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Friday, February 10, 2012
2012: social analytics for the rest of us
Until recently, large-scale social media analytics and large-scale user testing and was only done by large companies.
In 2012, expect many of these capabilities to become available to individual users - for relatively low rates (which means soon it will be free.)
Google pioneered with this Google Trends, Google Insights for Search, and Google Analytics (www.google.com/analytics) which since 2006 offered free in-depth analytics on an individual web site or blog.
According to one analysis, Google Analytics is now used on %50 of top 1,000,000 web sites. (Google Analytics Market Share. 2010-08-21.)
Google Trends and Insights were unique in allowing all of to see certain kinds trends as expressed by massive amounts of social data. In contrast, most other current offerings only allow you to analyze trends related to your own social product (web site, blog, Facebook page, YouTube video) performance.
For an example, see Facebook insights which "provides Facebook Page owners and Facebook Platform developers with metrics around their content."
And here is an example of user testing analytics - again, for your design:
Solidify (solidifyapp.com) is offering a few applications for web designers Verify is "the fastest way to collect and analyze user feedback on screens or mockups. See where people click, what they remember, or how they feel." Solidify is "the quickest way to prototype interface screens for user testing feedback. Learn where people get confused by page interactions."
This trend is not going to change overnight. However, more tools are coming and at least some of them promise free or almost free social analytics based on everybody's data:
Twitter "will unveil a series of new tools in the next few months, including sophisticated analytical tools, according to Erica Anderson, Twitter's manager for news and journalism." "Going forward, Anderson expects to see more people using Twitter to predict behaviors by analyzing wide swaths of tweets. She did not make it clear if the new analytical tools will include some features aimed at spotting trends. "The predictive nature of Twitter is still largely untapped," she said." (source: ReadWriteWeb, January 29, 2012.)
Socialflow (socialflow.com)is "Optimized Publisher for Twitter and Facebook. Publish items at the precise moments when they will maximize clicks, Retweets, mentions and follower growth. Use the SocialFlow AttentionScore™ to derive more value from your content."
Also, check out this experts discussion business-oriented trends in social analytics offerings.
Workshop on Social Media Visualization (June 4, 2012, Dublin)
Call for Papers
Workshop on Social Media Visualization (SocMedVis)
at the International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media
(ICWSM'12)
4th June 2012, Dublin, Ireland
http://socmedvis.ucd.ie
Social media study and analysis brings researchers from many fields into
a single setting. Even though the tasks of these researchers are varied,
data visualization and analytics plays an important role. For industry
and academics alike, visualization of social media data helps with
hypothesis formation and supports the explanation of phenomena.
The Workshop on Social Media Visualization (SocMedVis) will be held in
conjunction with the International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social
Media (ICWSM'12)
workshop is a venue for presentation of research and applications of
visualization of social media data.
The goal of the workshop is to bring together researchers and industry
practitioners interested in visual and interactive techniques for social
media analysis to discuss their potential application to the social
sciences, humanities, and industry. We solicit contributions that
discuss novel techniques and applications of visualization and visual
analytics approaches to social media data sources.
Important Dates
* Paper Submission Deadline: 2nd March 2012
* Notification: 16th March 2012
* Paper Camera-Ready Deadline: 2nd April 2012
* Early registration for ICWSM'12: 6th April 2012
* Workshop: 4th June 2012
Topics
We invite research, application, and position papers on the topic of
visualization and social media. Topics of interest include but are not
limited to:
* Visual Analysis of Evolving Social Media Data
* Interactive Techniques for Sentiment Analysis and Brand Perception
* Visualization of Memes and Trends in Social Media
* Visualization of Social Media for Media Studies
* Social Media in Social Sciences and Humanities
* Data Mining and Machine Learning in Social Media
* Visual Analytics of Social Media in Industry
* Formal Evaluation Techniques in Social Media
* Systems and Languages for Social Media Analytics
* Methodologies and Processes for Social Media Analysis
* Collaborative Analysis of Text Corpora
* Real-Time Visualization of Social Media Data
* Visualization and Visual Text Analytics in Social Media
* Visualization and Visual Analytics of Social Media Networks
* Studies of Analytic Work on Social Media
* Representations of Uncertainty in Text Analytics
Submissions
Papers are limited to 4 pages in length and should have a visualization
or visual analytics component to them. Papers must be formatted
according to AAAI guidelines
.
