Bardzell

Pace

Reed

(2008). Blissfully productive: Grouping and cooperation in World of Warcraft instance runs, Proceedings of the 2008 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW ‘08), New York, NY, 357–360. doi:10.1145/1460563.1460621.

Bardzell

Nichols

Pace

Bardzell

(2012). Come meet me at Ulduar: Progression raiding in World of Warcraft. Proceedings of the ACM 2012 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, New York, NY, 603–612. doi:10.1145/2145204.2145296

Batsford

(2014). Calculating optimal jungling routes in Dota 2 using neural networks and genetic algorithms. Game Behaviour, 1. Retrieved from http://commerce3.derby.ac.uk/ojs/index.php/gb/article/view/14/12

Breiman

Friedman

Stone

Olshen

(1984). Classification and regression trees. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Carr

Oliver

(2009). Tanks, chauffeurs and backseat drivers: Competence in MMORPGs. Eludamos. Journal for Computer Game Culture, 3, 43–53. Retrieved from http://www.eludamos.org/index.php/eludamos/article/viewArticle/56

Chen

L. C.

(2014). What’s the cultural difference between the west and the east? The consumption of popular “cute” games in the Taiwanese market. New Media & Society, 16, 1018–1033. doi:10.1177/1461444813497555

Chen

(2010). Leet Noobs: Expertise and collaboration in a World of Warcraft player group as distributed sociomaterial practice (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/handle/1773/16275

Donaldson

(2015). Mechanics and metagame: Exploring binary expertise in league of legends. Games and Culture. doi:10.1177/1555412015590063

10.

Drachen

Yancey

Maguire

Chu

Wang

Mahlmann

Klabajan

(2014). Skill-based differences in spatio-temporal team behaviour in defence of the ancients 2 (Dota 2). In 2014 IEEE games media entertainment (GEM) (pp. 1–8). Piscataway, NJ: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi:10.1109/GEM.2014.7048109

11.

Ducheneaut

Yee

Nickell

Moore

(2007). The life and death of online gaming communities: A look at guilds in World of Warcraft. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, New York, NY, 839–848. doi:10.1145/1240624.1240750

12.

Entertainment Software Association. (2011). Video game play increases as breadth of game content grows. Retrieved from http://www.theesa.com/article/video-game-play-increases-breadth-game-content-grows/

13.

e-Sports Earnings. (2014). Top 50 games awarding prize money. Retrieved from http://www.esportsearnings.com/games

14.

Fry

M. J.

Lundberg

A. W.

Ohlmann

J. W.

(2007). A player selection heuristic for a sports league draft. Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, 3, Article 5. doi:10.2202/1559-0410.1050

15.

GosuGamers. (2014). The International 2014. Retrieved from http://www.gosugamers.net/dota2/events/207-the-international-2014

16.

Guinness World Records. (2015). Youngest winner of the International Dota 2 Championships. Retrieved from http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/393847-youngest-winner-of-the-international-dota-2-championships

17.

Guo

Shen

Visser

Iosup

(2012). An analysis of online match-based games. IEEE International Workshop on Haptic Audio Visual Environments and Games (HAVE) (pp. 134–139). Piscataway, NJ: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi:10.1109/HAVE.2012.6374452

18.

Henderson

(2001). Latency and user behaviour on a multiplayer game server. In Crowcroft

Hofmann

(Eds.), Networked group communication (pp. 1–13). Berlin, Germany: Springer Verlag. Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/3-540-45546-9_1

19.

Hofstede

(1980). Motivation, leadership, and organization: Do American theories apply abroad? Organizational Dynamics, 9, 42–63. doi:10.1016/0090-2616(80)90013-3

20.

Hofstede

(1991). Cultures and organisations-software of the mind: Intercultural cooperation and its importance for survival. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

21.

Hofstede

(2001). Culture’s consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions and organizations across nations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

22.

