Investigating communication patterns for improving teamwork in digital games

数字游戏正在成为我们文化中不可替代的一部分。根据《2019年全球游戏市场报告》，全球有25亿游戏玩家，2019年全球游戏产业将创造1521亿美元的收入。一些最受欢迎的数字游戏是基于团队的，例如《英雄联盟》（Riot games, 2009）、《反恐精英：全球攻势》（Valve Corporation, 2012）、《守望先锋》（暴雪娱乐，2016）和《Dota 2》（Valve Corporation, 2013）。这些游戏有竞争性联盟（称为“电子竞技”），奖金池超过3000万美元。数以百万计的人观看和玩这些游戏。玩家喜欢基于团队的游戏所提供的高水平挑战和社交互动。然而，与他人一起工作并不总是一种愉快的经历。虽然团队合作是游戏的核心组成部分，但由于玩家通常与陌生人组成团队，因此很难实现这一点。这意味着团队之前没有合作经验，但游戏需要密切合作和有效协调才能成功。团队的成功取决于队员们学会合作的速度。这也取决于团队克服可能会削弱团队士气的负面事件的能力。例如，当球队表现不佳时，球员相互指责是很常见的。由于信任和凝聚力等结构（通过先前的经验发展并在逆境中维持团队）不存在，玩家很容易表现出功能失调的行为。这就是所谓的“有毒行为”，在游戏社区中是个大问题。根据Riot Games的数据，在第一款游戏中遇到不良行为的新玩家返回游戏的可能性会降低320%。有害行为不仅会降低玩家留存率，还会对玩家的心理健康产生负面影响。鉴于每天有数以百万计的人花数小时玩基于团队的竞争性数字游戏，这是一个需要解决的重要问题。这个项目提出，通过开发有效的沟通流程，可以促进团队合作。具体来说，该项目侧重于“闭环通信”，这是一种协调机制，在这种机制中，发送的消息已被明确接收和理解。在新团队中，让玩家的行为可预测是很重要的。例如，在协调攻击时使用闭环通信将使玩家能够确保他们的队友共享相同的情况意识并致力于执行攻击。这样，玩家就会产生更强的信任感和凝聚力，因为他们知道自己可以依靠自己的团队。我们建议，通过更好的团队合作，可以减少有害行为。为此，本项目将开展一项实验室研究，调查闭环沟通对团队绩效、凝聚力和球员满意度的影响。选手将被分为两组：(1)实验组，进行闭环交流；(2)控制组，不进行闭环交流。玩家将玩一场比赛，并被要求完成一份关于他们主观体验的调查问卷。他们还将被要求通过比赛回放来识别有效的团队合作实例。通过这个项目，我们可以确定开发一个有效的沟通过程是否有助于新团队的团队合作，并带来更好的绩效和更大的凝聚力和满足感。这个项目的发现可以用来指导设计功能，促进新团队的团队合作，也可以用来提高数字游戏以外团队的团队合作。

EPSRC : Evelyn Tan : EP/L015846/1Digital games are becoming an irreplaceable part of our culture. According to the 2019 Global Games Market Report, there are 2.5 billion gamers across the world and the global games industry is set to generate $152.1 billion in 2019. Some of the most popular digital games are team-based, for example League of Legends (Riot Games, 2009), Counter Strike: Global Offensive (Valve Corporation, 2012), Overwatch (Blizzard Entertainment, 2016) and Dota 2 (Valve Corporation, 2013). These games have competitive leagues (termed 'esports') with prize pools exceeding $30 million. They are watched and played by millions. Players enjoy the high level of challenge and social interaction that team-based games afford. However, working together with others is not always an enjoyable experience. While teamwork is a core component of the game, it is difficult to achieve since players are typically placed in teams with strangers. This means that teams have no prior experience working together but the game requires close collaboration and effective coordination for success.Team success depends on the rate in which players learn to work together. It also depends on the ability of the team to overcome negative events that can erode team morale. For example, it is common for players to blame each other when the team underperforms. Since constructs like trust and cohesion, which develop through prior experience and sustain teams during adversity, do not exist, players are susceptible to exhibit dysfunctional behaviours. This is known as 'toxic behaviour' and is a huge problem in the game community. According to Riot Games, a new player who encounters toxic behaviour in their first game is 320% less likely to return. Toxic behaviour not only reduces player retention but negatively affects players' mental well-being. Given the millions of people who spend hours on competitive team-based digital games daily, this is an important problem to solve.This project proposes that teamwork can be facilitated through developing effective communication processes. Specifically, this project focuses on 'closed-loop communication', a type of coordination mechanism where it is made clear that a sent message has been received and understood. In new teams, it is important for players to make their behaviours predictable. Using closed-loop communication when coordinating an attack, for example, will enable players to ensure that their teammates share the same situation awareness and are committed to carrying out the attack. As a result, players would develop a greater sense of trust and cohesion, since they know that they can rely on their team. We suggest that by enabling better teamwork, toxic behaviour can be reduced.To achieve this, this project will carry out a laboratory study to investigate the effect of closed-loop communication on team performance, cohesion and player satisfaction. Players will be placed in a team belonging to one of two groups: (1) the experimental group, where closed-loop communication is taught or (2) the control group, where no closed-loop communication is taught. Players will play a match and asked to complete a questionnaire on their subjective experiences. They will also be asked to go through the match replay to identify instances of effective teamwork.Through this project, we can identify whether developing an effective communication process facilitates teamwork in new teams and leads to better performance and greater feelings of cohesion and satisfaction. Findings from this project can be used to inform design features that facilitate teamwork in new teams and can also be used to improve teamwork in teams outside of digital games.