Modeling the Video Game Environment: the VideOWL Ontology

The paper presents an ontology that models the constitutional elements of video games, including agents and artefacts. It also addresses the ever-changing works of game programmers, who strive to exceed the limits derived from the classification mechanisms based on labels and title genres. With respect to the state-of-the-art, the ontology additionally permits to infer the categories of a game through the features of its dynamics and mechanics, such as the point of view (POV) or game-play elements. Furthermore, it encompasses programmers, final users, software programs, and devices in its ontological model. The ontology aims at advancing the mechanisms for understanding and classify games based on their features, ultimately offering new insights and opportunities in the field of game development. In this context, the ontology can be leveraged to represent any agent in the video-game domain such as players, bots, related actions and game strategies.