Content
Introduction
In this article you’ll learn how to set up an experiment in the Game Server and add game settings to it.
Table of Contents
What are A/B Experiments?
A/B Experiments are a research method that allows you to compare the performance of different variants by sending it to different audience groups to see which of them is more effective.
Game Server allows you to randomly allocate different sets of users using Variants. Each variant determines the percentage of the audience assigned to the experiment.
Setting up your Experiment
You can also create your experiment directly from the entity you’d like to test by using the [New Experiment] button.
You can set up A/B Experiments from Game Server by following the steps listed below:
- Set up your A/B Experiment navigating to the A/B Experiments section of your game. Click the green [+New] button to set up a new experiment.
What does _ Usage _ mean?
Usage is a counter displays the number of times data from an experiment has been sent to a user within a 24-hour period, resetting at midnight UTC for accurate tracking every day.
- Fill in the required fields. Below you’ll find a table with all fields and their descriptions.
| #### Field | #### Options | #### Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| #### Name * | | The name of your experiment. |
| #### Status * | - Active - Inactive - Allocation Paused - Archived | Active A/B experiment is live and affects users. Inactive A/B experiment is inactive and doesn’t affect users. Participations of the experiment are counted in “Experiment variant” rule. Allocation Paused A/B experiment is live for users who joined experiment before status changed to “Allocation paused”. New participations are not added. Existing participations are counted in “Experiment variant” rule. This process is automatically done by Game Server, that checks the Allocation End time every 5 minutes. Archived When the experiment is no longer needed and won’t be used as a reference for other experiments in “Experiment variant” rule, the PM should change its status to “Archived”. Archived experiments are not editable. Status can be changed back within grace period (7 days), otherwise it becomes irreversible. You can archive your experiments using the yellow [archive button]
Permanently Archived After grace period (7 days) status becomes irreversible, participations are cleared from game server DB and available only in RedShift for analytics. |
| Audience Type * | - All - New - Old | New Only users who install app experiment start_date will participate in it. Old Only users who install app experiment start_date will participate in it. All All user with any install_date will participate in experiment. |
| Priority * | | Priority is the way used by Game Server to determine which configuration must be sent to the user in the first place. Configurations are prioritised from highest to lowest. This means that a configuration with priority 100 is higher than one with priority 1. Game Server allows for a user to belong to different overrides, and the way they receive the settings depends on the rules established. When a user matches the rules for several configurations, the game server will send the one with higher priority. However, if the 2 overrides apply to different settings, the user can receive both overrides depending on the rules defined in each of them. |
| Use Local Time * | | Check this box to use the local time of the player device for A/B experiments instead of UTC. Enabling this checkbox will affect all dates in the experiment (start at, allocation start, end at, allocation end). |
| Start At * | | Experiment start date & time. By default, the system will start the experiment at the time assigned in UTC. You can use the checkbox “Use Local Time” to change this. |
| Allocation start * | | Date to determine when the experiment should start allocating users. You can use the same date used in start date, or select any date after the experiment start date. |
| End At | | Experiment end date & time By default, the system will end the experiment at the time assigned in UTC. You can use the checkbox “Use Local Time” to change this. |
| Allocation end | | Date to determine when the experiment should stop allocating users. You can use the same date for the experiment ending, or you can set up another date before the end date. Game Server checks the allocation end time every 5 minutes, and when the time is reached, the experiments marked as Active are automatically changed to “Allocation Paused” |