Imagine Games Network. (2013). Best overall strategy and tactics game. Retrieved from http://www.ign.com/wikis/best-of-2013/Best_Overall_Strategy_%26_Tactics_Game

23.

Johnson

Nacke

L. E.

Wyeth

(2015). All about that base: Differing player experiences in video game genres and the unique case of MOBA games. Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, New York, NY, 2265–2274. doi:10.1145/2702123.2702447

24.

Kahn

A. S.

Shen

Ratan

R. A.

Coary

Hou

J.,

… Williams

(2015). The Trojan player typology: A cross-genre, cross-cultural, behaviorally validated scale of video game play motivations. Computers in Human Behavior, 49, 354–361. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.03.018

25.

Kahn

A. S.

Williams

(2016). We’re all in this (game) together: Transactive memory systems, social presence, and team structure in multiplayer online battle arenas. Communication Research, 43, 487–517. doi:10.1177/0093650215617504

26.

Kou

Gui

(2014). Playing with strangers: Understanding temporary teams in league of legends. Proceedings of the First ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, New York, NY, 161–169. doi:10.1145/2658537.2658538

27.

Lai

(2003). The presentation of archetype and cultural values in massive multiplayer online role-playing games: A comparison between Taiwanese and American games (Doctoral dissertation), Georgetown University, Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://front.cc.nctu.edu.tw/Richfiles/12120-SeanLai.pdf

28.

Leavitt

Keegan

B. C.

Clark

(2016). Ping to win? Non-verbal communication and team performance in competitive online multiplayer games. Retrieved from http://alexleavitt.com/papers/2016_CHI_LeavittKeeganClark_PingTeamPerformance.pdf

29.

Lindtner

Nardi

Wang

Mainwaring

Jing

Liang

(2008). A hybrid cultural ecology: World of Warcraft in China. Proceedings of the 2008 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, New York, NY, 371–382. doi:10.1145/1460563.1460624

30.

Lock

Nettleton

(2014). Using random forests to estimate win probability before each play of an NFL game. Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, 10, 197–205. doi:10.1515/jqas-2013-0100

31.

Mason

Clauset

(2013). Friends FTW! Friendship and competition in halo: Reach. Proceedings of the 2013 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW ‘13), New York, NY, 375–386. doi:10.1145/2441776.2441820

32.

McGrath

J. E.

(1984). Groups: Interaction and performance (Vol. 14). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

33.

McMaster

D. T.

Gill

Cronin

McGuigan

(2013). The development, retention and decay rates of strength and power in elite rugby union, rugby league and American football: A systematic review. Sports Medicine, 43, 367–384. doi:10.1007/s40279-013-0031-3

34.

Min

Kim

Choe

Eom

McKay

R. I.

(2008). A compound framework for sports results prediction: A football case study. Knowledge-Based Systems, 21, 551–562. doi:10.1016/j.knosys.2008.03.016

35.

Morgan

Messenger

(1973). THAID: A sequential analysis program for the analysis of nominal scale dependent variables. Retrieved from http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015071883859;view=1up;seq=4

36.

Morgan

J. N.

Sonquist

J. A.

(1963). Problems in the analysis of survey data, and a proposal. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 58, 415–434. doi:10.1080/01621459.1963.10500855

37.

Nardi

(2010). My life as a night elf priest: An anthropological account of World of Warcraft. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

38.

Nardi

Harris

(2006). Strangers and friends: Collaborative play in World of Warcraft. Proceedings of the 2006 20th Anniversary Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, New York, NY, 149–158. doi:10.1145/1180875.1180898

39.

Neuenschwander

(2008). Playing by the rules: Instruction and acculturation in role playing games. E-Learning and Digital Media, 5, 189–198. doi:10.2304/elea.2008.5.2.189

40.