Papers in PDF format must be submitted using EasyChair
by 2nd March
2012. A subset of the accepted papers will be invited for oral
presentation at the workshop. All other accepted papers will be
presented as posters during the poster session or interactive demo session.
The program will also include a madness session at the beginning of the
workshop to allow anyone attending the workshop to briefly introduce
themselves, their work, and state their positions and goals related to
the scope of the workshop. If you are planning to attend the workshop
you are welcome to send an email to conference organizers to ensure a
slot in the madness session by 2nd April 2012.
We also plan to host a panel of researchers in social sciences and
humanities and industrial researchers of varied perspectives on the
application of visualization to academic disciplines and industry where
visualization is needed to understand social media data.
For more information please visit the workshop web page at
http://socmedvis.ucd.ie
socmedvis@ucd.ie.
Workshop on Social Media Visualization (SocMedVis)
at the International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media
(ICWSM'12)
4th June 2012, Dublin, Ireland
http://socmedvis.ucd.ie
Social media study and analysis brings researchers from many fields into
a single setting. Even though the tasks of these researchers are varied,
data visualization and analytics plays an important role. For industry
and academics alike, visualization of social media data helps with
hypothesis formation and supports the explanation of phenomena.
The Workshop on Social Media Visualization (SocMedVis) will be held in
conjunction with the International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social
Media (ICWSM'12)
workshop is a venue for presentation of research and applications of
visualization of social media data.
The goal of the workshop is to bring together researchers and industry
practitioners interested in visual and interactive techniques for social
media analysis to discuss their potential application to the social
sciences, humanities, and industry. We solicit contributions that
discuss novel techniques and applications of visualization and visual
analytics approaches to social media data sources.
Important Dates
* Paper Submission Deadline: 2nd March 2012
* Notification: 16th March 2012
* Paper Camera-Ready Deadline: 2nd April 2012
* Early registration for ICWSM'12: 6th April 2012
* Workshop: 4th June 2012
Topics
We invite research, application, and position papers on the topic of
visualization and social media. Topics of interest include but are not
limited to:
* Visual Analysis of Evolving Social Media Data
* Interactive Techniques for Sentiment Analysis and Brand Perception
* Visualization of Memes and Trends in Social Media
* Visualization of Social Media for Media Studies
* Social Media in Social Sciences and Humanities
* Data Mining and Machine Learning in Social Media
* Visual Analytics of Social Media in Industry
* Formal Evaluation Techniques in Social Media
* Systems and Languages for Social Media Analytics
* Methodologies and Processes for Social Media Analysis
* Collaborative Analysis of Text Corpora
* Real-Time Visualization of Social Media Data
* Visualization and Visual Text Analytics in Social Media
* Visualization and Visual Analytics of Social Media Networks
* Studies of Analytic Work on Social Media
* Representations of Uncertainty in Text Analytics
Submissions
Papers are limited to 4 pages in length and should have a visualization
or visual analytics component to them. Papers must be formatted
according to AAAI guidelines
Papers in PDF format must be submitted using EasyChair
2012. A subset of the accepted papers will be invited for oral
presentation at the workshop. All other accepted papers will be
presented as posters during the poster session or interactive demo session.
The program will also include a madness session at the beginning of the
workshop to allow anyone attending the workshop to briefly introduce
themselves, their work, and state their positions and goals related to
the scope of the workshop. If you are planning to attend the workshop
you are welcome to send an email to conference organizers to ensure a
slot in the madness session by 2nd April 2012.
