PowerPoint Presentation

Video Game Industry modeled by complex networksPresented By Tony Morelli

OutlineIntro/Problem Description SummaryVisual Network RepresentationsNumerical Network RepresentationsQuestions/CommentsINTROHas the organization of the video game industry changed in the last 20 years?ConsolesGame TitlesProducersDevelopersINTRORelated Work ShowedGraphical Analysis is goodBoth Colors and Size are importantSoft Drink Industry

Soft Drink Industry

Seed Industry Consolidation

INTRORelated Work ShowedNumerical Analysis is GoodClustering CoefficientDegree DistributionExpansionNetwork Topologies, Power Laws, and HierarchyAnalyzed internet topology generatorsMetricsExpansionThe average fraction of nodes in the graph that fall within a ball of radius r, centered at a node in the topologyComparison of TranslationsHow accurate are software based translators?Portuguese->Spanish->EnglishClustering Coefficient, Out Degree

Consoles to AnalyzeGroup A Classic ConsolesAtari 2600 (1977)Nintendo Entertainment System (1983)Sega Master System (1985)

Consoles to AnalyzeGroup B Current ConsolesXBOX 360 (2005)Playstation 3 (2006)Nintendo Wii (2006)

ProblemNot evaluating enough consolesSuggestion Evaluate all consoles from Atari 2600 and forwardEnhanced problemStill want to organize by generationsNeed to group all consoles by generationGeneration 1Atari 2600Nintendo Entertainment SystemSega Master System

Generation 2Super Nintendo (1990)

Generation 2Super Nintendo (1990)Turbo Grafx 16 (1989)

Generation 2Super Nintendo (1990)Turbo Grafx 16 (1989)Sega Genesis (1989)

Generation 3N64 (1996)

Generation 3N64 (1996)Playstation (1994)

Generation 3N64 (1996)Playstation (1994)Sega Saturn (1995)

Generation 4GameCube (2001)

Generation 4GameCube (2001)Xbox (2001)

Generation 4GameCube (2001)Xbox (2001)Playstation 2 (2000)

Generation 5Playstation 3Xbox 360Nintendo Wii

Suggestions not usedTotal Sales for each titleData is not availableCross development Developers/publishers that work on multiple platformsMy goal is to average statistics for each generation separately. Data is not consistent in naming conventionsWould need to do a lot of editing by handHow to analyze video game networks?Collect DataUse Software ToolsCreate Tools where existing tools are not good enoughPresent the dataData CollectionNeed to obtain TitleConsolePublisherDeveloperData is not centrally availableSpread out across the internetData CollectionNeed to write a custom scraper to get dataVideo Game Grabber (VG2)Written in C#Data CollectionVG2 CodeNeed to get data into a csvEasy for importing into other toolsTitle,Developer,PublisherConsole is in the file nameData CollectionVG2 CodeC# provides a nice interfaceHttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)HttpWebRequest.Create (www.yahoo.com);HttpRebResponse resp = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse();StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(resp.GetResponseStream());string source = sr.ReadToEnd();Data CollectionVG2 CodeUsing the previous callsData retrievedOr links followed to find the dataCustom functions were written based on which website the data was pulled fromData CollectionVG2 Code

Data CollectionVG2 CodeError detectionAny links that could not be followedAny data that could not be retrievedRecorded as ERROR into the csv fileThese were looked at by hand and either removed or adjusted.Common errors where when the publisher was different for different regionsNA publisher was used in these casesData CollectionVG2 CodeConvert csv .netPajek FormatSample:*Vertices 1123

1 "PS3"

2 "100 Bullets"

3 Silicon Studio"

4 "D3 Publisher"

5 "2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa"

6 "EA Canada"

7 "EA Sports"

8 "3D Dot Game Heroes"

Data CollectionVG2 CodeConvert csv .gdfGUESS FormatSample:nodedef> namePS3100_Bullets

Silcon_StudioD3_Publisher2010_FIFA_World_Cup_South_AfricaEA_CanadaEA_Sports3D_Dot_Game_HeroesData CollectionCurrent StatusAll consoles have data in csv,.net, and .gdfExcept Sega SaturnData seems incompleteMight assemble data from multiple sitesMight replace with DreamcastMight just throw it outData AnalysisNow that the data is in the correct formatsNumerical AnalysisGraphical AnalysisNumerical AnalysisClustering CoefficientHow to do this with PajekNet->Vector->Clustering Coefficient->CC1Numerical AnalysisDegree DistributionHow to do this with PajekNet->Partitions->Degree->OutputNumerical AnalysisExpansionHow to do this with custom softwareWant to know what percentage of nodes are at each level in the hierarchyPercentage of total nodes that areTitlesDevelopersPublishers

What to do with the numbersCreate a plot and produce a trend lineAverage each of the 3 metrics for each generationClustering CoefficientDegree DistributionExpansion (3 separate averages)Plot the average of each of the 5 generationsGraphical AnalysisColorsHow to do this with PajekNet->Partitions->Degree->OutputDraw->Partition

Graphical AnalysisColorsHow to do this with PajekLayout->Energy->Kamada-Kawai->Separate Components

Graphical AnalysisSizeHow to do this with GUESS

Graphical AnalysisSizeHow to do this with GUESSg.nodes.outdegreeresizeLinear(outdegree,1,75)Layout->Physics

Data AnalysisCreate animations from all the data3 Consoles from 5 GenerationsData AnalysisAverage all numerical results for each generationShow a graph with a trend line for each metricData AnalysisMake guess as to what will happen in the next generationBased on numerical graphsBased on visual trendsQuestions/Comments?