Mind pattern analysis through video games

So can you gain insight into someone's mind buy understanding how they think in situations and or gage their true intelligence through dynamic team oriented php games like League of Legends or World of Warcraft?

So we'll be in a game right, and I'll look and see that the base turrets are being attacked and one person will continue pushing into the enemy base and I'll back off and go back to our base. Meanwhile the other two players choose to go with him or me.

So what kind of information can we extrapolate from this Observation?

Like what made me want to do one thing and what made them want to do another?

I want to get deeper into the psyche and understanding patterns and reactions and things like that.

There's a lot to ponder from just a couple hundred or so words there. First, we need to mutually come to an agreement of what "intelligence" is. In the context of a video game, the best players could be said to have high intellect, or perhaps that would be skill and resourcefulness... I think there is some carryover of ability in games to real-world scenarios, but it would greatly depend on a multitude of factors.

What would make someone run with one strategy or another? Hierarchy of instinct is huge, in my assessment, as is familial, and cultural upbringing. It's a mixture of nature and nurture, as are all things human related.

I don't much value video game playing, and yet know there are studies which show it can help in some ways. I don't care. It still seems like an overall time-waster. I value and seem to learn better with other things to play with. I almost think the average gamer is above average intellect, but the more extreme you deviate from this above average mark, the less likely you are to get much from it.

Meh.

Variables.

Lots of them at work that may effect their decisions.

For those games you have the char type and its abilities, you wont send two ranged down the same path.

Then you may have players change lanes or tactics when they see what the opposition is using.

Then you have player skill of all involved as well as the build route they go and fighting techniques.

LoL and WoW are very poor examples of working out mind patterns since the variables are fairy static therefore the outcome is consistent.

If you look at car drivers instead you have all kinds of variables that fluctuate hugly yet with enough experience you can only roughly gauge what a driver in a certain vehicle might do, when for example approaching a roundabout or pulling out from a junction.

a reply to: Biigs

Do you you think we can extract data by observing people play these games and build character profiles?

Like people act a certain way so they respond similarly in certain scenarios as well.

a reply to: onequestion

oh i see what you are getting at.

Ive played a particular mmorpg for a very long time and having met quite a few in the real world i can say that yes, you can make some fairly accurate assumptions from their playing style, for instance if they tank most of the time they tend to be cautious or anxious.

a reply to: Biigs

Yes exactly.

This could be an effective strategy for understanding you enemy in war then right?

I bet the military could use that.
I bet we could get deeper data from that too, like structures.

Strategy

And pain


And more pain
Not just video games. But electronics in general.

a reply to: AnuTyr

Hahahahah

a reply to: onequestion

So we'll be in a game right, and I'll look and see that the base turrets are being attacked and one person will continue pushing into the enemy base and I'll back off and go back to our base. Meanwhile the other two players choose to go with him or me.

Like what made me want to do one thing and what made them want to do another?

I've played League for awhile, but I would rather use Counter-Strike GO as a better example, atleast from my personal experience in both games. The rounds go by pretty quick. 2 minutes per round, first team to 15 won rounds win.

If we have one teammate getting attacked on one avenue, there's a few things to consider before leaving your own posts to go help. (2 bombsites in defending, and even if there's multiple teammates at one site, turning away from one angle of attack for just a second can get you killed fast. Team work is pretty hardcore in this game.)

Is the teammate actually pretty good, or does he suck? How many opponents is he up against? How good are the opponents? Keep in mind that it takes just a few seconds for the other team to decide to retreat and go another route. If you leave and go help your teammate, the other team could already be pushing up the route you just left before you even get to that teammate.

The first thought that rolls into my mind is if the teammate sucks. Whoever on our team is closer usually is the one to run to him. The rest try their best to fill in the gaps.

As for opponents, it's pretty easy to tell how well their skill is after a few rounds. (Atleast in CS GO).

If I could really sum it up..... It's a good amount of predicting on where your opponents will strike, as long as you're the defending team. If you're attacking, is predicting on where the defenders will set up. If your predictions are correct, the round should go pretty well. Once the first shooting happens, communication is essential. You have to talk to your teammates in CS GO.

a reply to: onequestion

I used to play battlefield..for years,i stopped about 2 years after battlefield 3 came out....generally we would play 64 player games...there were around 5 other regulars i would play with....battlefield 3 has 6 man squads where you could communicate via microphone within the game,before that we used team speak....

the 6 of us could regularly annihilate the entire other team of 32 players almost single handed....it was highly entertaining for us...not so much the guys on the opposing teams....

Being full time dad i have stopped playing as it used to take up a lot of my time and i just do not have it anymore,and you need to play regularly to keep skills honed...

I would hazard a guess they would be algorithms,or programs that could get an insight into thought patterns from these types of games....not sure about WOW though...i always thought it was a bit gay

I hate how, in games 'Kill death ratio' (KDR) has kind of ruined the spirit of competitive gaming.

For instance in the game Blade Symphony (sword fighting game), a lot of people create a fighting style soley based off 'winning'. They end up manifesting a boring style that includes running away and doing cheap # that ends up giving a dull boring experience for both parties.

Where as the most controversial players, with abstract ways of thinking, employ a much more richer experience, calling on much more mental faculties than it takes to face off against a mundane ordinary fighter.

