Player-driven research into behaviour and motivations of MMORPGs

[Deleted]

Hello,

The following survey is part of a research project examining motivations and behaviour in MMORPG's.
The project utilizes player experience and observations to create new unique survey questions, revealing concepts
that have not yet been uncovered. This project is run by 3 PhD survey researchers at an academic institution who have all played WoW for over 7 years.

The survey will ask some questions about your thoughts and feelings when playing WoW, some questions about
your interaction with other players, and also some questions about who you are.

Completing the survey will take 5-10 minutes.

Link: https://lse.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_0ppguyuiu09ZU8d

If you have any comments or feedback, members of the project will be monitoring this thread!


Thank you for your participation!

[reckoner04]

Who's conducting this study?

The survey is pretty straightforward and does indeed take only around 5 minutes to fill out.

[Arkenaw]

Completed, however it's full of redundant and repeat questions, kinda confused me.

[reckoner04]

Completed, however it's full of redundant and repeat questions, kinda confused me.

I think this is to handle the risk of people not understanding a question correctly and to uncover where they might give "wrong" (dishonest) answers. You see this a lot in surveys.

[Deleted]

I'm an academic survey researcher by profession, doing this together with some colleagues because we all have a long standing interest in MMORPGs. We've all been avid WoW players for almost 8 years.

The reason why I didn't list my name and institution in this survey is because I do not want it to get confused with the things I research at my university, since this is a side-project I do for my own interest.


The redundant and repeat questions are, as usual, control questions to ensure that people are somewhat consistent in their responses. It's a way to verify data integrity.

[Deleted]

Nice survey, good questions!

[StaeleAilar]

Survey complete. Pretty good all in all.
My only concern is what this survey's results will be indicative of xD

[Deleted]

As a long-term player of WoW, I can assure you that it will not represent MMORPGs or gaming in an unfavourable or negative way, as much other research on the topic does. Frankly, this survey is not interested in effects or negative outcomes at all, it's purpose is to examine player behaviour and motivations (which is quite unusual!).

[Deleted]

Any chance you could post later what motivations you uncovered? Or perhaps let us know right now if you have any ideas?

[hellosaltygoodness]

The redundant and repeat questions are, as usual, control questions to ensure that people are somewhat consistent in their responses. It's a way to verify data integrity.

you overdid it. its supposed to be subtle. i'm not supposed to quit the test because i don't want to answer the same three questions over and over again, only with a small change in wording.

[Yig]

Basically all video games are played to induce a flow state.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)

I'd say MMOs are very interesting for the element of social interaction they provide along with flow.

[neccowafer]

I took it.

Not sure how well my social situation on the game is represented by it. Maybe it'd be useful to get info on guild sizes and number of other players interacted with?

While I'm almost always doing social play, it's almost exclusively with my boyfriend. We play it as a two-player game essentially. Our guild is just the two of us. It seems like that is a bit different from heavy social play, with like 24 teammates, who are all your best friends, and you raid every day. But essentially I answered the questions the same way someone in that rather different situation would have.


Good luck with your data gathering.

[eat my butthole]

i did it but that quiz was really boring

[Jaylol]

you overdid it. its supposed to be subtle. i'm not supposed to quit the test because i don't want to answer the same three questions over and over again, only with a small change in wording.

I'd have to second this. Granted I didn't quit the survey, but I was a little annoyed by the end.

[Windfury]

The questions seem to confuse introversion with depression/psychological problems? Or imply they're the same thing? At least that's what I got from the constant 'uncomfortable mixing with new people' etc type questions. I'm pretty introverted certainly, but in no way unhappy or depressed, and I don't think there's actually anything wrong with not being an extrovert.

[Deleted]

The questions seem to confuse introversion with depression/psychological problems? Or imply they're the same thing? At least that's what I got from the constant 'uncomfortable mixing with new people' etc type questions. I'm pretty introverted certainly, but in no way unhappy or depressed, and I don't think there's actually anything wrong with not being an extrovert.

No, the questions aren't measuring anything of the sort.

Also, an important thing to remember is that in order to disprove certain things you still have to ask questions about them. So, for example, if I were aiming to disprove the theory that only introverts play WoW, I'd still have to ask questions about introversion. It seems to me that it's quite common that people infer a lot about your purpose from the questions you ask, but keep in mind that the actual purpose may be the reverse from what you think. The questions will still be the same.

---------- Post added 2012-11-05 at 12:59 AM ----------

I'd have to second this. Granted I didn't quit the survey, but I was a little annoyed by the end.

Do you by any chance recall which questions or which topics you felt were being repeated? Would be useful to know for future refinement!

[Deleted]

Did the survey. Interesting, not at all like the usual questions!

[Deleted]

Did the survey. Interesting, not at all like the usual questions!

Thanks, we try to please

[Deleted]

Nice one!

[Deleted]

So far the preliminary analysis is looking *really* good. All that is needed right now is about 200 more respondents. So, please, if you haven't already done so, spare 5 minutes for this survey

Thanks![COLOR="red"]