Please participate in this MMORPG study

UNTresearch · April 2005

Researchers at the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />University of North Texas are conducting research to investigate community differences between massively multiplayer online games. As a member of this community, you are invited to participate by completing a survey that will take about 30 minutes. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

There are no foreseeable risks involved, your participation is completely voluntary, and you may stop at any time. Individual responses will not be reported to anyone; all data will be reported in group format.

If you have any questions regarding this study, please contact Troy Voelker at the University of North Texas (voelkert at unt dot edu). This research has received approval for human subject participation from the Institutional Review Board at the University of North Texas.

Please be aware that there are sound effects and images within this survey. While all images and sounds are work-safe, you may want to lower speaker volume prior to following the link below. If for any reason you wish to leave the survey, you may return to where you left off (from the same computer) at anytime, by following the same link. Please attempt to complete the survey within 24 hours from starting it.

Your participation in this study is greatly appreciated, and will be extremely helpful in advancing knowledge related to Internet gaming. Please follow the link provided to begin the survey. By clicking on the link below, you give informed consent.

Thank you for your participation. Please provide any thoughts or commentary in this thread.

Troy A. Voelker
University of North Texas

Please follow this link:

http://surveys.coba.unt.edu/ws/wsb.dll/HiteD/MMOG_Survey_Portal_8.htm

A list of questions common to communities participating in this study will follow.

UNTresearch · April 2005

1. Arent you just trying to say gamers are all (insert stereotype)

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We are not attempting to find any such stereotype about gamers. Over years of playing MMORPGs, Ive met many gamers. I dont believe there is a stereotypical gamer. Gamers are generally like any other type of people, they do prefer a more interactive entertainment than many.

2. Studies like these attempt to link gamers to real life (insert behavior), dont they?

There is nothing in the survey that would permit us to make any inferences between your hobby and the things you might do in real life. Further, I dont believe a survey study could be used in such a way. I personally question studies which attempt to do so.

3. Why did you choose the types of behaviors youve used in this study then?

The behaviors chosen for this study were selected because it was believed that these were behaviors MMORPG players would recognize. More importantly, they are behaviors that gamers often have opinions about one way or another. Other types of behaviors might have been chosen, but this would have necessitated more items.

4. This community isnt representative of the entire MMORPG population; you cant make any real judgments based off just this community.

We completely agree. The data collection phase of this study will take months. Each week we gradually add in a few new communities to the mix. To date, weve sampled members of small server based communities, guild based communities, and larger high trafficked communities. Even when we are completed, we will only be able to make generalized statements relative to the types of communities who have participated in the study. As we complete data collection, we will provide a snapshot of the results to any communities that participated. Your participation and feedback are very useful in improving the quality of this study.

5. Who are the researchers involved in this study and do they know anything about these games?

There are three researchers involved in this study. We are each teaching fellows at the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />University of North Texas (http://www.coba.unt.edu/mgmt/teaching_fellows.htm). Each of us has some experience with online gaming; I have the most MMORPG experience of the group. I have played nearly every commercial MMORPG and have been very active in the community since 1999. I am active in a specific MMORPG to date; I very much enjoy the game play and the communities which develop within games.

Staxic · April 2005

Go Denton, TX! It's always worth the drive from Dallas for a UNT party!

webBear1000 · April 2005

Another study!

Is the whole bloody world becoming a lab now?

I just wanna log in to my favourite MMORPG and be an elf that changes into a bear or hits things with his stick.

Elnator · April 2005

Well.. I started filling this out.
I stopped when it started asking the same questions again... and again... and again

Like? I'm going to change my answer just because you worded it slightly differently? C'mon guys, don't insult our intelligence.

Desalus · April 2005

Seriously, this a survey is a fucking joke! Like Elnator said, the same questions keep on getting asked over and over and over. Did no one look at this shit before posting on the net?

