The last decade has witnessed the rise of big data in game development as the increasing proliferation of Internet-enabled gaming devices has made it easier than ever before to collect large amounts of player-related data. At the same time, the emergence of new business models and the diversification of the player base have exposed a broader potential audience, which attaches great importance to being able to tailor game experiences to a wide range of preferences and skill levels. This, in turn, has led to a growing interest in data mining techniques, as they offer new opportunities for deriving actionable insights to inform game design, to ensure customer satisfaction, to maximize revenues, and to drive technical innovation. By now, data mining and analytics have become vital components of game development. The amount of work being done in this area nowadays makes this an ideal time to put together a book on this subject. Data Analytics Applications in Gaming and Entertainment seeks to provide a cross section of current data analytics applications in game production. It is intended as a companion for practitioners, academic researchers, and students seeking knowledge on the latest practices in game data mining. The chapters have been chosen in such a way as to cover a wide range of topics and to provide readers with a glimpse at the variety of applications of data mining in gaming. A total of 25 authors from industry and academia have contributed 12 chapters covering topics such as player profiling, approaches for analyzing player communities and their social structures, matchmaking, churn prediction and customer lifetime value estimation, communication of analytical results, and visual approaches to game analytics. This book’s perspectives and concepts will spark heightened interest in game analytics and foment innovative ideas that will advance the exciting field of online gaming and entertainment.

Developing a successful game in today’s market is a challenging endeavor. Thousands of titles are published yearly, all competing for players’ time and attention. Game analytics has emerged in the past few years as one of the main resources for ensuring game quality, maximizing success, understanding player behavior and enhancing the quality of the player experience. It has led to a paradigm shift in the development and design strategies of digital games, bringing data-driven intelligence practices into the fray for informing decision making at operational, tactical and strategic levels. Game Analytics - Maximizing the Value of Player Data is the first book on the topic of game analytics; the process of discovering and communicating patterns in data towards evaluating and driving action, improving performance and solving problems in game development and game research. Written by over 50 international experts from industry and research, it covers a comprehensive range of topics across more than 30 chapters, providing an in-depth discussion of game analytics and its practical applications. Topics covered include monetization strategies, design of telemetry systems, analytics for iterative production, game data mining and big data in game development, spatial analytics, visualization and reporting of analysis, player behavior analysis, quantitative user testing and game user research. This state-of-the-art volume is an essential source of reference for game developers and researchers. Key takeaways include: Thorough introduction to game analytics; covering analytics applied to data on players, processes and performance throughout the game lifecycle. In-depth coverage and advice on setting up analytics systems and developing good practices for integrating analytics in game-development and -management. Contributions by leading researchers and experienced professionals from the industry, including Ubisoft, Sony, EA, Bioware, Square Enix, THQ, Volition, and PlayableGames. Interviews with experienced industry professionals on how they use analytics to create hit games.

Affecting every sector and country in the world, digital technology is changing the way citizens engage in society, companies conduct business, and governments deliver public services. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the pace of digitalization and exposed such vulnerabilities as inadequate infrastructure, weak regulations, and a scarcity of skilled professionals capable of digitally transforming government. Not immune to the digital revolution, governments are slowly adapting to a digital world. Governments are implementing digital solutions to deliver services to their citizens, make payments, and engage the public. Focusing on how government can transition more effectively through digital transformation, Pivoting Government Through Digital Transformation covers the following key components: Setting the stage during the Great Resignation period Filling the digital talent pipeline Best practices and vignettes for applying digital transformation in government Looking ahead towards the future Key chapter contributors from U.S. and foreign governments, as well as state and local governments, discuss how they are coping with today’s environment and how they are using digital transformation efforts to enhance their organization’s effectiveness and digital talent pipeline. With chapters on theory and practice, this groundbreaking book offers an in-depth analysis of the most innovative approaches to e-government and discusses case studies from local, state, and federal government perspectives. This is an essential guide for government employees, scholars, and regular citizens who want to make government work more effectively and democratically in the digital age.

A Complete Data Analytics Guide for Learners and Professionals. KEY FEATURES ● Learn Big Data, Hadoop Architecture, HBase, Hive and NoSQL Database. ● Dive into Machine Learning, its tools, and applications. ● Coverage of applications of Big Data, Data Analysis, and Business Intelligence. DESCRIPTION These days critical problem solving related to data and data sciences is in demand. Professionals who can solve real data science problems using data science tools are in demand. The book “Data Analytics: Principles, Tools, and Practices” can be considered a handbook or a guide for professionals who want to start their journey in the field of data science. The journey starts with the introduction of DBMS, RDBMS, NoSQL, and DocumentDB. The book introduces the essentials of data science and the modern ecosystem, including the important steps such as data ingestion, data munging, and visualization. The book covers the different types of analysis, different Hadoop ecosystem tools like Apache Spark, Apache Hive, R, MapReduce, and NoSQL Database. It also includes the different machine learning techniques that are useful for data analytics and how to visualize data with different graphs and charts. The book discusses useful tools and approaches for data analytics, supported by concrete code examples. After reading this book, you will be motivated to explore real data analytics and make use of the acquired knowledge on databases, BI/DW, data visualization, Big Data tools, and statistical science. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN ● Familiarize yourself with Apache Spark, Apache Hive, R, MapReduce, and NoSQL Database. ● Learn to manage data warehousing with real time transaction processing. ● Explore various machine learning techniques that apply to data analytics. ● Learn how to visualize data using a variety of graphs and charts using real-world examples from the industry. ● Acquaint yourself with Big Data tools and statistical techniques for machine learning. WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR IT graduates, data engineers and entry-level professionals who have a basic understanding of the tools and techniques but want to learn more about how they fit into a broader context are encouraged to read this book. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Database Management System 2. Online Transaction Processing and Data Warehouse 3. Business Intelligence and its deeper dynamics 4. Introduction to Data Visualization 5. Advanced Data Visualization 6. Introduction to Big Data and Hadoop 7. Application of Big Data Real Use Cases 8. Application of Big Data 9. Introduction to Machine Learning 10. Advanced Concepts to Machine Learning 11. Application of Machine Learning

