PhD gaming reception research: Survey of opinions!

[SpoonyResearcher]

Hello!

My name is Jemma, I'm a PhD research student at the University of Leeds currently undertaking a reception study in videogames translation.

I am looking for participants willing to spare me a little time (20min on average) to fill out this online survey on their perceptions and expectations of certain games based on some pictures. It shouldn’t take too long, and it gives you opportunities to voice your personal experiences and thoughts, as well as be instrumental in world-first research!

All data is entirely anonymous, so you are free to speak as frankly and honestly as you want to – there are no wrong answers! The more opinionated, the better!

Survey here: https://forms.office.com/e/aqkdG1QTnZ

This data will be used to create a vital framework by which gamers define genre classification, so I'd love to have as many participants as possible

Your time is greatly appreciated, and if you know anyone else who may be interested in participating, please share! Thank you!

 

[Brian Boru]

Welcome to the forum

Survey seems legit.

Jemma, some issues:

"4. I agree to take part in the above research project and will inform the lead researcher should my contact details change."
This should probably be split into 2 points, as many probably won't share their contact details at all, and could be put off by this apparent statement that their details are somehow being collected anyway.

"45-54
65 and older"
You missed the age range 55-64.

"Which of the following videogame genres have you heard of, if any?"
Hah, you got me—I wasn't expecting to see a genre I didn't recognize
Other participants: did you miss one too?

However, your genre list in #8 & #9 needs some improvement, in that you include some sub-genres, but not others—examples:
First-person Shooter (FPS)—but not Third-person;
Realtime strategy game (RTS)—but not 4X or RTT.

Perhaps you should go with mostly top-level genres only like Shooter and Strategy, to keep the list manageable, while breaking down RPG into sub-genres since that looks like your main thrust.

You also omit significant genres like Racing, Casual, Sports and Simulation, altho latter might be regarded as part of Strategy. Of course, picking and classifying game genres is a thankless task, we often debate the subject here

spare me a little time (20min on average)

This is a major understatement unless people are just zipping thru the 50+ questions, many of which require written answers—ie not ticking boxes. I was nearly an hour in before I had to stop giving considered responses. I recommend splitting it into 2-4 separate surveys.

 

[Alm]

"Other participants: did you miss one too?"

Yes, never heard of a

Spoiler

ZRPG

Also, I quit after 2 examples, I'll try and come back again but I also found it draining to do the whole 5 or 6.

 

[Brian Boru]

never heard of a

Same here

I also found it draining to do the whole 5 or 6

I agree. Apart from the time constraint which caused me to rush the ending, I was also quite tired of it by then.

 

[SpoonyResearcher]

Welcome to the forum

Survey seems legit.

Jemma, some issues:

"4. I agree to take part in the above research project and will inform the lead researcher should my contact details change."
This should probably be split into 2 points, as many probably won't share their contact details at all, and could be put off by this apparent statement that their details are somehow being collected anyway.

"45-54
65 and older"
You missed the age range 55-64.

"Which of the following videogame genres have you heard of, if any?"
Hah, you got me—I wasn't expecting to see a genre I didn't recognize
Other participants: did you miss one too?

However, your genre list in #8 & #9 needs some improvement, in that you include some sub-genres, but not others—examples:
First-person Shooter (FPS)—but not Third-person;
Realtime strategy game (RTS)—but not 4X or RTT.

Perhaps you should go with mostly top-level genres only like Shooter and Strategy, to keep the list manageable, while breaking down RPG into sub-genres since that looks like your main thrust.

You also omit significant genres like Racing, Casual, Sports and Simulation, altho latter might be regarded as part of Strategy. Of course, picking and classifying game genres is a thankless task, we often debate the subject here


This is a major understatement unless people are just zipping thru the 50+ questions, many of which require written answers—ie not ticking boxes. I was nearly an hour in before I had to stop giving considered responses. I recommend splitting it into 2-4 separate surveys.

Thank you for raising these issues! Apparently no-one during the pilot test or my supervisors caught this, so thank you for bringing it to my attention!

And yes, there's not a full range of games genre listed because for this research, not all are being examined, hence the absence of certain ones you might have expected to see

 

[SpoonyResearcher]

Same here


I agree. Apart from the time constraint which caused me to rush the ending, I was also quite tired of it by then.

Yes, I appreciate it might feel a bit repetitive and tedious, but you'll be glad to hear, that such information will create a super strong data set that will be shared and used by video game reception researcher for years to come! Your time and effort are HUGELY appreciated!

 

[Brian Boru]

Apparently no-one during the pilot test or my supervisors caught this

Not a good ad for your university's PhD programs!

genre … not all are being examined, hence the absence of certain ones

That doesn't explain the issue I mentioned, ie:
First-person Shooter (FPS)—but not Third-person;
Realtime strategy game (RTS)—but not 4X or RTT.

such information will create a super strong data set

Won't it be tricky for you to evaluate how much to discount the less accurate or incomplete data from the later stages of the survey? To me, "super strong" implies it should be founded on rock-solid base data, rather than what you'll collect with this.

Anyway, your survey, best of luck with it