| Maximum Audience Size | | Fill this field if you need to set up a limit for the number of allocated users. The numbers are approximate. If there is no limit, leave the field empty. If a number of allocated users is set, the system will stop allocating users when the required number is reached. At the same time, if “Allocation End” is reached or if status is changed to “Allocation Paused”, Game Server will also stop allocation, which means that the system use the first event which stops allocation. - If the status is changed to “Allocation Paused” and back to Active, Game Server will continue allocating users until “Maximum audience size”OR “Allocation End” - To understand when the allocation limit is reached, Game Server compares number of “Total Participants” with the number in field “Maximum audience size”. - If the limit is reached, system changes status to “Allocation Paused” and creates a record in activity log for this change. - If user tries to switch status back to “Active” when the limit is reached without increasing it, Game Server will let you know that the limit is reached. |
| Availability * | - Test - Live | - Test: the experiment will only affect devices registered as “test” - Live: the experiment will affect live players. |
| Labels | | To help you categorise your experiments, you can select a label from the dropdown. Read this section to know more about Labels. |
| Include in Lab Calculations | Checked by default | This checkbox determines if the experiment needs to be included in Lab Calculations. By default, this checkbox is enabled, but you can uncheck it if you’re creating A/B Experiments for any other purpose other than actual experimentation, and you don’t need any calculations for it. When this checkbox is unchecked, there is a grace period of 5 calendar days (including the day that the experiment was created) to check the box and include the experiment in Lab Calculations. Keep in mind that the data for the experiment will be included from the moment you check the box. |
| Notes | | You can write any notes related to the experiment in this field. You can add comments, links, or any relevant information. |
*compulsory field
- Add the experiment variants. Variants are the percentage of the audience assigned to your experiment, and you can add new variants to add more segments to your experiment population. Click the green [Add New Variant] button to add a new variant.
Variants have a series of attributes that are required. See the table below to know more:
| Attribute | Description |
| --- | --- |
| Name | Name of the variant. The first variant will always be named “Control” and that cannot be changed. The name of the rest of variants can be edited. |
| Id | Read-only, set by Game Server Used in analytics to find participations of specific variant |
| Weight | Defines the user division between variants. Example: - Variant #1 has weight = 1 - Variant #2 has weight = 3 Thus user proportions will be: - Variant #1 → 25% - Variant #2 → 75% |
| Skip Experiment for this variant | When using this checkbox, users assigned to the variant will not receive the A/B experiment. |
| Entities list * | List of tested entities with values for specific variant. * Entities can be added to an experiment only after the experiment is created, so they won’t be available during the creation the experiment. |
- Add rules to your experiment. Once you’re done, click [Save] on the upper right corner.
Remember that users are assigned to variants in a random way inside the weights specified in the variants.
How is priority established in A/B Experiments?
A/B Experiments and overrides are not exclusive , and it is possible for a user to receive a setting from an A/B Experiments, and another setting from an override depending on the rules established.
In terms of priority, A/B Experiments are assigned first, followed by overrides. After that, Game Server applies the settings configured in Game Settings.
A/B Experiments
Overrides
Base Config
Rules follow the same logic used in Overrides. In A/B Experiments, they’ll help segment the user groups that will receive the experiments, and remember that one user can match multiple experiments depending on the rules you set up!
Which values will a player get if you set up A/B Experiments and Overrides?
In many cases, you’ll set up both A/B Experiments and Overrides in your game. **** , but as they are not the same type of entity, their priorities are different.
In the table below, you’ll see an example of a configuration with 2 A/B Experiments and 1 Override. The user will receive:
Attribute #1 = 50 (from A/B experiment #2) as it has the highest priority
Attribute #2 = “world” (from A/B experiment #1)
Attribute #3 = 6.5 (from Override #1) as it has more priority compared to Base Config
| | Base Config | Override #1 | A/B experiment #1 | A/B experiment #2 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Priority | 0 | 1 | 1* | 2* |
| Attribute #1 | 10 | 20 | 40 | 50 |
| Attribute #2 | “test” | “hello” | “world” | not added |
| Attribute #3 | 5.5 | 6.5 | not added | not added |
Adding Game Settings to your A/B Experiment
Once you have created your A/B Experiment, it’s time to add the entities that will be tested. To do so, follow these steps:
Navigate to Game Settings, and click [Base Config].
