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RPG Video Game Study
CabooseC20
Member Posts: 7
Hello Gaming Community,
I am a psychology major at Asbury University. We are conducting research on how video games may help people. The current study being conducted is how people relate to the video game avatars they play as. We need people who play video games a good amount of time to take this survey. The survey only takes 10-30 minutes. Click the link provided to survey monkey and once you have completed the survey that is all that is needed. It is completely anonymous; you will not be contacted about your information. Thank you for your help with this study.
Comments
Done. A couple of comments, though.
1) Some of the questions are worded poorly, especially about answering "as your avatar."
2) In section 14 there is a question that takes 2 lines and thus has 2 circles to select.
Will the results be posted somewhere when finished?
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
I quit halfway true.... because i got a feeling you are going to abuse the outcome to proof most roleplayers like their characters more then themself in real life...
the way you ask those questions can be used to compare the avatar to the real person.... where it is easier to hide flaws in an avatar, the avatar will allmost allways have better results then the person itsleves...
You can disregard the fact that players might feel their real life personallity is way above average...
All in all its not a good survey, because everyone obviously can see what you are comparing and can so influence their answers in the direction they want ti take it.
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
Evaluate on the scale of...: "I possess the same skills and abilities as my character does." - yeah, sure, gimme that magic wand, I'm gonna heal.
*shrug* stopped right there. If the questions are meaningless, the test is meaningless.
Thank you for your feedback. I'm sorry that you felt that we may abuse the information that comes out of this survey. We understand that this survey is far from perfect and has flaws. We appreciate that you took time to take at least part of the survey and to comment. Your feedback will help us critique the survey so that it is better. As for the information that we find. We do not tend to abuse it. This is beginning research on a new area for psychology. This is to help give us a direction to go for studying. Thank you for your time.
Thank you for your feedback. I can see how this question is not worded properly now. It should be more specific to not include the mystical or fantasy aspects of the character. This is a new area of study in psychology so this survey is something we had to put together without any prior research to help. With the feedback we get from people taking this survey we will be able to make it better and distribute it again. Thank you for your time.
I love surveys and do hope you post the results; both of the percentages of what was chosen and the conclusion with rationale supporting your hypothesis.
What is this survey/study trying to determine or prove?
Question 4:
"When I selected my avatar for this game I am currently playing, I selected the avatar for the following reasons:"
The avatar's abilities aren't listed as one of the reasons. It's pretty weird, because they're the main reason people choose to play as a certain character in games like Diablo 3. In fact, your abilities almost always influence what your avatar looks like.
Overall, this feels like a survey made by someone who doesn't know a lot about the subject matter, so it's a bit... off in many places.
I saw the replies in this thread and thought, "I'll give it a shot anyway, I'll keep an open mind." Well the replies you received so far are correct. It feels like someone doesn't know much about gaming or the gaming community. Gamers are much more disparate than you seem to assume. People plays games for various reason and I think you're trying to survey conflicting populations aka - your study is too broad.
But I'll finish the survey and post some specific questions that are . . . nonsensical? I think that might be the best word to describe them.
"I possess the same skills and abilities as my character does." - If anyone puts anything other than not true at all, they are in desperate need of therapy. These characters can carry a bag full of horses, while running for hours, and jumping. They also come back to life . . . um, and then there's the magical element typically prevalent in many RPG's. If you have respondents saying that yes, they can summon meteors from the sky, there's a problem.
"I would rather be like my character." - Look, I'm a grounded person. I have my masters, a healthy relationship, am a good person and extremely content with my life. But if someone asked me if I wanted to be my character, the answer is yes. A million times yes. Because that would be insane! See the list of things above? This question is basically asking people if they would like to be immortal, a master of weapons and magic, control flying dragons, have limitless strength (I could carry everything in my house in a backpack while running everywhere). Seriously, is this a question? It's like asking any real person if they would like to win the lottery. Yes, the answer is yes.
"My avatar can always manage to solve difficult problems if it tries hard enough."
"My avatar is able to do things as well as most people."
. . . long list of these
"If my avatar is in trouble, it can usually think of a solution."
Are you attempting to find people with dissociative disorder? That's the only kind of person who would treat their avatar as sentient entity that does things on its own.
Your survey does inquire if someone is a student "What are you currently enrolled in?" But for an older gamer such as myself, I have completed graduate school and have been a working adult for quite some time now. Kind of bizarre that I had to put "none" as I'm not currently enrolled in anything.
Ya...I did the survey upto this point. Seems a bit odd to question as if the avatar is of it's own free will and mind, capable of doing things on it's own. Hate to burst the bubble...but the desions, thoughts actions of my avatar...are in reality my decisions controled by a keyboard. I don't think many people have two way discussions with their avatar. Well if they do...they need some serious help.
Okay, so I was a Sociology major at the college I just graduated from, and I had to do a Survey Research course where we did exactly the same thing but a different topic.
My comments/advice:
Questions 10, 11, and 12 are worded poorly. Some of the question grammar is wrong, i.e "At times, my avatar thinks it am no good at all."
They also are not necessary and will most likely rub people the wrong way. If you had chosen a different way of wording questions about the avatar rather than seemingly switching out from us personally to the avatar, it might have worked better.
Since they are similar, if not exactly alike, to the first set of questions, it will be hard for most people to complete them without confusion or irritation since unless a player is a hardcore role-player, they won't have that depth of understanding with their character(s).
I will admit that I skipped all three of those.
Question 13 seems similar to the first set of questions answered about myself, if not exactly the same. Why is this?
Question 14 has a line that just says "games?" Since you have an "Always" option, there should be a "Never" option. Some of the questions were a never for me as opposed to a rarely. Rarely seems similar to Occasionally in this survey.
I don't remember now, but did you list all ethical concerns at the beginning of your survey?
Did your professor not proofread this survey with your class/group? Not only are there some grammatical errors, but some of the questions aren't worded to the best of their abilities considering it's an undergrad survey.
I would suggest that in the future you make sure all questions are worded appropriately, grammatically correct, and take the surveys yourselves. If you would feel uncomfortable about a certain question, or much of the survey, there's a sign of improvement to be made.
I'm not trying to seem like a mean person, but we had many examples of both good and bad surveys, and this, unfortunately, would be mediocre at best.
Good luck on your analysis though.
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."
-Marcel Proust
"The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in."