Ben Weber's Blog
Expert Blogs
Zynga's Python-focused analytics platform
How Zynga analytics is leveraging the Spark big data platform to support game studios and publishing operations.
Recommendations for building data products based on a decade of game analytics.
Posted by
Ben Weber
on Thu, 14 Nov 2019 10:17:00 EST
Machine learning enables personalized experiences in games, and Zynga is leveraging feature generation tools to streamline this development.
Automating predictive modeling across dozens of Zynga games with PySpark.
Posted by
Ben Weber
on Tue, 29 Jan 2019 10:23:00 EST
DeepMind continues making progress, but the path forward for AI researchers in academia is unclear.
Ben Weber's Comments
Comment In:
[Blog - 01/09/2015 - 01:32]
This is an interesting post ...
This is an interesting post Dmitri and I 'd like to hear how you distinguish predictive analytics from forecasting. In my experience, as soon as you start sharing predictive modeling with a game team they will start asking for forecasts. r n r nThe way I like to differentiate these ...
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[Blog - 09/24/2014 - 03:01]
Great article Dmitri, I m ...
Great article Dmitri, I m looking forward to this ongoing series r n r nDo you have any examples of vendors/APIs that allow clients to directly query the transactional data being collected This would be useful for pivoting metrics based on custom events, such as the half-pipe tricks example you ...
Comment In:
[Blog - 07/29/2014 - 12:54]
Nice post. I would say ...
Nice post. I would say the 90 rule is way off, especially if the analyst role is not embedded on the development team. r n r nAnother area sometimes overlooked when setting up telemetry is planned use of data . There s often a focus on collecting as much data ...
Comment In:
[Blog - 07/17/2014 - 09:35]
Once again, great article on ...
Once again, great article on getting into the details of BTs. Looking forward to part two with parallel nodes and mixed strategic/tactical decision making. Here 's a blog post I wrote on Gamasutra comparing BTs to reactive planning: r n r nhttp://gamasutra.com/blogs/BenWeber/20120308/165151/ABL versus Behavior Trees.php
Comment In:
[Blog - 07/07/2014 - 08:48]
How long after launch do ...
How long after launch do games start to fit the Weibull distribution It 'd be interesting to see how the fit changes over time for a particular title.
Comment In:
[Blog - 05/22/2014 - 12:34]
One of the biggest issues ...
One of the biggest issues in meeting the demand for data scientists in games is a lack of data sets that students can use for building the necessary expertise. Sure, you can write a script to pull data from a web site such as the Steam Gauge tool, and even ...