Search for the fields you’d like to test and click [Add to Experiment]. On the dropdown, select your experiment.
- Navigate to your experiment and open it. You’ll be now able to see your added experiment entities.
- Under Variants , edit the values of the entities in each variant according to your experiment settings.
- When you’re done, click the blue [Save] button. When users start joining your experiment, a participation will be created.
Duplicating Variants
Once your experiment has been created, you can duplicate their variants by using the [duplicate button] available in any variant. When you click it, a new pop-up will appear with the name of the variant you’re duplicating appended with _copy, which you can edit. The weight of the variant will be automatically set to zero, but you can also edit this according to the data required in your experiment.
.gif?version=1&modificationDate=1708523343712&cacheVersion=1&api=v2&width=694&height=536)
Deleting Variants
Variants can also be removed if required. To do so, use the [red trash can button] available in all variants.
However, keep in mind that variants can be deleted only if:
There are no participants in it
The status of the experiment is inactive
If your variant does not comply with these 2 conditions, you will not be able to remove any variant, and the delete button will be inactive.
Variant Rules
Inside Variants, you can add rules for specific variant, which will help you creating flows for each variant and test how the same users behave depending on different rules settings inside the variant.
Creating a new Variant Rule
Inside your A/B Experiment, navigate to Variants. Click on the dropdown to select your rule and then, click [Change Rule]. You can add multiple values in your rules.
Under your variants, the entities being tested will appear with the rules you’ve applied. You can edit the values for each variant individually.
Variants Notes
- If an experiment is no longer needed, you can archive experiments even if they are used in Experiment Variant Rules. To do so, change the status to the experiment to “Archived”. If the experiment is being used as an Experiment Variant Rule anywhere, Game Server will notify you of which experiment uses it as a Variant Rule and which variant uses it. Click [Confirm] to proceed with experiment archival.
- A detailed explanation of the rules available can be found here.
All variant rules are duplicated when A/B experiments are duplicated.
Variant rules can be added to old experiments.
Variant rules are calculated using all experiments (active/inactive/allocation paused)
To check if your experiment is being used as a Variant, use the
button. A new pop-up will appear where you’ll be able to visualise the usage. You can also archive your experiment using the [Archive button] .
Experiments Participation
An experiment participation i s created when a player sends an /init call and Game Server defines some A/B experiment that user match.
After the /init call, Game Server decides which value to set for some entity/property by:
Finding the entity that matches the rules with highest priority (relevant for whole entities, ex. Progression events)
Checking if the entities are included into an A/B experiment
Determining and setting the values from the A/B experiment with highest priority
What else do you need to know about participations?
A participation is created when user send
/initcall and joins the experimentParticipations are not deleted when user stop matching the experiment rules
Participations are deleted only when the experiment is moved to “Permanently Archived” status
Analysing your A/B Experiments
There are 3 options to analyse your experiments available in Game Server. 2 buttons are available with different functionalities:
Analyse LAB
: This button redirects you Looker AB Test Analysis Tool , where you can analyse the results of the experiment. For further info, find the user guide here.Analyse Cohort
: This button will create a new dashboard in Looker Lab Cohort and redirect you to it. For further info, find the user guide here.Analyse LAB Lite
: This button will create a new dashboard in Looker Lab Lite , and redirect you to it.
Buttons are available in the A/B Experiments Dashboard by clicking the 3 vertical dots , and in every experiment.
Labels in A/B Experiments
You can use labels to organise and manage A/B Experiments in Game Server easily.
Labels will help you categorise your experiments and you can use the search and filter functions to find them by group.
Labels Overview
On the left side panel of Game Server, you’ll find a section called Labels. Under this page, you can visualise the existing labels, edit them, search by label, or create new ones.
Creating a new Label
To create a new label, click the [+New] button on the upper right side of the screen. Type in the name of your label and select its color. You can use either RGB or HEX for the color selection.
Under type, there are 2 options available:
Admin: Admin labels are used to organise and categorise entities internally in Game Server.
