Effects of Spatial and Temporal Display in Esports on Gaming Performance.

Under the guidance of Dr. Benjamin Watson

Most major video games provide a large amount of customization that the player can tune to adjust the gameplay experience to their preference. There doesn’t appear to be any correct way to configure a game, and it is completely left up to he player themselves. While some configurations might make the game more enjoyable or pleasing, are there specific configurations that help focus on achieving the objective of the game being played? This paper aims to find out the dynamics of how various spatial configurations such as special effects, shadows, and lighting, and temporal configurations such as FPS, affect the gameplay of the player, especially in the area of competitive play.

Working on this research project over the last year has been super exciting. I was able to spend academic time with a game that I have been playing since 2014 - Dota 2. I worked through the research process, all the way from coming up with a project idea to executing it. Coming up with the experiment design and actually conducting it with participants was very tasking, especially when I had to change most of my experiment halfway through to accommodate for Covid-19 safety procedures. Despite all the obstacles, seeing the experiment through to fruition was very rewarding.

Through this project, I got the opportunity to work with researchers from Nvidia and was able to experience industry-level scientific research processes first-hand. It also helped me improve my own gameplay, which is an added bonus.