We also plan to host a panel of researchers in social sciences and
humanities and industrial researchers of varied perspectives on the
application of visualization to academic disciplines and industry where
visualization is needed to understand social media data.
For more information please visit the workshop web page at
http://socmedvis.ucd.ie
socmedvis@ucd.ie.
Workshop Social Media Visualization
Workshop Social Media Visualization (04 de junho de 2012, Dublin)
Call for Papers
Workshop sobre Social Media Visualization (SocMedVis) @ Conferência Internacional sobre Weblogs AAAI e Mídias Sociais (ICWSM'12).
04 de junho de 2012, Dublin, Irlanda
http://socmedvis.ucd.ie
O estudo e a análise da mídia social tem aproximado pesquisadores dos mais variados campos. Mesmo que as tarefas desses pesquisadores sejam diversas, a visualização de dados e a sua análise tem desempenhado um papel importante na pesquisa. Para a indústria e academia a visualização dos dados das mídias sociais contribuem na formação de hipóteses e na explicação de determinados fenômenos.
O Workshop de Visualização de Mídia Social (SocMedVis) será realizado em conjunto com a Conferência Internacional sobre Weblogs AAAI e Social Media (ICWSM'12) em Dublin em 04 de junho de 2012. A oficina é um espaço para apresentação de pesquisas e aplicações de visualização de dados das mídias sociais.
O objetivo do workshop é reunir pesquisadores e profissionais atuantes no mercado que estejam interessados em técnicas visuais e interativas para a transformação social e análise da mídia para discutir o seu potencial de aplicação no campo das ciências sociais, humanidades e indústria.
Datas Importantes
* Prazo para Submissão: 02 março de 2012
* Notificação: 16 mar, 2012
* Prazo do paper: 2 de abril de 2012
* Inscrições antecipadas para ICWSM'12: 06 de abril de 2012
* Workshop: 04 de junho de 2012
Tópicos
Tópicos de interesse incluem, mas não são
limitados a:
* Análise Visual de Dados e Evolução Social da Mídia
* Técnicas interativas para análise de sentimento e percepção da marca
* Visualização de Memes e Tendências em Mídias Sociais
* Visualização de Mídia Social para Estudos da Mídia
* As Mídias Sociais em Ciências Sociais e Humanas
* Data Mining e Machine Learning em Mídias Sociais
* As Visual Analytics de Mídias Sociais na Indústria
* Os Formais Técnicas de Avaliação em Mídias Sociais
* Sistemas e linguagens para Analytics Social Media
* Os Metodologias e Processos para Análise de Mídias Sociais
* Análise de Texto Colaborativo Corporativo
* Visualização em tempo real de dados de Mídias Sociais
* Visualização e Análise de Texto Visual em Mídias Sociais
* Visualização e Análise Visual de redes de mídia social
* Estudos de trabalho analítico sobre Mídias Sociais
* Os Representações e Incerteza em Text Analytics
Submissões
Os papers são limitados a 4 páginas e devem ter uma visualização ou algum componente de análise visual. Os trabalhos devem ser formatados acordo com as diretrizes AAAI.
Documentos em formato PDF devem ser apresentadas utilizando EasyChair até o dia 2 de março de 2012. Um subconjunto dos trabalhos aceitos serão convidados para apresentação oral. Todos os outros trabalhos aceitos serão apresentados como posters durante a sessão de demonstração interativa.
O seminário planeja receber um grupo de pesquisadores em ciências sociais e ciências humanas, além de pesquisadores do campo da indústria para debater sobre a aplicação de visualizações em disciplinas acadêmicas e na própria indústria, onde a visualização é necessária para compreender os dados advindos das mídias sociais.
Para mais informações, visite a página do workshop em http://socmedvis.ucd.ie ou envie um e-mail para socmedvis@ucd.ie.