Analytics Filter: Analytics Labels are synchronised with Snowflake and Looker , and can be used to filter dashboards with results for all of the experiments that have that label.
Once you’re done, click [Confirm]. Your new label will appear on the Labels Page. You can edit it by using the blue edit button under Actions. You can also delete it using the red delete button.
Using your label in a Experiment
To use your label in your experiments, navigate to A/B Experiments. When you’re creating a new experiment or editing an existing one, you’ll be able to select one or multiple labels from the existing labels. Select your label and click [Save].
In the main A/B Experiments screen, you can now visualise your labeled experiments:
Filtering by Label
You can use labels to filter your experiments. To do so:
Click [Filter] on the upper right side of the screen.
Under Labels, type in the name of your label.
In the table below, you’ll see the results of your search:
Searching by Label
You can use labels to search your experiments by directly clicking the label on the tables:
A new screen will open where you’ll be able to visualise where your label is being used and the status of the entity:
🔍 Frequently Asked Questions
If I change the rules of an active A/B experiment, does it deallocate/reallocate users that are in the experiment?
When using the experiment variant NOT IN rule - does it include users who are not allocated to that test at all? Or only users allocated to that test, but not in the selected variant(s)?
Does the experiment variant rule still work if the selected experiment is inactive or archived?
If the player does not qualify for the rules on the experiment start date, but qualifies later when the experiment is still active, does the user get allocated to the experiment?
If an experiment starts for all users (old and new) on a set date, and the allocation is later changed to old users only, what would happen to players that install the game between these 2 dates and got included in the experiment?
If there is A/B experiment running which has been set to “inactive” and then it’s activated again, would Game Server redistribute the Variant ID, or the players that already got a specific variant ID, will stay? e.g. player A got variant ID 10, test gone inactive, then activate again, player A would still be in variant ID 10 or randomized again?
\uD83D\uDCCB Related articles
- Page:
Configuring Game-Specific 3rd Party Machine Learning Models in Game Server
Page:
Configuring Embedded Machine Learning Models in Game Server
Page:
File Configuration in Game Server
Page:
Managing Localisations in Harmony
Page:
Generic Daily Challenges
Page:
Configuring Ads in Game Server
Page:
Rules in Game Server
Page:
Setting up A/B Experiments
Page:
Chunks 6
### Introduction
In this article you’ll learn how to set up an experiment in the Game Server and add game settings to it.
### Table of Contents
* * *
## What are A/B Experiments?
A/B Experiments are a research method that allows you to compare the performance of different variants by sending it to different audience groups to see which of them is more effective.
Game Server allows you to randomly allocate different sets of users using **Variants.** Each variant determines the **percentage of the audience assigned to the experiment**.
Setting up your Experiment
You can also create your experiment directly from the entity you’d like to test by using the **[New Experiment]** button.
You can set up A/B Experiments from Game Server by following the steps listed below:
1. Set up your A/B Experiment navigating to the A/B Experiments section of your game. Click the **green [+New] button** to set up a new experiment.
**What does** _ **Usage** _ **mean?**
_Usage_ is a counter displays the number of times data from an experiment has been sent to a user within a 24-hour period, resetting at midnight UTC for accurate tracking every day.