Nuangjumnonga

Mitomo

(2012). Leadership development through online gaming. Paper presented at 19th ITS Biennial Conference, Bangkok 2012: Moving Forward with Future Technologies-Opening a Platform for All (No. 72527), International Telecommunications Society (ITS), Alberta, Canada. Retrieved from http://econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/72527/1/743632516.pdf

41.

Pisan

(2007). My guild, my people: Role of guilds in massively multiplayer online games. Proceedings of the 4th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment, Australia, 20. Retrieved from http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1367956.1367976

42.

Pobiedina

Neidhardt

Moreno

Grad-Gyenge

Werthner

(2013). On successful team formation: Statistical analysis of a multiplayer online game. Paper presented at IEEE 15th Conference on Business Informatics (CBI) (pp. 55–62), Piscataway, NJ. doi:10.1109/CBI.2013.17

43.

Ranbusch

Jakobsson

Pargman

(2007). Exploring E-sports: A case study of gameplay in counter-strike. In Akira

(Ed.), Proceedings of the 2007 digital Games Research Association International Conference: Situated Play (pp. 157–164). DiGRA. Retrieved from http://www.digra.org/digital-library/forums/4-situated-play/

44.

Ratan

Kennedy

Williams

(2012). League of gendered game play behaviors: Examining instrumental vs identity-relevant avatar choices. Meaningful Play, 13. Retrieved from http://www.researchgate.net/publication/266585332_League_of_Gendered_Game_Play_Behaviors_Examining_Instrumental_vs_Identity-Relevant_Avatar_Choices

45.

Ratan

R. A.

Taylor

Hogan

Kennedy

Williams

(2015). Stand by your man: An examination of gender disparity in league of legends. Games and Culture, 10, 438–462. doi:10.1177/1555412014567228

46.

Reeves

Brown

Laurier

(2009). Experts at play: Understanding skilled expertise. Games and Culture, 4, 205–227. doi:10.1177/1555412009339730

47.

Triandis

(1995). Individualism and collectivism. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

48.

Triandis

H. C.

(2001). Individualism-collectivism and personality. Journal of Personality, 69, 907–924. doi:10.1111/1467-6494.696169

49.

van de Bovenkamp

Shen

Iosup

Kuipers

(2013). Understanding and recommending play relationships in online social gaming. Paper presented at Communication Systems and Networks (COMSNETS), 2013 Fifth International Conference on Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Piscataway, NJ. doi:10.1109/COMSNETS.2013.6465556

50.

Wang

Xia

Chen

(2015). Cultural difference on team performance between Chinese and Americans in multiplayer online battle arena games. In Rau

P.L. Patrick

(Ed.), Cross-cultural design applications in mobile interaction, education, health, transport and cultural heritage (pp. 374–383). Switzerland: Springer Verlag International. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-20934-0_35

51.

Williams

Ducheneaut

Xiong

Zhang

Yee

Nickell

(2006). From tree house to barracks: The social life of guilds in World of Warcraft. Games and Culture, 1, 338–361. doi:10.1177/1555412006292616

52.

Cao

Sellen

Herbrich

Graepel

(2011). Sociable killers: Understanding social relationships in an online first-person shooter game. Proceedings of the ACM 2011 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW ‘11), New York, NY, 197–206. doi:10.1145/1958824.1958854

53.

Yang

Harrison

Roberts

D. L.

(2014). Identifying patterns in combat that are predictive of success in MOBA games. Proceedings of Foundations of Digital Games. Retrieved from http://www.brenteharrison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/fdg2014_combat_patterns.pdf

54.

Yee

(2006). Motivations for play in online games. CyberPsychology and Behavior, 9, 772–775. doi:10.1089/cpb.2006.9.772

55.

Young

I. I.

William

(2010). A team-compatibility decision support system to model the NFL knapsack problem: An introduction to HEART (Doctoral dissertation), Ohio University, Athens.

56.

Zhong

(2011). The effects of collective MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) play on gamers’ online and offline social capital. Computers in Human Behavior, 27, 2352–2363. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2011.07.014.