Through Space and Time: Spatio-Temporal Visualization of MOBA Matches

With data about in-game behavior becoming more easily accessible, data-driven tools and websites that allow players to review their performance have emerged. Among the many different visualizations used as part of these systems, spatio-temporal visualizations which do not rely on animations have received little attention. In this paper, we explore if the established space-time cube (STC) visualization is a suitable means for simultaneously conveying information about space and time to players. Towards this end, we have created a STC visualization for reviewing matches, focusing on Heroes of the Storm as a use case, and conducted a study among 30 Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) players to establish how successfully various tasks can be performed and how this kind of 3D representation is received. Our results indicate that such a visualization, despite its complexity, can be usefully applied for match analysis if the design and interaction possibilities are well chosen.