2. Fill in the required fields. Below you’ll find a table with all fields and their descriptions.
| #### **Field** | #### **Options** | #### **Description** |
| --- | --- | --- |
| #### **Name \*** | | The name of your experiment. |
| #### **Status \*** | - Active - Inactive - Allocation Paused - Archived | **Active** A/B experiment is live and affects users. **Inactive** A/B experiment is inactive and doesn’t affect users. Participations of the experiment are counted in “[Experiment variant](https://tripledotstudios.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/GS/pages/1352106030/Guide+A+B+experiments#Experiment-variant-rule)” rule. **Allocation Paused** A/B experiment is live for users who joined experiment before status changed to “Allocation paused”. New participations are not added. Existing participations are counted in “[Experiment variant](https://tripledotstudios.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/GS/pages/1352106030/Guide+A+B+experiments#Experiment-variant-rule)” rule. This process is automatically done by Game Server, that checks the Allocation End time every 5 minutes. **Archived** When the experiment is no longer needed and won’t be used as a reference for other experiments in “[Experiment variant](https://tripledotstudios.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/GS/pages/1352106030/Guide+A+B+experiments#Experiment-variant-rule)” rule, the PM should change its status to “Archived”. Archived experiments are not editable. Status can be changed back within grace period (7 days), otherwise it becomes irreversible. You can archive your experiments using the yellow **[archive button]** **Permanently Archived** After grace period (7 days) status becomes irreversible, participations are cleared from game server DB and available only in RedShift for analytics. |
| **Audience Type \*** | - All - New - Old | **New** Only users who install app experiment `start_date` will participate in it. **Old** Only users who install app experiment `start_date` will participate in it. **All** All user with any `install_date` will participate in experiment. |
| **Priority \*** | | Priority is the way used by Game Server to determine which configuration must be sent to the user in the first place. Configurations are prioritised from **highest to lowest**. This means that a configuration with priority 100 is **higher** than one with priority 1. Game Server allows for a user to belong to different overrides, and the way they receive the settings depends on the rules established. When a user matches the rules for several configurations, the game server will send the one with higher priority. However, if the 2 overrides apply to different settings, the user can receive both overrides depending on the rules defined in each of them. |
| **Use Local Time \*** | | Check this box to use the **local time of the player device** for A/B experiments instead of UTC. Enabling this checkbox will affect all dates in the experiment (start at, allocation start, end at, allocation end). |
| **Start At \*** | | Experiment start date & time. By default, the system will start the experiment at the time assigned in UTC. You can use the checkbox “Use Local Time” to change this. |
| **Allocation start \*** | | Date to determine when the experiment should start allocating users. You can use the same date used in start date, or select any date after the experiment start date. |
| **End At** | | Experiment end date & time By default, the system will end the experiment at the time assigned in UTC. You can use the checkbox “Use Local Time” to change this. |
| **Allocation end** | | Date to determine when the experiment should stop allocating users. You can use the same date for the experiment ending, or you can set up another date before the end date. Game Server checks the allocation end time every 5 minutes, and when the time is reached, the **experiments marked as Active are automatically changed to “Allocation Paused”** |
| **Maximum Audience Size** | | Fill this field if you need to set up a limit for the number of allocated users. The numbers are approximate. If there is no limit, leave the field empty. If a number of allocated users is set, the system will stop allocating users when the required number is reached. At the same time, if “_Allocation End_” is reached or if status is changed to “_Allocation Paused_”, Game Server will also stop allocation, which means that the system use the first event which stops allocation. - If the status is changed to “Allocation Paused” and back to Active, Game Server will continue allocating users until “Maximum audience size”OR “Allocation End” - To understand when the allocation limit is reached, Game Server compares number of “Total Participants” with the number in field “Maximum audience size”. - If the limit is reached, system changes status to “Allocation Paused” and creates a record in activity log for this change. - If user tries to switch status back to “Active” when the limit is reached without increasing it, Game Server will let you know that the limit is reached. |
| **Availability \*** | - Test - Live | - Test: the experiment will only affect devices registered as “test” - Live: the experiment will affect live players. |
| **Labels** | | To help you categorise your experiments, you can select a label from the dropdown. Read [this section](https://tripledotstudios.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/KB/pages/2581889051/Setting+up+A+B+Experiments#%5BinlineExtension%5DLabels-in-A%2FB-Experiments) to know more about Labels. |
| **Include in Lab Calculations** | Checked by default | This checkbox determines if the experiment needs to be included in Lab Calculations. By default, this checkbox is enabled, but you can uncheck it if you’re creating A/B Experiments for any other purpose other than actual experimentation, and you don’t need any calculations for it. When this checkbox is unchecked, there is a grace period of **5 calendar days** (including the day that the experiment was created) to check the box and include the experiment in Lab Calculations. Keep in mind that the data for the experiment will be included from the moment you check the box. |
| **Notes** | | You can write any notes related to the experiment in this field. You can add comments, links, or any relevant information. |
_\*compulsory field_
3. Add the experiment variants. Variants are the percentage of the audience assigned to your experiment, and you can add new variants to add more segments to your experiment population. Click the green **[Add New Variant]** button to add a new variant.