Call for Papers
Workshop sobre Social Media Visualization (SocMedVis) @ Conferência Internacional sobre Weblogs AAAI e Mídias Sociais (ICWSM'12).
04 de junho de 2012, Dublin, Irlanda
http://socmedvis.ucd.ie
O estudo e a análise da mídia social tem aproximado pesquisadores dos mais variados campos. Mesmo que as tarefas desses pesquisadores sejam diversas, a visualização de dados e a sua análise tem desempenhado um papel importante na pesquisa. Para a indústria e academia a visualização dos dados das mídias sociais contribuem na formação de hipóteses e na explicação de determinados fenômenos.
O Workshop de Visualização de Mídia Social (SocMedVis) será realizado em conjunto com a Conferência Internacional sobre Weblogs AAAI e Social Media (ICWSM'12) em Dublin em 04 de junho de 2012. A oficina é um espaço para apresentação de pesquisas e aplicações de visualização de dados das mídias sociais.
O objetivo do workshop é reunir pesquisadores e profissionais atuantes no mercado que estejam interessados em técnicas visuais e interativas para a transformação social e análise da mídia para discutir o seu potencial de aplicação no campo das ciências sociais, humanidades e indústria.
Datas Importantes
* Prazo para Submissão: 02 março de 2012
* Notificação: 16 mar, 2012
* Prazo do paper: 2 de abril de 2012
* Inscrições antecipadas para ICWSM'12: 06 de abril de 2012
* Workshop: 04 de junho de 2012
Tópicos
Tópicos de interesse incluem, mas não são
limitados a:
* Análise Visual de Dados e Evolução Social da Mídia
* Técnicas interativas para análise de sentimento e percepção da marca
* Visualização de Memes e Tendências em Mídias Sociais
* Visualização de Mídia Social para Estudos da Mídia
* As Mídias Sociais em Ciências Sociais e Humanas
* Data Mining e Machine Learning em Mídias Sociais
* As Visual Analytics de Mídias Sociais na Indústria
* Os Formais Técnicas de Avaliação em Mídias Sociais
* Sistemas e linguagens para Analytics Social Media
* Os Metodologias e Processos para Análise de Mídias Sociais
* Análise de Texto Colaborativo Corporativo
* Visualização em tempo real de dados de Mídias Sociais
* Visualização e Análise de Texto Visual em Mídias Sociais
* Visualização e Análise Visual de redes de mídia social
* Estudos de trabalho analítico sobre Mídias Sociais
* Os Representações e Incerteza em Text Analytics
Submissões
Os papers são limitados a 4 páginas e devem ter uma visualização ou algum componente de análise visual. Os trabalhos devem ser formatados acordo com as diretrizes AAAI.
Documentos em formato PDF devem ser apresentadas utilizando EasyChair até o dia 2 de março de 2012. Um subconjunto dos trabalhos aceitos serão convidados para apresentação oral. Todos os outros trabalhos aceitos serão apresentados como posters durante a sessão de demonstração interativa.
O seminário planeja receber um grupo de pesquisadores em ciências sociais e ciências humanas, além de pesquisadores do campo da indústria para debater sobre a aplicação de visualizações em disciplinas acadêmicas e na própria indústria, onde a visualização é necessária para compreender os dados advindos das mídias sociais.
Para mais informações, visite a página do workshop em http://socmedvis.ucd.ie ou envie um e-mail para socmedvis@ucd.ie.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
The Lived Logics of Database Machinery
The Lived Logics of Database Machinery
A one-day workshop organised by Computational Culture (http://www.computationalculture.net/)
Date: Thursday 28th June
Location: Central London
With many of the most significant changes in the organisation and distribution of knowledge, practices of ordering, forms of communication and modes of governance taking shape around it, the database has remained surprisingly recalcitrant to anything other than technical forms of analysis. Its ostensibly neutral status as a technology has
allowed it to play a significant - yet largely overlooked - role in modelling of populations and configuring practices, from organisational labour through knowledge production to art.
