Abstract

Computer games are digital media, which more and more find acceptance in society in modern times. Especially the emerge of an increasing number of games with social com-ponents brings many new opportunities for developers and researchers. This work deals with the increasingly popular phenomenon of Game Analytics. Game Analytics are me-thods, to automatically evaluate content of computer games. The acquisition and pro-cessing of data is realized through game metrics. Metrics specify which data in which kind shall be collected in order to gain insight from these. In the first part of this paper the theoretical aspects of computer games are discussed. Based on these, potential social behaviors that frequently occur in computer games are discussed. Furthermore an over-view of methods will be delivered, which are currently used in the User-Oriented Game Testing. Based on this theoretical foundation, three metrics are developed, which can automatically capture social interaction processes, in order to draw conclusions about these interactions.
In the second part of the work a concept for a game is being developed, in which the newly developed metrics are practically implemented. The game concept is put into practice and used as the basis for a study, in which the newly developed metrics are implemented and with other data obtained from the study are evaluated. The results of the study show that the measurement of the metrics are accurate in measuring the play-ers perception of the social interaction.