Variants have a series of attributes that are required. See the table below to know more:
| **Attribute** | **Description** |
| --- | --- |
| **Name** | Name of the variant. The first variant will always be named “Control” and that cannot be changed. The name of the rest of variants can be edited. |
| **Id** | Read-only, set by Game Server Used in analytics to find participations of specific variant |
| **Weight** | Defines the user division between variants. Example: - Variant #1 has weight = 1 - Variant #2 has weight = 3 Thus user proportions will be: - Variant #1 → 25% - Variant #2 → 75% |
| **Skip Experiment for this variant** | When using this checkbox, users assigned to the variant will not receive the A/B experiment. |
| **Entities list \*** | List of tested entities with values for specific variant. **\*** Entities can be added to an experiment only after the experiment is created, so they won’t be available during the creation the experiment. |
4. Add rules to your experiment. Once you’re done, click **[Save]** on the upper right corner.
Remember that users are assigned to variants in a random way inside the weights specified in the variants.
**How is priority established in A/B Experiments?**
**A/B Experiments and overrides are not exclusive** , and it is possible for a user to receive a setting from an A/B Experiments, and another setting from an override depending on the rules established.
In terms of priority, A/B Experiments are assigned first, followed by overrides. After that, Game Server applies the settings configured in Game Settings.
1. A/B Experiments
2. Overrides
3. Base Config
4. Add rules to your experiment. Once you’re done, click **[Save]** on the upper right corner.
Remember that users are assigned to variants in a random way inside the weights specified in the variants.
**How is priority established in A/B Experiments?**
**A/B Experiments and overrides are not exclusive** , and it is possible for a user to receive a setting from an A/B Experiments, and another setting from an override depending on the rules established.
In terms of priority, A/B Experiments are assigned first, followed by overrides. After that, Game Server applies the settings configured in Game Settings.
1. A/B Experiments
2. Overrides
3. Base Config
Rules follow the same logic used in Overrides. In A/B Experiments, they’ll help segment the user groups that will receive the experiments, and remember that one user can match multiple experiments depending on the rules you set up!
Which values will a player get if you set up A/B Experiments and Overrides?
In many cases, you’ll set up both A/B Experiments and Overrides in your game. **** , but as they are not the same type of entity, their priorities are different.
In the table below, you’ll see an example of a configuration with 2 A/B Experiments and 1 Override. The user will receive:
- Attribute #1 = 50 (from A/B experiment #2) as it has the highest priority
- Attribute #2 = “world” (from A/B experiment #1)
- Attribute #3 = 6.5 (from Override #1) as it has more priority compared to Base Config
| | **Base Config** | **Override #1** | **A/B experiment #1** | **A/B experiment #2** |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Priority** | **0** | **1** | **1\*** | **2\*** |
| Attribute #1 | 10 | 20 | 40 | 50 |
| Attribute #2 | “test” | “hello” | “world” | not added |
| Attribute #3 | 5.5 | 6.5 | not added | not added |
Adding Game Settings to your A/B Experiment
Once you have created your A/B Experiment, it’s time to add the entities that will be tested. To do so, follow these steps:
1. Navigate to Game Settings, and click **[Base Config].**
2. Search for the fields you’d like to test and click **[Add to Experiment].** On the dropdown, select your experiment.
3. Navigate to your experiment and open it. You’ll be now able to see your added experiment entities.
4. Under **Variants** , edit the values of the entities in each variant according to your experiment settings.
5. When you’re done, click the blue **[Save]** button. When users start joining your experiment, a **participation** will be created.
