University World of Warcraft Survey

[Deleted]

This is what I love about the survey. I activated it expecting so many people to disagree with every question, however, when I look at the results so far, there seem to be an entirely mixed range of answers. It just illustrates how unique we all are. Thanks for adding your interpretation to the fold!

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For so many years i was so deeply entrenched in this idyllic fantasy world whereby entirely everything within Azeroth was akin to a second home. I became completely familiar with all of the different environments, NPC's, quests, dungeons, raids and Battlegrounds. But unfortunately, as for many i'd imagine, the stress of 'reality' becomes exceedingly overbearing and makes us more cynical toward everything. I am also very intrigued by the notion that a character is able to develop and change its bodily features to align with your 'true' self at different intervals in your life.

[Deleted]

Nice topic. Done. Good luck

[alzoron]

The answers for income should be interesting. You didn't set a reference currency so depending on where you're from a 60k could be below the poverty line.

[Alopex Major]

Interesting poll, though you might have asked whether or not people RP in-game. That makes a huge difference in how you see your in-game avatar as reflected in my responses.

[Deleted]

If I'm entirely honest with you, I never expected as many individuals from so many different countries to participate in this survey. Diversity is the spice of life it seems! and up until now, the answers for income are intriguing, however, I do not believe that income has any reflection on the personality or characteristics of that person.

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Vajarra, In hindsight, I completely agree with your proclamation. Unfortunately, I was unable to think of this myself before activating the survey. Hopefully, if all goes well with this research project, and if I am given a future opportunity to conduct something similar, I will rectify my mistake with this inclusion. Your feedback has been very beneficial and thanks for your interest!

[Rukha]

Filled in the survey. I also would've filled it in completely different during Wrath / TBC / vanilla compared to now.Personal situation changed a lot compared to that timeframe. I am curious to the end results.

good luck!

[Martyn 470]

Filled it out.
I would change a few things.

The explanation at the top says we circle the correct answer, it's an online survey so we dont actually circle anything
I would personally change " Great Britain" to United Kingdom.
You also talk about the Likert scale but its never actually used.
"How well are you able to look around or search the virtual environment?" - one of the possible choices is Very much, very much isnt an applicable answer.
I would actually change the possible answers completely, theyre confusing in general.
I view the avatars in-world as characters rather than real people. should be " I view the in game avatars"
It is easy for me to think about the avatars in-world as real people. - same as above


Not bad overall, but you need to change a lot of the writing, also congrats on your engagement last year - your facebook profile is set to open =P

[Deleted]

Hey Martyn, thanks for your input! When I initially set out to conduct this study, I'd devised a likert scale tailored towards being printed out and handed to the students at my University. However, this didn't hold true to me. I had a gut feeling that despite getting enough people from my lectures to fill in the questionnaire, the responses would be unrealistic as I envisage that most people on my course will not have played WOW, let alone even heard of it! I wanted a true representation, from people with a genuine interest and passion for the game. And to my delight, I couldn't have been any more right. Comprehensive responses like yours are illustrative of that authenticity that I aspired to achieve. I also agree with the points you have addressed. As a participant, I would naturally search for U.K as opposed to G.B., and I apologize for the confusion caused by some of the answers and hope that you were able to get the gist of my questions.

And separately, thank you for taking the time out to get to know a little bit about me and my life and I also hope that you prosper with your endeavors.

[Shinrael]

Umm.... This survey is rather lacking in options... I am a full-time student. Next question "How many hours per week?", well, let's assume work hours means school hours, then next question "Income". So... What kind of income are we talking about? MY income? My parents income? Income from what? From school? For what period of time? A month? A year? And what are these numbers? <25 000? 25 000 what? 60 000+ what? Kilos? Meters? Dollars, Euro, Bulgarian Levs? Well, whatever sort of income you are talking about, my parents income definetely doesn't go over 5000 euro a year so I guess I'll go with <25 000 option. There were some other questions which I kinda disliked because they sounded a bit biased, might make me sound like an addict or something ( I used to be addicted, not anymore. )

Anyway, good luck ^^

[Treno]

I filled it out for you. Some of your questions are interesting. I've done scholarly work with World of Warcraft, both in the idea of video game theory and in analyzing the narrative as form of literature. Your questions are pretty well thought out, though some need more clarification (income). It may also be worth conducting a few interviews with players to help understand their philosophy behind their answers.

[George]

I filled it out.

One note: when asking for income, specify the currency. I assumed British pounds.

Good luck with your study!

[Adramelch]

I filled it out.

It felt needlessly long with so many questions being pretty similar to each other.