My observation is, that the fun fights are because we both are fighting for the fun, we end up creating much more interesting styles, because we are not basing out game off of winning. We are not afraid to die or care for our stats or KDR and thus take more risks and find out things that passive players will never know or experience.

In essence, I've noticed newer games promote KDR (older games never even told you how many deaths you had) and people's pride and ego often manifest in their play-style. People end up letting the team down so at the end of the match, their score says "6 kills, 0 deaths" and that their profile will maintain this pretty ratio of bull#. Meanwhile time after time the team loses the fight because of weekend warriors init for themselves.

/endrant

originally posted by: eathis
I hate how, in games 'Kill death ratio' (KDR) has kind of ruined the spirit of competitive gaming.

For instance in the game Blade Symphony (sword fighting game), a lot of people create a fighting style soley based off 'winning'. They end up manifesting a boring style that includes running away and doing cheap # that ends up giving a dull boring experience for both parties.

Where as the most controversial players, with abstract ways of thinking, employ a much more richer experience, calling on much more mental faculties than it takes to face off against a mundane ordinary fighter.

My observation is, that the fun fights are because we both are fighting for the fun, we end up creating much more interesting styles, because we are not basing out game off of winning. We are not afraid to die or care for our stats or KDR and thus take more risks and find out things that passive players will never know or experience.

In essence, I've noticed newer games promote KDR (older games never even told you how many deaths you had) and people's pride and ego often manifest in their play-style. People end up letting the team down so at the end of the match, their score says "6 kills, 0 deaths" and that their profile will maintain this pretty ratio of bull#. Meanwhile time after time the team loses the fight because of weekend warriors init for themselves.

/endrant

*stands up and applauds* you sir! You have nailed it. I was an avid gamer back in the day. Loved them all. The strategy involved, the thrill of it all. Than I noticed exactly what you are saying.

It's like those dance dance revolution guys(going back a few years) that would put their hands in the back handle and move their feet on extreme level trying to get all the buttons. They were so happy with themselves but the problem? It wasn't DANCING! It was mashing your feet as hard as you could and as quick as you could over four buttons on the floor.

So many games are that way now, and I tend to stick to single player now a days or co-op with the wife.

This thread reminds me of the observers watching Ender from Ender's game. Also for a conspiratorial angle you should check into some of the theories about the supposed 80s arcade game Polybius. Here is one thread here on ATS and there are others regarding Polybius

Checking in real quick ill be back later to comment.

The one that always ticked me off was "that guy" who always did the thing that seemed immediately obviously the exactly wrong thing to do when you were supposed to be working together. And I'm not talking about "that guy" who was trolling the team, either.

How could something that seemed so glaringly obvious to you and the other 6 people on the team seem so opaque to "that guy?"

a reply to: ketsuko

You mean...

LEEEEEEROOOOOYYYY JENKINS!

??

a reply to: ketsuko

Thats exactly what im talking about.

This may be of some interest to you OP

a reply to: onequestion

Yes.

If this subject interested you, you would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for some of my MMO Taskforce runs. There was one Taskforce that we run probably well over 100 times. We were instrumental in developing a Master strategy for it designed to pull a PUG team through with a decent chance of earning a Master badge meaning that everyone on the team had to make it through all the missions and with more than 10 AV-level bosses without anyone dying. It was much much easier said than done and all the badge hunters wanted it, and most of them who were willing to PUG for it weren't that good at playing in a team or they would have had a Super Group (Guild).

You would have loved watching some of those runs if you wanted a window into gamer psychology. Because I ran the TF so many times, it was like a reliable control and the variables were the players.

a reply to: onequestion

Oh...the League of Legends...was a slight addiction to me recently haha. But I've since stopped playing, and have managed to be productive in real life again!

Having said that, what you mention was probably one of the MOST frustrating thing about team games like that. Also the most rewarding when everyone got their heads on straight.

Before I played that game I was terrified to play any game that required me to PVP. I always enjoyed WoW because I could choose not to do that. League is totally opposite. Once I got over my fear of losing and getting raged at I learned so much and even gained a lot of confidence in my own skills.

As for everyone doing their own thing in the game I think it came down to mostly objectives and an understanding of what those objectives were and when to take them. When I started learning this the game became totally different to me and my frustration levels probably rose more when I saw people doing silly things like running into jungles after kills when the turret had 2 more AA on it. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. Many times I did stupid things too haha. But I always tried to learn and study up and better myself, watching pros etc.

I started out playing Support role because that is what I was most comfortable in. Unless I was playing a Leona or Thresh or Annie type champ I didn't have to make the decision to engage, all I had to focus on was keeping my team alive and map vision/control. I got quite good at that role. Interesting in life I feel like i am the support role as well, BUT I got brave and decided to try the more carry roles. I started playing nothing but ADC and really started enjoying the feeling of making decisions and having to put myself out there. In life I also have that side of me that sometimes get squashed by my fear of making a game/life altering decision that will affect everything and everyone around me and having the possibility of anger/rage directed at me.

So...I think that those types of games can say a LOT about a person. And if you are a self aware being you can evaluate yourself and notice certain patterns that come out in your game play that mirror real life.

Now I want to play a game.