| Description | Other players substantially influence gameplay experiences and outcomes, including game performance, learning and strategy acquisition, social-psychological experiences, and social relationships. Because opponent selection is an antecedent to the experience and consequents of gameplay, understanding this process is critical for understanding and predicting gaming effects--including learning and other meaningful outcomes. This study explored opponent selection dynamics among a group of recreational online boardgamers using gameplay logs of 3,741 individual players who collectively played a total of 18,983 games with each other over 11 years. Patterns of these player interactions were diverse, suggesting multiple opponent selection strategies. Future research directions, including developing a predictive model of opponent selection, will be discussed. |