### Duplicating Variants
Once your experiment has been created, you can duplicate their variants by using the **[duplicate button]** available in any variant. When you click it, a new pop-up will appear with the name of the variant you’re duplicating appended with _\_copy,_ which you can edit. The weight of the variant will be automatically set to zero, but you can also edit this according to the data required in your experiment.
.gif?version=1&modificationDate=1708523343712&cacheVersion=1&api=v2&width=694&height=536)
### Deleting Variants
Variants can also be removed if required. To do so, use the **[red trash can button]** available in all variants.
However, keep in mind that variants can be deleted only if:
- There are no participants in it
- The status of the experiment is inactive
If your variant does not comply with these 2 conditions, you will not be able to remove any variant, and the delete button will be inactive.
## Variant Rules
Inside Variants, you can add rules for specific variant, which will help you creating flows for each variant and test how the same users behave depending on different rules settings inside the variant.
### Creating a new Variant Rule
- Inside your A/B Experiment, navigate to **Variants**. Click on the dropdown to select your rule and then, click **[Change Rule]**. You can add multiple values in your rules.
- Under your variants, the entities being tested will appear with the rules you’ve applied. You can edit the values for each variant individually.
**Variants Notes**
- If an experiment is no longer needed, you can archive experiments even if they are used in Experiment Variant Rules. To do so, change the status to the experiment to “Archived”. If the experiment is being used as an Experiment Variant Rule anywhere, Game Server will notify you of which experiment uses it as a Variant Rule and which variant uses it. Click **[Confirm]** to proceed with experiment archival.
- A detailed explanation of the rules available can be found [here](https://tripledotstudios.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/KB/pages/2668494860/Rules#List-of-Available-Rules).
- All variant rules are duplicated when A/B experiments are duplicated.
- Variant rules can be added to old experiments.
- Variant rules are calculated using all experiments (active/inactive/allocation paused)
- To check if your experiment is being used as a Variant, use the  button. A new pop-up will appear where you’ll be able to visualise the usage. You can also archive your experiment using the [**Archive button**]  .
## Experiments Participation
An experiment **participation i** s created when a player sends an `/init` call and Game Server defines some A/B experiment that user match.
After the `/init` call, Game Server decides which value to set for some entity/property by:
- Finding the entity that matches the rules with highest priority (relevant for whole entities, ex. Progression events)
- Checking if the entities are included into an A/B experiment
- Determining and setting the values from the A/B experiment with highest priority
**What else do you need to know about participations?**
- A participation is created when user send `/init` call and joins the experiment
- Participations **are not deleted** when user stop matching the experiment rules
- Participations are deleted only when the experiment is moved to “Permanently Archived” status
## Analysing your A/B Experiments
There are 3 options to analyse your experiments available in Game Server. 2 buttons are available with different functionalities:
- **Analyse LAB** **:** This button redirects you **Looker AB Test Analysis Tool** , where you can analyse the results of the experiment. For further info, find the user guide [here](/wiki/spaces/DS/pages/2833088688/LAB+User+Guide).
- **Analyse Cohort** **:** This button will create a new dashboard in **Looker Lab Cohort** and redirect you to it. For further info, find the user guide [here](/wiki/spaces/DS/pages/2941616208/LAB+Cohort+User+Guide).
- **Analyse LAB Lite** : This button will create a new dashboard in **Looker Lab Lite** , and redirect you to it.
Buttons are available in the A/B Experiments Dashboard by clicking the 3 vertical dots  , and in every experiment.
* * *
Labels in A/B Experiments
You can use labels to organise and manage A/B Experiments in Game Server easily.
