Determining player decisions in computer games automatically from gameplay footage

Abstract

Some computer games present interesting moral dilemmas to the player. However, it is labour-intensive to obtain data of decisions made by players through questionnaires or close observations. This thesis describes an attempt to automatically collect data about decisions players make in games to analyse the behaviour of large numbers of players using gameplay footage. We use simple image features, SURF, and shot boundary detection and conclude that while we cannot accurately determine decisions made by players, we can significantly simplify the problem. This research is based on gameplay footage of "This War of Mine" found on YouTube.