MMORPG map evaluation using pedestrian agents

Abstract

Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMO-RPG) increasingly become places of social engagement, by providing spaces for social interaction and relationship beyond home and workplace. The center of this is the virtual environment, in which players interact. Today's savvy players are demanding progressive, more playable and navigable game environments. Traditional methods of the game map evaluation, though reliable, do not offer a quantitative measure of players discomfort and efficiency. This paper introduces a complementary method of the MMORPG map evaluation by utilizing pedestrian agents. The agents employ calculable measures of walking efficiency and discomfort, providing objective criteria, against which the game maps are evaluated. Thus, they promote social interaction by improving the space wherein the players interact. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.