[anaxie]

Missing more important questions to wholly identify to person. Aka choice of raid style. Time played per week is not a static number based on a multitude of factors ect. U should of presented the survey for critique before activating it in my opinion its rushed and lazy

[Sapperoth]

Hey there! I do counseling and teach at University--I would be very interested in knowing the results of this survey. Any chance you'll be able to share those?

I have countless clients that engage in MMORPG activity-- I think this virtual world is an area not well explored quite yet in research. I'd be interested to know a summary of responses from this intake you've distributed. Nice work. Good luck on your paper.

[Deleted]

Hey Silverrendy. I understand your frustration. As a part of this research project, I was asked to create a generic demographic section for the questionnaire. As a result, many of the questions have been custom-made for adults, and this is entirely ignorant on my behalf as I should have known better seeing as I myself dedicated the majority of my time to WOW during my adolescence. The question relating to income as you mentioned was a follow-up from the hours of work per week question, and has again, wrongly disregarded those who do not earn an income (which is another mishap on my behalf). In its early stage (as highlighted before), I was only going to hand out these questionnaires to fellow students of my University in the UK, and assumed that all of my participants would be members of the U.K., and therefore using '£'. By no stretch of my imagination did I ever think I would get such an overall positive response, from people from all walks of life. I would never judge any respondent based on their responses, as each and every person is entitled to their preferences and opinions. I wish you the best of luck with your future, and hope that you can use my inexperience to thrive in whichever domain you choose

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Hi anaxie, I can't disagree with you on the fact that the activation of the survey is rather rushed and could have benefited from testing. Unfortunately, I was given ten months to come up with an original idea, choose Independent and Dependent Variables, and then implement these into a questionnaire that would be able to measure them. In addition to the deadlines for this research project, I also have presentations, Multiple choice exams and Written exams. Furthermore, I don't believe that it is laziness that is the reason for missing out many important features (which I hold my hands up to - and am happy that these have been pointed out for future reference), instead, I believe it is lack of practice, bearing in mind that this is my first ever survey, and it is the first time that I have ever used forums, which, by the way, have introduced me to many wonderful, generous people!

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Hi Treno, thanks for filling it out! Based on the criticisms mentioned by everyone, it's a shame that I hadn't met you prior to conducting this study to gain some much needed wisdom and expertise in this field hehe I really like the idea of interviews. While this data is quantitative and thus easier to analyze, I can also acknowledge that on the other end of the spectrum it entirely neglects the importance of human interaction, emotion and rich qualitative sources.

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Hey George, I'd say always stick to your natural instincts for any task you face in the future, as your assumption was spot on! Thanks for the help!

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Hi Sapperoth, it's a pleasure to be able to converse with an individual as esteemed as yourself. it is most certainly my intention to share with everyone the results of this survey once completed. In a like-minded fashion, I also believe that MMORPG's and those who play them have been ignored and misinterpreted for far too long. It would be a breath of fresh air if more people were able to expand upon what I'm doing (with higher proficiency), and explore a world which up until the past decade or so was unknown to humanity.

[Sapperoth]

Hi anaxie, I can't disagree with you on the fact that the activation of the survey is rather rushed and could have benefited from testing. Unfortunately, I was given ten months to come up with an original idea, choose Independent and Dependent Variables, and then implement these into a questionnaire that would be able to measure them. In addition to the deadlines for this research project, I also have presentations, Multiple choice exams and Written exams. Furthermore, I don't believe that it is laziness that is the reason for missing out many important features (which I hold my hands up to - and am happy that these have been pointed out for future reference), instead, I believe it is lack of practice, bearing in mind that this is my first ever survey, and it is the first time that I have ever used forums, which, by the way, have introduced me to many wonderful, generous people!

Do not take the critique to heart-- easing into a research study is the perfect way to engage in research. Putting together a qualtrics survey in itself is not lazy, chances are you had some IRB to go through, and lastly, laziness in research comes not from the initial design--but instead the follow up. OP is in starting phases of research, and it sounds like it's an educational tool to get himself more familiar with the process. If anything, OP went the extra mile to study an area with little literature and support.

Keep doing what you're doing, Beckoning.

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Hi Sapperoth, it's a pleasure to be able to converse with an individual as esteemed as yourself. it is most certainly my intention to share with everyone the results of this survey once completed. In a like-minded fashion, I also believe that MMORPG's and those who play them have been ignored and misinterpreted for far too long. It would be a breath of fresh air if more people were able to expand upon what I'm doing (with higher proficiency), and explore a world which up until the past decade or so was unknown to humanity.

I don't quite think I've met much esteem, ha--but I appreciate the comments none the less. I'd definitely love to pick your brain about the process and what the results say--since you're going through the work of gaining participants and what not. If you need any assistance brainstorming the process, I'm always happy to give my two cents and to be another perspective to consider. Feel free to shoot me a line: silaschirino(at)me(dot)com