15.1 THE GENESIS do, and how they feel about their experience of the game. In many cases, under- standing behavior, its causes, and user evaluation is precisely the information you need in order to improve your game. Automated capture of user data is not new. In games, post-match stats and lea- derboards have been around as long as videogames have. Although relatively rare, using these data to improve a game is not unique: Valve has used automated data capture and Steam to tweak the difficulty of Half Life 2: Episode 2 after it was released. This chapter will provide details on how to use automated data collection to improve a game before it is released, improving the quality without negatively impacting the schedule. We will illustrate how Microsoft Game Studios has used automated data collection to improve games at various stages of development. In addition, we will share best practices we developed in the course of using this form of data collection for the past five years on over thirty games. 15.1 The Genesis 15.1.1 Voodoo Vince In September 2003, Microsoft Game Studios (MGS) released a little platformer devel-