Elnator · April 2005

I think they have delusions of being the Meyers Briggs test.

punchline · April 2005

I really liked the first page
it made me feel very special
what the $%#& is this stuff guys?
this is like animal testing on mmorpg players ::::11::

LightSlayer · April 2005

Well....guess we lab rats...no offense to poster of course...just stating

Goks · April 2005

Some of those questions were kind of unfair. I mean it asks if you can look someone in the face and lie to them. Well guess what, that's part of my job. Sales people come in and ask to see a partner in my firm. What am I supposed to do? Get myself in trouble? No I look them right in the eye and say they aren't in, knowing that the people the seek to talk to are 10 feet away.

There is another question asking basically if you don't like someone in RL will you pretend to like them? Um yes, that is what we call being a grown up. No one likes everyone in their family, not to mention the family of their in-laws, or how about that you work with? If you didn't grin and suck it up, you would be extracted by your family, not to mention probibly divorced and out of a job. How many times in life do you want to say to your spouse No Sh!t dear, don't be so stupid? I mean I love my husband, but in real life people you care about make you mad, you suck it up until you can talk about it later, or you chose NOT to fight about whatever it is.

Oh and lets face it, grown ups don't standardly train, spam, etc. That is more of a child response. However I don't know a single grown up who won't call someone an A-hole for being childish when pushes far enough.

The survey as a whole says to me... Basically we want to know if you play so many video games because your a potential psycho and do not fit into society. What would have been refreashing is asking why do you chose to play RP games? That one would be easy... it has to do with the part of you that would love to be special, love to fly, cast spells, fight the bad guy, with no real harm potential to your self. Who (that plays these games) didn't have a vivid imagination as a child? Who didn't fall in love with the idea of magic, super powers and being a hero in a world where that is just not possible? No, they forget that grown, functioning, perfectly stable adults play these games too. As a matter of fact my husband and I do play them... and frankly it gives us something more social to do then sit infront of a TV watching some mind numbing reality show.

Oh and btw. I work at a law firm, legal secretary... if you want to see disfunction, you should read case law!

MisfitZ · April 2005

Wow, Goks. You must have made it pretty far into this idiotic test. I stopped wasting my valuable time with it when I discovered they were asking the same question multiple times.

I mean, seriously, folks. Take a stupid MMoRPG test, or... find pictures of Jessica Alba to drool over. Hmm, tough call.

Maybe if the test were interesting, and didn't feature annoying music...? Nahh, still not worth it.

Vampir · April 2005

Originally posted by punchline

I really liked the first page
it made me feel very special
what the $%#& is this stuff guys?
this is like animal testing on mmorpg players

not to mention this is the 5th or 6th one of these posted on this site. and i know at least 1 or two were from universities.

the reason i quoted u puinch was because i agreed.

dsorrent · April 2005

I actually went thru the whole thing and I have to agree with everyone here. The repetitiveness of the same questions over and over are out of hand. For the question about Kill Stealing, Training, etc, I didnt even read the answers anymore, I just started going straight down the answer row clicking. Hopefully they didnt change the answers.

You need to include a "FEEDBACK" form so people can tell you what about your survey is bad.

Goks · April 2005

They did change the questions slightly. One would be which is NOT acceptable? Which would be acceptable? Which would you expect? Which do you think others expect? I went through the whole thing and it felt like a set up. The only thing I can think of is someone has a teacher who believes that these games are for bad, evil, and socially inept people and therefore made a questionnaire to prove the same. It would have actually just made more sense to say... Do you KS, train, swear at people, threaten and/or cyber in game? Do you expect others to do the above? Do you think others expect the above? It felt like the whole being in your game do you think it is a cest (sp) pool? We do.

I actually have a board game like that questionnaire, in a way. It asks questions like Would you rather vomit marbles or sweat cheese? Both are bad, no one wants either, but Hey if your going to be stuck with suck, which would be your poison? I went through it hoping for one redeeming quality. It makes me believe they should do some sort of test study to see how many people studying on line gamers are not so right in the head.

