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What is Data Mining in Gaming: Purpose, Process and Pitfalls

By Shannon Flynn

MEYRIN, SWITZERLAND - APRIL 19: A detailed view in the CERN Computer / Data Centre and server farm of the 1450 m2 main room during a behind the scenes tour at CERN, the World's Largest Particle Physics Laboratory on April 19, 2017 in Meyrin, Switzerland. Experiments at CERN generate colossal amounts of data (the LHC experiments produce over 30 petabytes of data per year). The Data Centre stores it, and sends it around the world for analysis. Archiving the vast quantities of data is an essential function at CERN. CERN has more than 130 Petabytes of stored data (the equivalent of 700 years of full HD-quality movies). CERN does not have the computing or financial resources to crunch all of the data on site, so in 2002 it turned to grid computing to share the burden with computer centres around the world. The centre maintains disk and tape servers, which need to be upgraded regularly. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)
MEYRIN, SWITZERLAND - APRIL 19: A detailed view in the CERN Computer / Data Centre and server farm of the 1450 m2 main room during a behind the scenes tour at CERN, the World's Largest Particle Physics Laboratory on April 19, 2017 in Meyrin, Switzerland. Experiments at CERN generate colossal amounts of data (the LHC experiments produce over 30 petabytes of data per year). The Data Centre stores it, and sends it around the world for analysis. Archiving the vast quantities of data is an essential function at CERN. CERN has more than 130 Petabytes of stored data (the equivalent of 700 years of full HD-quality movies). CERN does not have the computing or financial resources to crunch all of the data on site, so in 2002 it turned to grid computing to share the burden with computer centres around the world. The centre maintains disk and tape servers, which need to be upgraded regularly. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images) /
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As the world becomes increasingly data-driven, it’s no wonder gaming data is now a hot topic within the gaming community. Avid gamers and data professionals can use various mining tools and techniques to discover hidden or secret information about games. Gaming data online usage is steadily increasing, meaning that more data mining projects can take place.

What is data mining in gaming and why is it becoming so popular?

What Is Data Mining in Gaming?

Data mining involves sifting through vast amounts of data — often code — to find hidden patterns, separate out anomalies and gain insight.

The data mining process is applicable in gaming but is also becoming increasingly popular in other industries like retail, telecommunications and health care. Companies in these sectors benefit from data mining, as it allows them to build better customer relationships, save money and strengthen their operations.

Data mining is becoming more prevalent in gaming due to the rising amount of gaming data. Today’s video games generate massive amounts of data, including files containing valuable information.

How Does Data Mining Work?

Before developers update their games, they upload data files and use them to test updates, new versions and other gaming features. For example, data miners reviewed an Animal Crossing game and found a new character named Leif and a returning character — Crazy Redd — both of which would be coming in the next game update.

Data mining is more than a search through data. When people download game files from developers online, they can find a plethora of information about the games they love.

The Data Mining Process

So, how does a gamer or data professional data mine a game? In the data mining process, people can read code within game files to reveal short keywords. Take the Animal Crossing case, for instance. A Twitter user who goes by Ninji data mined Animal Crossing: New Horizons and found keywords like:

  • Museum
  • Fauna
  • Seafood
  • TShop 
  • WOffice

Ninji created a detailed Twitter thread to include his data mining findings. Certain versions of the game contain different files with various keywords, which provide insight into what’s to come in the next software update.

4 Best Data Mining Tools

Many data mining tools exist, but some are better than others. Here are some examples of the best data mining tools people can use to mine their favorite video games.

MonkeyLearn
MonkeyLearn is a simple, user-friendly tool people can use for data mining purposes. The AI-powered, cutting-edge software provides data visualization for its users and gives detailed insights. There are also plenty of app integrations with MonkeyLearn, so experienced data miners can incorporate their existing tools as well.

RapidMiner
RapidMiner is a free, open-source platform for data miners. It features hundreds of algorithms for machine learning, data preparation, text mining and, of course, data mining. The platform has a drag-and-drop interface, making it easy to use for beginners. Non-programmers can fine-tune RapidMiner to work for their needs.

Oracle Data Miner
Oracle — a leader in big data — offers its Data Miner tool. The primary purpose of the Oracle Data Miner software is to help data scientists build predictive models. It has features to support regression, anomaly detection, classification, prediction and more.

Knime
Lastly is Knime. Knime is another free, open-source platform with various pre-built components to make the data mining process more efficient. As gaming big data grows, it’s critical for miners to use fast solutions.

Data Mining — Controversial in Gaming

Data mining includes various types of actions. For example, it can range from memory editing to finding values or unused content, using data mining tools to understand how a game functions or extracting, unpacking and reviewing game files to gather data about a game. It’s also possible for gamers to extract game patch files and online streams games connect to for even more data.

While data mining is legal, some people advise against it. Gaming companies typically get frustrated with gamers who tap into their development files, as it spoils potential features for other users. Although some developers use secret codes or code names for some gaming aspects, the most avid gamers in the community can typically crack these codes to understand what to expect in future updates.

The Future of Data Mining in Gaming

Because gaming big data is growing, data mining in gaming will likely continue into the coming years. While some players avoid finding out about new updates for their games, others enjoy the process of sifting through game files to be in the know. Expect data mining in gaming to become more popular as the video game industry takes off in the next few years.

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