Online Game Quality Assessment

Much work has been done at examining, at many different layers , features and metrics to quantify and compensate as an effort to improve player reaction in the online environment. The focus on distributed interactive applications and the adaptation of the application at both client and server has changed the way games are designed and developed for online purposes. In order to maintain a large number of online players it is becoming essential for the game service providers to estimate game player perception and performance for their games. On the other hand, advanced information about game playing conditions would allow game players to select different online games, different networks and ultimately different tariffs. Traditionally the end-user perception for online games has been measured using subjective game quality assessment only. Although they claim to estimate a user perception, the existing models are based on network components which are limited in fully predicting the user satisfaction. Research carried out by US Entertainment Software Association (ESA) revealed that the percent of online game players is as high as 62% from total game players [1]. The statistics indicate that the average game player has been playing games for 12 years. Adult gamers have been playing for an average of 14 years; males average 16 years of game play, females average 12 years. The average game player is 30 years old. the 15% of most frequent game players pay to play online games. These statistics demonstrate a high level of online game players and a relevant amount of people that pay to play online games.