Efficient In-Game Communication in Collaborative Online Multiplayer Games

The ability to communicate during online gaming is one that has become fundamental. Players could use voice, textual chat, pre-determined commands or a combination of these methods in order to command a team, follow an appointed leader or simply to socialise with friends. There is an abundance of reasons why a person will choose to utilise the conversational frameworks available, however, when considering a game where players must work together in order to reach a common goal, it is up for interpretation to determine which method works most efficiently. The aim of this work is to address this need through a game that utilises these three methods of communication in order to determine their efficiency. A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods was employed to formulate a well-rounded conclusion. Results indicated that a combination of voice and predetermined commands is the most efficient method of in-game communication in online, task-oriented games.