The importance of the database for gathering and analysing information has been a theme of many studies (especially those relating to surveillance) but the specific agency of the database as an active mediator in its own right, as an actor in constructing, organising and modifying social relations is less well understood.
A one-day workshop, organized by Computational Culture seeks to rectify this state of affairs. We are looking for proposals for papers, interventions, poster presentations and critical accounts of practical projects that address the theme of the social, cultural and political logics of database technologies.
Proposals should aim to address the intersection of the technical qualities of databases and their management systems with social or cultural relations and the critical questions these raise. We are particularly interested in work that addresses the ways in which entity-relations models, or structures of data-atomisation, become active logics in the construction of the world. Historical contributions that tease out the connections between the database 'condition' and antecedent technical and theoretical objects (from indexes and archives to set theory), or which develop critical accounts of transparency are also particularly welcome.
The focus of the workshop on the lived social dynamics and political logics of database technologies is envisaged as a means of opening up paths of enquiry and addressing questions that typically get lost between the ‘social’ and the ‘technological’:
How do the ordering of views, permissions structures, the normalisation
of data, and other characteristic forms of databases contribute to the
generation of forms subjectivity and of culture?
What impact does the need to manage terabytes of data have on knowledge
production, and how can the normative assumptions embedded in uses of data
and database technologies be challenged or counter-effectuated?
What conceptual frameworks do we need to get a hold on the operational
logics of the database and the immanence of social categorization to
relational algebras?
Is there a workable politics available for exploring strategies of data management, the commonalities and differences of practices in different settings - from genome sequence archiving through supply chain management to medical records and cultural history?
Abstracts of around 500 words should be sent to editorial@computationalculture.net by March 9th
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Google logo space
(Click on the image to see full 9000 x 6750 version on Flickr.)
Jeremy Douglass, 2009.
Visualization shows 587 versions of the original Google logo, which appeared on google.com pages between 1998 and summer 2009. Some versions, which celebrate important events and people, appeared worldwide; others were only used on google.com home page in particular countries.
Visualization shows 587 versions of the original Google logo, which appeared on google.com pages between 1998 and summer 2009. Some versions, which celebrate important events and people, appeared worldwide; others were only used on google.com home page in particular countries.
Each logo version was automatically analyzed using digital image processing software to extract a number of visual features. The visualization uses these features to situate all logos in 2D space in such a way that their positions indicate how different each logo is from the original.
“Difference” can be defined in many ways. Each definition would result in a different visualization. Our visualization shows only two of these possibilities. Horizontal placement (X axis) indicates the amount of logo’s modification from the original. The least modified logos are on the extreme left; the logos with most modifications are on the extreme right. Vertical placement (Y axis) indicates which part of a logo was modified. Logos where most of the modifications are in the upper part appear in upper part of the visualization; logos where most modifications are in the lower part appear in lower part of the visualization.
Close-up: small variations (the right part of the visualization).
Close-up: medium variations (the center part of the visualization).
Close-up: extreme variations (the left part of the visualization).
Every day billions of people see a new logo appear on Google’s homepage. Since 1998 these logo variations have explored an ever-growing range of design possibilities while still retaining the “essence” of the original logo. Our visualization of 587 logos shows the space of these variations. Only a few logos have very small or very large modifications. These logos appear around the edges of the “cloud” in the center that consists from logos with moderate changes. The overall “shape” of this space of Google logo design variations is similar to the well-known normal (Gaussian) distribution which describes variability of all kinds of data encountered in natural and social sciences. However, if we are to plot the logos over time (not shown in this visualization), we will find a different pattern - the amount of logos’ modifications from the original design has been increasing significantly over last few years.
This visualization version uses transparency which allows to better see the densities (number of logos) in different parts of the design space.
This visualization version uses transparency which allows to better see the densities (number of logos) in different parts of the design space.