Labels will help you categorise your experiments and you can use the search and filter functions to find them by group.
### Labels Overview
On the left side panel of Game Server, you’ll find a section called **Labels**. Under this page, you can visualise the existing labels, edit them, search by label, or create new ones.
### Creating a new Label
To create a new label, click the **[+New]** button on the upper right side of the screen. Type in the name of your label and select its color. You can use either RGB or HEX for the color selection.
Under type, there are 2 options available:
- **Admin:** Admin labels are used to organise and categorise entities **internally** in Game Server.
- **Analytics Filter:** Analytics Labels are **synchronised** with Snowflake and **Looker** , and can be used to filter dashboards with results for all of the experiments that have that label.
Once you’re done, click **[Confirm]**. Your new label will appear on the Labels Page. You can edit it by using the blue edit button under Actions. You can also delete it using the red delete button.
### Using your label in a Experiment
To use your label in your experiments, navigate to A/B Experiments. When you’re creating a new experiment or editing an existing one, you’ll be able to select one or multiple labels from the existing labels. Select your label and click **[Save].**
In the main A/B Experiments screen, you can now visualise your labeled experiments:
### Filtering by Label
You can use labels to filter your experiments. To do so:
1. Click **[Filter]** on the upper right side of the screen.
2. Under **Labels,** type in the name of your label.
3. In the table below, you’ll see the results of your search:
### Searching by Label
You can use labels to search your experiments by directly clicking the label on the tables:
A new screen will open where you’ll be able to visualise where your label is being used and the status of the entity:
* * *
## 🔍 Frequently Asked Questions
- **If I change the rules of an active A/B experiment, does it deallocate/reallocate users that are in the experiment?**
- **When using the experiment variant NOT IN rule - does it include users who are not allocated to that test at all? Or only users allocated to that test, but not in the selected variant(s)?**
- **Does the experiment variant rule still work if the selected experiment is inactive or archived?**
- **If the player does not qualify for the rules on the experiment start date, but qualifies later when the experiment is still active, does the user get allocated to the experiment?**
- **If an experiment starts for all users (old and new) on a set date, and the allocation is later changed to old users only, what would happen to players that install the game between these 2 dates and got included in the experiment?**
- **If there is A/B experiment running which has been set to “inactive” and then it’s activated again, would Game Server redistribute the Variant ID, or the players that already got a specific variant ID, will stay? e.g. player A got variant ID 10, test gone inactive, then activate again, player A would still be in variant ID 10 or randomized again?**
* * *
### \uD83D\uDCCB Related articles
-
Page:
[Configuring Game-Specific 3rd Party Machine Learning Models in Game Server](/wiki/spaces/KB/pages/4580999169/Configuring+Game-Specific+3rd+Party+Machine+Learning+Models+in+Game+Server)
-
Page:
[Configuring Embedded Machine Learning Models in Game Server](/wiki/spaces/KB/pages/4548263939/Configuring+Embedded+Machine+Learning+Models+in+Game+Server)
-
Page:
[File Configuration in Game Server](/wiki/spaces/KB/pages/4440228000/File+Configuration+in+Game+Server)
-
Page:
[Managing Localisations in Harmony](/wiki/spaces/KB/pages/3230760961/Managing+Localisations+in+Harmony)
-
Page:
[Generic Daily Challenges](/wiki/spaces/KB/pages/2933653553/Generic+Daily+Challenges)
-
Page:
[Configuring Ads in Game Server](/wiki/spaces/KB/pages/2765029415/Configuring+Ads+in+Game+Server)
-
Page:
[Rules in Game Server](/wiki/spaces/KB/pages/2668494860/Rules+in+Game+Server)
-
Page:
[Setting up A/B Experiments](/wiki/spaces/KB/pages/2581889051/Setting+up+A+B+Experiments)
-
Page:
[Game Settings Configuration](/wiki/spaces/KB/pages/2580021328/Game+Settings+Configuration)