The definitive guide to successfully integrating social, mobile, Big-Data analytics, cloud and IoT principles and technologies The main goal of this book is to spur the development of effective big-data computing operations on smart clouds that are fully supported by IoT sensing, machine learning and analytics systems. To that end, the authors draw upon their original research and proven track record in the field to describe a practical approach integrating big-data theories, cloud design principles, Internet of Things (IoT) sensing, machine learning, data analytics and Hadoop and Spark programming. Part 1 focuses on data science, the roles of clouds and IoT devices and frameworks for big-data computing. Big data analytics and cognitive machine learning, as well as cloud architecture, IoT and cognitive systems are explored, and mobile cloud-IoT-interaction frameworks are illustrated with concrete system design examples. Part 2 is devoted to the principles of and algorithms for machine learning, data analytics and deep learning in big data applications. Part 3 concentrates on cloud programming software libraries from MapReduce to Hadoop, Spark and TensorFlow and describes business, educational, healthcare and social media applications for those tools. The first book describing a practical approach to integrating social, mobile, analytics, cloud and IoT (SMACT) principles and technologies Covers theory and computing techniques and technologies, making it suitable for use in both computer science and electrical engineering programs Offers an extremely well-informed vision of future intelligent and cognitive computing environments integrating SMACT technologies Fully illustrated throughout with examples, figures and approximately 150 problems to support and reinforce learning Features a companion website with an instructor manual and PowerPoint slides www.wiley.com/go/hwangIOT Big-Data Analytics for Cloud, IoT and Cognitive Computing satisfies the demand among university faculty and students for cutting-edge information on emerging intelligent and cognitive computing systems and technologies. Professionals working in data science, cloud computing and IoT applications will also find this book to be an extremely useful working resource.

Mining big data requires a deep investment in people and time. How can you be sure you’re building the right models? With this hands-on book, you’ll learn a flexible toolset and methodology for building effective analytics applications with Hadoop. Using lightweight tools such as Python, Apache Pig, and the D3.js library, your team will create an agile environment for exploring data, starting with an example application to mine your own email inboxes. You’ll learn an iterative approach that enables you to quickly change the kind of analysis you’re doing, depending on what the data is telling you. All example code in this book is available as working Heroku apps. Create analytics applications by using the agile big data development methodology Build value from your data in a series of agile sprints, using the data-value stack Gain insight by using several data structures to extract multiple features from a single dataset Visualize data with charts, and expose different aspects through interactive reports Use historical data to predict the future, and translate predictions into action Get feedback from users after each sprint to keep your project on track

Fully updated, this ninth edition remains the definitive source on the economics of entertainment in the United States and overseas.

Data science teams looking to turn research into useful analytics applications require not only the right tools, but also the right approach if they’re to succeed. With the revised second edition of this hands-on guide, up-and-coming data scientists will learn how to use the Agile Data Science development methodology to build data applications with Python, Apache Spark, Kafka, and other tools. Author Russell Jurney demonstrates how to compose a data platform for building, deploying, and refining analytics applications with Apache Kafka, MongoDB, ElasticSearch, d3.js, scikit-learn, and Apache Airflow. You’ll learn an iterative approach that lets you quickly change the kind of analysis you’re doing, depending on what the data is telling you. Publish data science work as a web application, and affect meaningful change in your organization. Build value from your data in a series of agile sprints, using the data-value pyramid Extract features for statistical models from a single dataset Visualize data with charts, and expose different aspects through interactive reports Use historical data to predict the future via classification and regression Translate predictions into actions Get feedback from users after each sprint to keep your project on track

This book highlights the challenges and potential of educational learning or industry-based training using serious games and social media platforms. In particular, the book addresses applications used in businesses and education-related organizations in Asia, where the framework and experience of serious games have been used to address specific problems in the real world. The topics that will be present in this book includes future of serious games and immersive technologies and their impact on society; online and mobile games; achievement systems in serious games; persuasive technology and games for saving and money management; malware analytics for social networking; serious games for mental health interventions; educational implications of social network games; learning and acquiring subject knowledge using serious games in classrooms. The target audience for this book includes scientists, engineers and practitioners involved in the field of Serious Games. The major part of this book comprises of papers that have been presented at the Serious Games and Social Connect 2012 conference held in Singapore (October 4, 2012). All the contributions have been peer reviewed and by scientific committee members with report about quality, content and originality.