I at times get gruff from playing On line games. I have even heard... Oh your one of those. Like it's some kind of social disease. The thing that kills me is these are the same people playing hours upon hours of things on their computers such as solitaire, tetris, etc. And it makes me have to ask the question... which one is healthier? I meet people and have friendships from all over the world. They sit alone in the dark and play video games with themselves. I have been privy to RL weddings, births, deaths, and have even chatted many hours away joking, laughing, and even helping friends when they are down. We share pictures, and even visit when travel. I even went to the funeral of a game friend who died of operation complications (he was very sick and could only run free via his video game). And (I know I am preaching to the choir here) If that makes me disturbed, "socially misfit", and in the eyes of so many a loser for playing these games so be it. I have made better friends on line then any of them have ever made playing solitaire... and frankly I think it's a lot more (in the mental health department) healthy then going to a bar, drinking into oblivion and slugging my way to the next $1 draft night. So frankly, late night on the weekends you won't find me vomiting into a public toilet, you'll find me flying around Paragon City and nuking the Sh!t out of the undead. But hey, I'm dysfunctional right?

Anofalye · April 2005

Guys...I am all for helping...but you are BORING as hell.

You ask the same question and change 1 word or 2(and the meaning) all the time, I dont want a headache, english is not my prime language, if you like to dwell in subtleties and then hope folks to help, you are weirdo, because the average player will not bother to finish page 2. So you will have the opinion of a few peoples only.

Which opinion you may value, but those peoples are likely to share similar values and not been so objectives. So they will spread their propaganda. You really should just have make much more simpler stuff like a huge board with the question and variation included so you can see and understand FAST.

Anyway, good chance, I am NOT going to get a headache and try to decipher your questions, it is pretty easy to miss 1 word and then miss the sense, especially in a second language.

Applying to become a citizen of the US would be less of a chore.

UNTresearch · April 2005

I wanted to take a moment to thank those who have participated in the study. This includes those completing the survey as well as the feedback here in the forums.

I understand that the survey is long and of a repetitive nature, for the basic direction we are going with this study, that is an unfortunate necessity.

I will note though, there is no 'evil hypothesis' in operation here. I've played MMORPG's for some time, such a hypothesis would be particularly self-incriminating. I also don't believe anything in our study would allow for a 'game play' -> real life activity statement. Such a claim would be reaching at best, it's simply not the direction we are going in.

I will provide a snapshot of findings once this study is complete. I suspect most MMORPG gamers will review said results and state "I could have told you that." There is nothing shocking being developed in this study (speaking as a gamer). I do believe that the academic community itself will be surprised (but many little things surprise us).

There are certainly some things that, retrospectively, we would have done differently. We are progressing quite well in completions and response rate, we hope to have data collection completed by early summer.

Once again, thank you to those participating, which includes the feedback in this thread. Every response has been helpful!

Regards,

T.A. Voelker

kmimmorpg · April 2005

Do you agree or disagree that this survey repetitive?

Do you agree or disagree that other people thought this survey was repetitive?

Do you agree or disagree that this survey was not repetitive?

Do you agree or disagree that other people thought this survey was not repetitive?

Do you agree or disagree that this survey should have been repetitive?

Do you agree or disagree that other people thought this survey should have been repetitive?

Do you agree or disagree that this survey should not have been repetitive?

Do you agree or disagree that other people thought this survey should not have been repetitive?

I have to admit after 2 pages of these questions I was just randomly picking my answers. I should have quit while I was ahead, but I like to complete things!

Elnator · April 2005

You forgot these:
Do you agree or disagree that other people thought you thought this survey was repetitive?

Do other people think you dissagre with this survey being repetitive?

If you had to take this survey again would you think it was repetitive?

And so on... and so on... and so on...

When I was 18 I took the Meyers Briggs personality profile test. It was 10 or so pages long and found interesting ways to re-word questions that basically ask the same question but with a different slant to it. This survey is very very very badly written. I gave up on page 3.

webBear1000 · April 2005

How much funding is this crap taking away from something really worth studying?

Who gives a toss about how people play or feel about the game they play?

Staxic · April 2005

I completed the whole thing - do I win a scholarship?

hapwned · April 2005

Yeah, can we get a scholarship or at least college credit for freely spending our time to further your publishing prowess?

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