Certain types of subject matter result in similar design solutions, which further structures this space of the design variations. For example, specific national observances often feature top-heavy additions of flags, fireworks, or crowns that cluster towards the top of the cloud, along with a set of logos featuring athletes in the air.
A cluster of designs with national flags appearing in the top part of the visualization.
Designs with characters appearing in the bottom part of the visualization.
A cluster of designs with national flags appearing in the top part of the visualization.
Designs with characters appearing in the bottom part of the visualization.
Links:
Lev Manovich lecture at USC, February 13, 2012
where: University of Southern California (USC)
date: February 13, 2012
time: 4pm
building: Davidson Conference Center
RSVP at www.usc.edu/esvp (code: Manovich)
speaker: Lev Manovich
title: BIG DATA AND COLLABORATION BETWEEN DISCIPLINES
abstract:
Many commentators recently pointed out that the joint availability of massive amounts of data together with the computational tools for their analysis is having transformative effects on many fields. For example, a special report “Data, Data Everywhere” in Economist (February 2010) noted that big data’s “effect is being felt everywhere, from business to science, from government to the arts.” An article in New York Times (November 16, 2010) stated: “The next big idea in language, history and the arts? Data.” In 2009 and 2011, National Endowment of Humanities together with National Science Foundation organized Digging Into Data competitions to “address how ‘big data’ changes the research landscape for the humanities and social sciences.” And on February 12, New York Times featured yet another report The Age of Big Data.
In 2007 I created Software Studies Initiative at UCSD (www.softwarestudies.com) to both explore theoretical consequences of using computational methods for the study of culture, and to develop techniques and software tools which will enable humanists and social scientists work with massive visual data sets. We also aimed to create a research agenda and research outputs that would be relevant to people in many disciplines – from arts and humanities to computer science and engineering. This attempt has been successful. We received funding from both NEH and NSF, published our work in humanities, social science and computer sciences venues, shown our visualizations in a number of important international art and design exhibitions, released free open source software tools to enable other researchers and students to use our techniques in their own research, and worked with Library of Congress, Getty Research Institute, and other institutions to analyze parts of their digital collections.
Using our experiences as a starting point, in my talk I will discuss how “big data” paradigm creates new opportunities (as well as new challenges) for collaboration between disciplines; point out examples of what I see as fundamentally new research methodologies which computation brings to the study of the society and culture; and show examples of our projects including visualizations of one million pages of manga (Japanese comics), all issues of Science and Popular Science from 1872-1922 period, and other cultural data sets.
date: February 13, 2012
time: 4pm
building: Davidson Conference Center
RSVP at www.usc.edu/esvp (code: Manovich)
speaker: Lev Manovich
title: BIG DATA AND COLLABORATION BETWEEN DISCIPLINES
abstract:
Many commentators recently pointed out that the joint availability of massive amounts of data together with the computational tools for their analysis is having transformative effects on many fields. For example, a special report “Data, Data Everywhere” in Economist (February 2010) noted that big data’s “effect is being felt everywhere, from business to science, from government to the arts.” An article in New York Times (November 16, 2010) stated: “The next big idea in language, history and the arts? Data.” In 2009 and 2011, National Endowment of Humanities together with National Science Foundation organized Digging Into Data competitions to “address how ‘big data’ changes the research landscape for the humanities and social sciences.” And on February 12, New York Times featured yet another report The Age of Big Data.
In 2007 I created Software Studies Initiative at UCSD (www.softwarestudies.com) to both explore theoretical consequences of using computational methods for the study of culture, and to develop techniques and software tools which will enable humanists and social scientists work with massive visual data sets. We also aimed to create a research agenda and research outputs that would be relevant to people in many disciplines – from arts and humanities to computer science and engineering. This attempt has been successful. We received funding from both NEH and NSF, published our work in humanities, social science and computer sciences venues, shown our visualizations in a number of important international art and design exhibitions, released free open source software tools to enable other researchers and students to use our techniques in their own research, and worked with Library of Congress, Getty Research Institute, and other institutions to analyze parts of their digital collections.
