On Successful Team Formation

On Successful Team Formation Nataliia Pobiedina Julia Neidhardt Maria del Carmen Vienna University of Vienna University of Calatrava Moreno Technology Technology Vienna University of Austria Austria Technology [email protected] [email protected] Austria [email protected] Laszlo Grad-Gyenge Hannes Werthner Vienna University of Vienna University of Technology Technology Austria Austria grad- [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT As more and more human activities are moving to the Web, Teamwork plays an important role in many areas of today's the Web has become a mirror of modern society. Data is society. Thus, the question of how to form an effective team easily available and can be used to study human relations is of increasing interest. In this paper we use the team- and behavioral patterns. Thus, the Web provides an un- oriented multiplayer online game Dota 2 to study cooper- precedented opportunity to observe social interaction on the ation within teams and the success of teams. Making use large scale. of game log data, we choose a statistical approach to iden- tify factors that increase the chance of a team to win. The Our aim in this context is to study cooperation within teams factors that we analyze are related to the roles that players and success of teams. To do this, we use the multiplayer can take within the game, the experiences of the players and online game Dota 2. In this game two teams, consisting of friendship ties within a team. Our results show that such five members each, play against each other, and the task data can be used to infer social behavior patterns. is to defeat the opposed team. To achieve this goal, close cooperation and intelligent interaction between the members Categories and Subject Descriptors of the team are needed { hence, a challenge that is present in many \real world" situations as well. Particularly, we want J.4 [Social and Behavioral Science]: Sociology; H.5.m to find out whether or not the success of a team is influenced [Information Interfaces and Presentation]: Miscella- by a) the distribution of the roles that are chosen by the neous players in the game, b) previous experiences of the team members, and c) friendship ties within a team. Furthermore, Keywords related to the chosen roles of the players, we investigate Online game, Online community, Team formation, Social which of the two factors has a higher influence on the team's ties, Statistical analysis success: either the individual choices of the roles by the players or the combination of the role choices of the entire 1. INTRODUCTION team. Successful teams and how to build them is a hot topic in a wide range of fields. In every day's work, in professional Online games have already widely been used to study so- sports as well as in leisure activities there is a growing in- cial interactions. By now research mainly focused on so- terest in how people cooperate and which factors influence called Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games. team performance in a positive way. Plenty of articles are Although in these types of games cooperation is possible, published that provide tips for managers on how to compose each player makes his/her own progress and has individual effective teams (e.g., [8]). As research has shown, teamwork tasks. Dota 2, in contrast, is a game in which the players also plays an increasing role in the production of high impact are always assigned to a team and thus have common goals science [2]. and interests. Furthermore, most of the existing studies are qualitative, using surveys and questionnaires to learn about the behavior and the motivations of users. As opposed to this, our analysis is based on log data, i.e., data that is automatically generated to record the events that are hap- pening during a game. Our quantitative approach provides the opportunity to draw a global picture that can lead to new insights and a better understanding on what is needed to make a team successful. cial abilities are a set of four unique spells specific to each hero (for example, there are such spells as \Enchant totem", \Greevil's greed", \Nature's guise" and so on). Both attributes and abilities are enhanced with experience accu- mulated over the course of the game. Through the combination of initial attributes and special abilities different heroes are suited for different strategies (in Dota 2 they say game \roles") and can be played in a variety of ways (e.g. \Pusher", \Carry", \Nuker", etc.). Each player chooses a strategy not only based on the selected hero, but also on the heroes of the other members of the team. Through the choices of these strategies the flexibility of the team is in- creased and facilitating the formation of more competitive teams. To get more details about each attribute, ability as well as game role, we recommend to address the official wiki page of Dota 2 [5]. In Table 1 we present three heroes from Dota 2: \Treant Protector", \Phantom Lancer" and \Lina". We also provide the values of their main three attributes (\Strength", Figure 1: The Map of Dota 2. \Intelligence" and \Agility") as well as class to which they belong and game roles in which these heroes can be played. The rest of the paper is organized as follows: In section 2 Dota 2 is a team-oriented game in which strategy and team we describe the game in more detail. In section 3 the re- coordination is decisive to achieve a victory. Communication lated work is presented. In section 4 and section 5 descrip- between team members is a vital part of the game, acting tive statistics of the data are provided and the preprocessing as a binding force that makes a team function. Players can steps for further analysis are discussed. In section 6 the anal- communicate through typing, voice chat, pinging the map ysis is presented and the results are shown. Our conclusions and writing on the minimap. and plans for future work are presented in section 7. Valve has built a social network around Dota 2 utilizing 2. THE GAME AND ITS COMMUNITY Valve's Steam software [20] in order to provide social and community functionality for the game. Steam accounts save Dota 2 [19] is a so-called multiplayer online battle arena personal files and settings on the online accounts. The play- (MOBA) video game developed by Valve [21]. Each player ers can set up private games with friends or join public controls a character called\hero", who participates in a team games. In private games, teams might, however, be formed combat with the objective to demolish the opposing team's not only by humans but also by Artificial Intelligent (AI) fortified stronghold. We are aware that this is a very cruel bots. In this case other players in the community are locked terminology, but we stick to it since it stems from the game out and the game is played with computer-controlled heroes, creators. who can also interpret simple commands of human players. Dota 2 has not been publicly released yet. Even if its beta Players are pitted against each other as two distinct fac- version limits its test early access, it is currently one of the tions of five players each, the Radiant and the Dire. Their cornerstone games at several electronic sports tournaments, strongholds, called base towers, are located at opposing ends and considered one of the best and highest e-sport games [9, of a geographically balanced squared map (see Figure 1). 17, 10]. These are connected by three main lanes, which are guarded by defensive towers and weaker computer-controlled units, On the basis of the data from the game we want to inves- called creeps. Killed heroes revive in the corresponding tigate team formations and which factors influence the suc- area of their base after a waiting time proportional to their cess of the team in the game. We formulate the following level and the game time. Through the destruction of en- hypotheses: emy forces, heroes may gain both experience and gold. The former accumulates to gain higher levels that enhance the hero's attributes and abilities. The latter is the currency 1. team selection of heroes influences the game outcome; of the game, which is distributed to the team members according to their accomplishments. Gold also accumulates 2. overall gaming experience of players influences the game periodically to each hero. It is mainly used to acquire items outcome; that substantially complement or alter abilities, as well as 3. playing with friends increases the chance to win; to buy an instant revival of the hero. 4. individual selection of heroes as well as the combina- Each player selects one hero out of 96 available in Dota 2. tion of selected heroes influence the game outcome. These heroes are unique characters that differ in their initial attributes and special abilities. On the one hand, ini- 3. RELATED WORK tial attributes categorize heroes primarily according to their Virtual worlds are playing an important role in the study strength, agility and intelligence. On the other hand, spe- of diverse fields such as sociology [11], psychology [23, 6], Table 1: Examples of heroes with some of their characteristics. Class Strength Agility Intelligence Strength 25 18 18 Agility 15 23 16 Intelligence 17 21 27 Durable Carry Nuker Initiator Escape Disabler Game role Lane support Pusher Support Disabler economy [13, 16], etc. These studies raise the question of quantitative study and analyzing game logs.

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