GAW'21: The Second International Game Analytics Workshop

In conjunction with the 16th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG) 2021

Online

2nd of August 2021


News

  • [2 August 21] The Zoom URL for the workshop is https://iais-fraunhofer-de.zoom.us/j/86181610844?pwd=N1ovL3F2dUZ5emFrYXZwQTNhTFNsUT09

  • [29 July 21] GAW'21 will take place on Zoom (URL: https://iais-fraunhofer-de.zoom.us/j/86181610844 password will be available on the 1st of August 21). The final workshop program is now out:

    • 8:45 - 9:05 am (GMT-4) Opening done by Rafet Sifa (Fraunhofer IAIS)

    • 9:10 - 09:40 am (GMT-4) An introductory talk by Anders Drachen (IGGI - Computer Science Department, University of York) on Game Data Science

    • 09:40 - 10:30 am (GMT-4) A tutorial by Alan Pedrassoli Chitayat (IGGI - Computer Science Department, University of York) on Applying Neural Networks into Game Analytics

    • 10:35 - 11:05 am (GMT-4) Paper presentation by Pratheep Paranthaman (Elon University) for the paper titled Applying Rapid Crowdsourced Playtesting to a Human Computation Game

    • 11:05 - 11:20 am (GMT-4) 15 min. break

    • 11:20 - 11:40 am (GMT-4) Demonstration by Anders Drachen (IGGI - Computer Science Department, University of York) on Esports Visualization

    • 11:45 - 12:30 am (GMT-4) A keynote by Nick Ross (The Meta) on A/B Testing Incorrectly

    • 12:30 - 12:50 am (GMT-4) Open discussion and closing

  • [28 June 21] We now have a confirmed introductory talk by Anders Drachen (University of York) on Game Data Science.

  • [23 June 21] We now have a confirmed keynote by Nick Ross (The Meta) on A/B Testing Incorrectly.

  • [21 June 21] We are about to finish the program of the workshop. Stay tuned for the interesting content! So far we have a confirmed tutorial by Alan Pedrassoli Chitayat (IGGI - Computer Science Department, University of York) on Applying Neural Networks into Game Analytics. More to come soon.

  • [11 June 21] The notification for the research papers is sent to the authors. Please note that for the deadline for the camera-ready versions of the accepted papers is 15th of June.

  • [10 June 21] The review process will end today and we will announce the results tomorrow.

  • [17 May 21] The submission deadline for application notes and extended abstracts is extended till the 2nd of June 2021. You are welcome to submit papers describing your novel ideas, already published Game Analytics work, that you want to present at the workshop, or a working system, that you want to share with the Game Analytics community. See the submission details below. You can also contact the organizers if you have ideas for a tutorial/keynote.

  • [10 May 21] The submission deadline is extended till 17th of May 2021.

  • [23 Apr 21] The submission link is now available. Please submit your work to https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=gaw21

  • [31 Mar 21] The important dates for paper submission has been updated. The submission deadline for paper submission is 10th of May.

  • [7 Feb 21] The second Game Analytics Workshop (GAW'21) will be hosted in conjunction with the International Conference on the Foundation of Digital Games (http://fdg2021.org/). We will post the updates related to the workshop on this website.


Final Program (Time according to GMT-4)

    • Opening done by Rafet Sifa (Fraunhofer IAIS)

      • 8:45 - 9:05 am (GMT-4) Montreal time

    • An introductory talk by Anders Drachen (IGGI - Computer Science Department, University of York) on Game Data Science

      • 9:10 - 09:40 am (GMT-4) Montreal time

    • A tutorial by Alan Pedrassoli Chitayat (IGGI - Computer Science Department, University of York) on Applying Neural Networks into Game Analytics

      • 09:40 - 10:30 am (GMT-4) Montreal time

    • Paper presentation by Pratheep Paranthaman (Elon University) for the paper titled Applying Rapid Crowdsourced Playtesting to a Human Computation Game

      • 10:35 - 11:05 am (GMT-4) Montreal time

    • 15 min. break

      • 11:05 - 11:20 am (GMT-4) Montreal time

    • Demonstration by Anders Drachen (IGGI - Computer Science Department, University of York) on Esports Visualization