Using our experiences as a starting point, in my talk I will discuss how “big data” paradigm creates new opportunities (as well as new challenges) for collaboration between disciplines; point out examples of what I see as fundamentally new research methodologies which computation brings to the study of the society and culture; and show examples of our projects including visualizations of one million pages of manga (Japanese comics), all issues of Science and Popular Science from 1872-1922 period, and other cultural data sets.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Kingdom Hearts game play visualizations
William Huber, 2010
This project represents nearly 100 hours of playing two videogames as high resolution visualizations. This representation allows us to study the interplay of various elements of gameplay, and the relationship between the travel through game spaces and the passage of time in game play.
Kingdom Hearts videogame traversal | 29 sessions over 20 days, 62.5 hours total | visualization uses 22,500 frames
Kingdom Hearts videogame traversal | 16 sessions over 18 days, 27 hours total | visualization uses 13,300 frames
Visualizations details:
Data: The data are the game play sessions of the video games Kingdom Hearts (2002, Square Co., Ltd.) and Kingdom Hearts II (2005, Square-Enix, Inc.) Each game was played from the beginning to the end over a number of sessions. The video captured from all game sessions of each game were assembled into a singe sequence. The sequences were sampled at 6 frames per second. This resulted in 225,000 frames for Kingdom Hearts and 133,000 frames for Kingdom Hearts II. The visualizations use only every 10th frame from the complete frame sets: Kingdom Hearts: 22,500 frames. Kingdom Hearts II: 13,300 frames.
Timescales: Japanese role-playing games such as Kingdom Hearts can take from about 40 to over 100 hours to complete. Kingdom Hearts game play: 62.5 hours of game play, in 29 sessions over 20 days. Kingdom Hearts II game play: 37 hours of game play, in 16 sessions over 18 days.
Mapping: Frames are organized in a grid in order of game play (left to right, top to bottom).
Kingdom Hearts is a franchise of video games and other media properties created in 2002 via a collaboration between Tokyo-based videogame publisher Square (now Square-Enix) and The Walt Disney Company, in which original characters created by Square travel through worlds representing Disney-owned media properties (Tarzan, Alice in Wonderland, The Nightmare before Christmas, etc.). Each world has its distinct characters derived from the respective Disney-produced films. It also features a distinct color palettes and rendering styles, which are related to visual styles of the corresponding Disney films.
Like other software-based artifacts, video games can have infinite varied realizations since each game play is unique. Compressing many hours of game play into a single high resolution image and placing a number of such visualizations next to each other allows us to see the patterns of similarity and differences between these realizations. These visualizations are also useful in comparing different releases of the popular games – such as the two releases of Kingdom Hearts shown here.
Visualizations details:
Data: sampled frames from the video capture of the complete traversal (playing the game from the beginning to the end) of the videogame Kingdom Hearts (2002, Square Co., Ltd.)
Timescales: game play length: 62.5 hours, in 29 sessions over 20 days. Animated over 7.8 minutes. From the original video capture done at 1 frame per second, every 16th frame was sampled. In the animation, these sampled frames are played back at 30 frames per second.
Mapping: completing Kingdom Hearts took 29 separate sessions. The sampled frame sequences are positioned from left to right in the order of sessions, and from bottom to top in order of the worlds visited.
This visualization relates together the travel through game spaces and the passage of time in game play. In the course of playing Kingdom Hearts games, a player moves through a number of different worlds. The visualization below represents each world by a single frame. These representative frames are organized vertically in the same order as the player encountered them in the course of the game (first visited world is on the bottom, next visited world is above, and so on.) The game was played over a number of separate sessions over many days; each session occupies a single column in a visualization (left to right.)
This visualization highlights the telescoping mobility over the game-worlds over time: first, the play visits one world at a time. In the middle of the game traversal (sessions 18 and 19) the player freely shuttles between the worlds, flattening them and treating them as resources, rather than as narrative spaces.
