User Research and Game Analytics as a Combined Tool of Business Intelligence in Mobile Game Industry
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URL
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Perustieteiden korkeakoulu |
Master's thesis
Authors
Date
2014-12-01
Department
Major/Subject
Service Design and Engineering
Mcode
T010Z
Degree programme
Master's Programme in Service Design and Engineering (SDE)
Language
en
Pages
81 + app. 7
Series
Abstract
User studies are important sources of information for companies as they help the companies to understand the customers better when reaching them in many efficient ways. On the other hand, game analytics provide a good understanding about user behavior by making use of in-game statistics. Since both tools set up a good but different knowledge base, game companies can benefit from the combination of these two related information sources. Benefits which can be achieved from this cover gaining business value via efficient customer targeting or improved marketing and communications processes. It is also crucial for companies to see the relationship between these two learnings and if they reflect each other. This thesis investigates possibility of unifying user research and game analytics for business intelligence in gaming companies. As the case study, a software was developed to form a connection between data gathered from game analytics and user research. The software developed is implementation of a rule-based decision making algorithm, where rules consist of the logic to match common fields between game analytics and survey data. In addition, interviews were conducted to assess the application areas and benefits of the connection formed. Results of the study show that it is technically possible to build a bridge between game analytics data and user research outcomes in a practical way. Outcomes of the case study were mappings between survey responses and relevant game analytics data. While the quality of the mappings are highly dependent on many variables, reliability of the results can increase easily by improving the methods of data collection or rules followed in matching. Based on the interviews, we can argue that unifying those two data sources can offer valuable insights on players, thus supports the business functions inside a company.Description
Supervisor
Nieminen, MarkoThesis advisor
Koivunen, JanneRöykkee, Mika
Keywords
business intelligence, user research, game analytics, survey