      • 11:20 - 11:40 am (GMT-4) Montreal time

    • A keynote by Nick Ross (The Meta) on A/B Testing Incorrectly

      • 11:45 - 12:30 am (GMT-4) Montreal time

    • Open discussion and closing

      • 12:30 - 12:50 am (GMT-4) Montreal time

About GAW

The Game Analytics Workshop (GAW) aims to act as a unifying point for researchers and practitioners interested in Game Analytics and to help connect industry and academia. Given the recent introduction of Game Analytics as a domain of research crossing into many of the traditional areas of games research, there is as yet a limited number of publications in the domain, and virtually no standards or accepted principles in the field, across research and industry. To address these issues the workshop aims to discuss and assess the state-of-the-art in Game Analytics and the current major challenges in the domain across industry and academia, including academia-industry collaborations, integrating applied and basic research and developing standards.

Call for Papers and Submission

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Interactive and online machine learning methods for Game Analytics

  • Monte Carlo tree search

  • Hybrid and fuzzy AI solutions for Game Analytics

  • Matrix and tensor factorization models

  • Recommender Systems and games

  • Deep Learning methods for Game Analytics

  • Data-driven Matchmaking algorithms for games

  • Churn and conversion prediction in games

  • Fraud analysis in games

  • Pricing and promotions in online games

  • Data visualization in Game Analytics

  • Social network analysis in games

  • Esports analytics

  • Game economics

  • Communication and network analytics

  • Game Analytics in non-traditional environments

  • Other related emerging topics in Game Analytics

Please note: We are interested in submissions whether they are theoretical, technical, empirical, applied or any combination thereof. New algorithms or similar are not necessary, the focus of the workshop is on solving problems. Towards this end, papers that are non-technical, interdisciplinary or cross-disciplinary but which take on challenges in Game Analytics are of interest to the workshop. For example, submissions showcasing how to deal with the problem of communicating the results of analytical processes to designers, or papers who propose ways of merging analytics and user research, game analytics applied in education or even showcases how to use analytics for artistic expression - all are welcome.

Contributions for GAW'21 should be formatted for double blind review (i.e. without any author or affiliation information) and submitted through Easychair (https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=gaw21). The program committee will review all the submissions. Accepted papers will be published in ACM Proceedings of the Conference of Foundation of Digital Games (indexed by Scopus and Google Scholar).

GAW'21 will consider papers (all to be submitted in double columned ACM format) in three tracks:

  • Long/Short Research Papers: We invite both long (6-7 pages including references) and short (1-5 pages including references) papers describing complete works of research (for long papers) or work in progress (for short papers) covering theoretical and practical contribution in the area of Game Analytics. Long and short position and vision papers providing literature reviews and discussing emerging topics are also welcomed.

  • Application Notes: Short papers (1-5 pages including references) about a variety of analytics systems, tools or platforms that are (being) built to address industry problems. The papers in this category describe implementational details of their applications, the challenges faced during the development and deployment processes, experiences with maintenance of the application and/or benchmarking different hardware and software infrastructures.

  • Extended Abstracts: Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit an extended abstract (1-2 pages including references) describing their early ideas or already published Game Analytics work in conferences, journals, technical reports or books.

For Tutorials: Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit suggestions for tutorials. Please contact Rafet.Sifa@iais.fraunhofer.de

Important Dates

  • Paper submission deadline for the research papers: 10th of May 2021 (Extended to 17th of May 2021)

  • Paper submission deadline for the application notes and extended abstracts: 17th of May 2021 (Extended to 2nd of June 2021)

  • Notification of acceptance for all submissions: 1st of June 2021 (Extended to 9th 11th of June 2021)

  • Camera-ready submission deadline for all submissions: 15th of June 2021

  • Workshop Date: 2nd of August 2021

Organization

Workshop Chairs

  • Rafet Sifa (Fraunhofer IAIS, Germany)

  • Anders Drachen (University of York DC Labs, UK)

  • Simon Demediuk (University of York DC Labs, UK)

Programme Committee

  • Nicholas Ross (The Meta)

  • Alessandro Canossa (Royal Danish Academy and Ubisoft)

  • Christian Bauckhage (Fraunhofer IAIS)

  • Günter Wallner (Johannes Kepler University Linz )

  • Paolo Burelli (IT University Of Copenhagen)

  • Alexander Bisberg (USC Viterbi School of Engineering)

  • Christoffer Holmgård (modl.ai)

Contact

For questions and comments please contact Rafet Sifa at: Rafet.Sifa@iais.fraunhofer.de