Social Network Analysis and Gaming: Survey of the Current State of Art

We report on the current state of the art of social network analysis based on the enormous datasets that exist in massive multiplayer online games and multiplayer online arena games. At least since the rise of World Of Warcraft as a massive multiplayer online game, the online gaming world is slowly becoming a center of attention for game developers and players, but there is still little analysis done on the connections between the players of a game. In this paper, an overview of what can be entailed by such an analysis is given, including a wide range of possible approaches, including classic social network analysis, or how to find a not predefined order of referral between the players. The biggest problem for this new area of research is the dynamic of connections coupled with the enormous amount of data and the unknown relations between players in their real lives and other games. But exactly these connections are crucial for serious game development. Acquiring information about the social structure behind these games can give valuable insights for developers.

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