By animating this passage through spaces, we can see the experience of expanding mobility between them:
Related projects:
Graphing temporal patterns in gameplay
Ludological dynamics of Fatal Frame 2
This project represents nearly 100 hours of playing two videogames as high resolution visualizations. This representation allows us to study the interplay of various elements of gameplay, and the relationship between the travel through game spaces and the passage of time in game play.
Kingdom Hearts videogame traversal | 29 sessions over 20 days, 62.5 hours total | visualization uses 22,500 frames
Kingdom Hearts videogame traversal | 16 sessions over 18 days, 27 hours total | visualization uses 13,300 frames
Visualizations details:
Data: The data are the game play sessions of the video games Kingdom Hearts (2002, Square Co., Ltd.) and Kingdom Hearts II (2005, Square-Enix, Inc.) Each game was played from the beginning to the end over a number of sessions. The video captured from all game sessions of each game were assembled into a singe sequence. The sequences were sampled at 6 frames per second. This resulted in 225,000 frames for Kingdom Hearts and 133,000 frames for Kingdom Hearts II. The visualizations use only every 10th frame from the complete frame sets: Kingdom Hearts: 22,500 frames. Kingdom Hearts II: 13,300 frames.
Timescales: Japanese role-playing games such as Kingdom Hearts can take from about 40 to over 100 hours to complete. Kingdom Hearts game play: 62.5 hours of game play, in 29 sessions over 20 days. Kingdom Hearts II game play: 37 hours of game play, in 16 sessions over 18 days.
Mapping: Frames are organized in a grid in order of game play (left to right, top to bottom).
Kingdom Hearts is a franchise of video games and other media properties created in 2002 via a collaboration between Tokyo-based videogame publisher Square (now Square-Enix) and The Walt Disney Company, in which original characters created by Square travel through worlds representing Disney-owned media properties (Tarzan, Alice in Wonderland, The Nightmare before Christmas, etc.). Each world has its distinct characters derived from the respective Disney-produced films. It also features a distinct color palettes and rendering styles, which are related to visual styles of the corresponding Disney films.
Like other software-based artifacts, video games can have infinite varied realizations since each game play is unique. Compressing many hours of game play into a single high resolution image and placing a number of such visualizations next to each other allows us to see the patterns of similarity and differences between these realizations. These visualizations are also useful in comparing different releases of the popular games – such as the two releases of Kingdom Hearts shown here.
Visualizations details:
Data: sampled frames from the video capture of the complete traversal (playing the game from the beginning to the end) of the videogame Kingdom Hearts (2002, Square Co., Ltd.)
Timescales: game play length: 62.5 hours, in 29 sessions over 20 days. Animated over 7.8 minutes. From the original video capture done at 1 frame per second, every 16th frame was sampled. In the animation, these sampled frames are played back at 30 frames per second.
Mapping: completing Kingdom Hearts took 29 separate sessions. The sampled frame sequences are positioned from left to right in the order of sessions, and from bottom to top in order of the worlds visited.
This visualization relates together the travel through game spaces and the passage of time in game play. In the course of playing Kingdom Hearts games, a player moves through a number of different worlds. The visualization below represents each world by a single frame. These representative frames are organized vertically in the same order as the player encountered them in the course of the game (first visited world is on the bottom, next visited world is above, and so on.) The game was played over a number of separate sessions over many days; each session occupies a single column in a visualization (left to right.)
This visualization highlights the telescoping mobility over the game-worlds over time: first, the play visits one world at a time. In the middle of the game traversal (sessions 18 and 19) the player freely shuttles between the worlds, flattening them and treating them as resources, rather than as narrative spaces.
By animating this passage through spaces, we can see the experience of expanding mobility between them:
Related projects:
Graphing temporal patterns in gameplay
Ludological dynamics of Fatal Frame 2
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