Interactive tools that turn esports data into learning, storytelling, and skill-building

Over half a billion people watch esports each year, and the competitive gaming community generates vast amounts of freely available performance data. We are investigating how this data can become a vehicle for learning digital literacy and creative expression. Our work on esports is focused on developing novel interactive tools that enable gamers to conduct playful data analysis – exploring their own gameplay statistics, extracting insights, and constructing compelling narratives to share with others. In the process, players build transferable skills in data literacy, critical thinking, and creative storytelling that extend well beyond gaming.

Our work integrates research across five interconnected strands: user experience and accessibility design, interactive data visualisation, game analytics, gamification of data exploration, and data-driven storytelling. The tools are co-designed with the esports community and evaluated through large-scale usage telemetry and controlled experiments, generating insights into how people learn from and engage creatively with data at scale. The project builds directly on the Weavr project, which delivered innovative data-driven audience experiences to over 28 million esports fans.

The implications of this work reach beyond esports: informing how data engagement can be designed for citizen science, education, civic journalism, and personal health.

Project contact: Anders Drachen

#esports #data literacy #interactive visualisation #gamification #creative storytelling #game analytics #accessibility

Kokkinakis, A., Demediuk, S. P., Nölle, I., Olarewaju, O., Patra, S., Robertson, J., York, P., Pedrassoli Chitayat, A., Coates, A., Slawson, D., Hughes, P., Hardie, N., Kirman, B., Hook, J. D., Drachen, A., Ursu, M. & Block, F. O.: DAX: Data-Driven Audience Experiences in Esports.
Chitayat, A. P., Block, F., Walker, J. A. and Drachen, A.: How Could They Win? An Exploration of Win Condition for Esports Narratives in Dota 2. https://doi.org/10.1145/367707
Charles R., Sondess M., Victoria J. H., Chitayat, A. P., Kokkinakis, A. Patra, S., Demediuk, S., Munoz, A. C., Olarewaju, O., Ursu, M., Kirman, B., Hook, J., Block, F., Drachen, A., Walker, J. A. : Time to Die 2: Improved In-Game Death Prediction in Dota 2. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666827023000191
Joshi, R.; Gupta, V.; Li, X.; Cui, Y.; Wang, Z.; Ravari, Y. N.; Klabjan, D.; Sifa, R.; Parsaeian, A.; Drachen, A. & Demediuk, S.: A Team Based Player Versus Player Recommender Systems Framework for Player Improvement.