Project Title: Stats and Skill
Essential Question(s):
Will someone with a better performance in certain tests perform better in fast-paced environments, specifically video games?
What other tests can be used to predict someone’s skill level in a video game?
Can someone improve at specific video games by training certain skills?
Can tests determine what genre of video games someone will be best at?
Statement of Purpose
This 1-2 sentence description is your elevator pitch; it’s the short, easy to explain description of what you will do for your project.
For my Senior Project, I will have participants play video games and run tests on their reaction time, memory, aim, and more. Then I will analyze the results to see if there is any correlation between these stats and skill in different types of video games.
Overview: Describe your topic and project to the committee.
Describe your project in detail, with attention to the reason why this project appeals to you and how you believe it will allow you to answer your essential question. What is the academic or intellectual scope of this project? How will this project challenge you? How does this project build on your prior learning or knowledge? How will you incorporate any or all of the 4Cs of the LREI education (courage, citizenship, critical thinking, creativity) or connect to the LREI mission statement (LINK)?
I will run tests on reaction time, memory, aim, typing speed, and auditory reaction time on a variety of people (10-15) with a variety of video game knowledge. Then have them play some games to see if the tests line up with how well they perform. These games will be from a variety of genres including fps, racing, strategy, and rhythm. Initially, I will send the person links to some tests that they can complete on their own and send me results. Next, I would play multiple video games with them from different genres. Then I would see if there is any correlation between the tests and the person’s actual performance. If there is a correlation between a skill that I tested and performance level I will develop a routine for a smaller number of participants to follow to see if it improves their performance. This routine will consist of practicing and improving said skill. The participants will spend 5-10 minutes each day practicing it for a week or two depending on the time I have left. I have assumptions on the results so I would like to see if the actual results line up with them. I think this project involves a lot of critical thinking as I will be comparing the results of the tests to the performance in video games.
How will you measure your success?
Success should not be measured by product but by process and learning. What outcome from your project will indicate to you that your experience has been a success? What personal goals or achievements will indicate success? If you have a product-based project, what is that product, and how will you measure the success of that product?
My goals for this project are as follows:
- Gain a better understanding as to how someone’s performance in the variety of skills measured in the tests affects their performance in different types of video games.
- Develop a routine to improve one’s performance in video games using the knowledge gained from the tests.
- Gain a better understanding of what genres of games rely more heavily on specific skills.
Resource List
Consider this the bibliography of the Senior Project. What resources have you identified to push your understanding? List publications, institutions, media, books, websites, people with whom you have connected, etc that relate to your project. Include the book you will be reading.
I will be using a few websites and applications to collect tests and play games with the participants. I plan on using the game Counter-Strike : Global Offensive for the fps test on individuals with computers that can run it. For those who can’t, I will use Roblox’s Phantom Forces. For a racing game, I will use Asphalt 8 on the App Store and Play Store. For strategy, I will use online chess from chess.com against increasing difficulty computers. Finally, for a rhythm game, I will use bemuse.ninja. For the testing aspect, I will use humanbenchmark.com as it provides simple online tests on the statistics I need.
Daily Plan & Schedule
Describe, in as much detail as possible, what you will be doing day to day or through the course of a week. This schedule needs to make it clear how you will spend your 30 hours each week. LREI classes, clubs, and ensembles should be noted; cohort groups will likely meet first and second periods on Mondays and Thursdays. (You will also complete a log of hours worked and tasks accomplished for each week of the project).
My plan is split into two sections, Testing and Results, and Analysis and Improvement
Step one would be to assemble a 10-15 person group of test subjects. I plan on getting a few different age groups but the majority will probably be high school students. I’ll make sure I get students who have both a lot and a little experience with video games.
Step two is to have the people take tests on their reaction time, short-term memory, typing speed, audio reaction time, and cursor aim. If I can think of more tests that could be easily performed online then I may add those. I’ll record the data from this as well as other information such as age, video game experience, and time of day the test was taken at
In step three I’ll have each person play five rounds of five different games to get a sense of how good they are at different genres of games. I’m going to find free online games that can be run on any computer so everyone can participate
In step four I will look at the data for links between performance in the tests and performance in the game.
For this first part of the plan, my days will consist of playing the necessary games with the participants and running tests on them.
Part two of my plan is Analysis and Improvement, in which I will focus on breaking down the results and seeing if people can improve their performance in video games by training their reaction time, memory etc. For step one I’ll come up with a final answer on whether the tests can help determine how a person will perform in specific games.
In step two I will develop a routine to improve the skills analyzed in the tests. This routine will likely span about a week, maybe more, depending on the willingness of my test subjects. The routine would take at most 5 minutes every day.
For step three I would check in on participants by having them play the same games as they did previously and record their results again.
Step four is the final test to see whether my routine actually helped improve performance.
For the second part of the plan, I will spend most of the day working on developing a routine as well as keeping up to date with the participant’s progress.
Documentation Plan
Explain why this is the appropriate documentation for you and your project and how this plan fits your project. If you plan to use platforms other than the Senior Project blog, please make sure to include them here (e.g., another blog, journal, Google Doc, Instagram, etc.), intended frequency of updates, general description of the content (reflective writing, photos, essays, etc), the URL for digital documentation or the sharing plan for analog documentation. (Documentation must be updated at least twice per week and be accessible to the committee.)
I will document my project through both a good doc for general information and google sheets for statistics and scores. This allows me to have the information from both the tests and the games organized and easily interpretable. I will update both documents whenever I get test results from participants as well as every time they play a game.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RJhja4NTGJof52Uz5deQqLuhbRuyuz9lf6Psc6bivGY/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bxdTpcAzmhB0YgQz5HKg3brPv52qbEr7VDjdyS4wDE0/edit?usp=sharing
Material Needs
Note the material needs you are requesting from school (including work space & monetary needs) and the needs you are filling outside of school, including materials you already own. These needs should be items that you have already discussed and have been approved.
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Backup Plan
If something goes wrong – an internship falls through, an outside circumstance makes your project no longer feasible, you find that your project is not answering your essential question – what will you do? Ideal backup plans rely on known resources and only a single essential question.
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