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MMORPG Survey: The Past, Present and Future.
luteleigh
Member UncommonPosts: 23
This Survey is now closed...thankyou for your participation.
THESIS TITLE:
Massively Multiplayer
Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs): The Past, Present, and Future
My name is Leigh Achterbosch and I am a
Bachelor of Computing Honours student at the University
of Ballarat, Australia. I am
inviting you to participate in a study of player perceptions and expectations
in MMORPGs. This is one of many invitations posted in various MMORPG forums.
The aim of this research is to create a taxonomy or classification system
of the various MMORPGs and their innovative or evolutional features, and to see
if they fall within players' expectations. I also wish to discover what current
players' hopes are for the future of MMORPGs. Currently there is little to no
research in this area, most research about MMORPGs looks into other areas such
as latency and player social interactions.
The study will involve an online survey for
participants of the ages 18 and above. This
survey will cover your experience with this genre of games and your preferences
for various aspects of the game design.
You are invited to participate
by following the link <Survey is closed> and completing the questionnaire
that will take approximately 15 minutes of your time. The online survey will
remain open until an appropriate sample size is collected. I will repost here
when the survey has closed. There are no sensitive questions in this
questionnaire and no questions that can identify you. You will remain anonymous
by completing this survey, and only upon submitting the survey will you be
implying consent to use the data you provide. You may choose to withdraw at any
time before submitting the survey, by closing the browser.
Once a summary of results
are collated towards the end of this year, I will post them in these forums for
your perusal.
Yours sincerely
Leigh Achterbosch
Bachelor of Computing Honours Student
University of Ballarat
lachterbosch@students.ballarat.edu.au
Comments
Please if you have time, participate in this survey, the results may be interesting.
That was a pretty good survey...far better than most i've seen for this genre.
I generally knew if I wanted un-biased results I would have to do it on a universal MMORPG forum. I have avoided posting the invitation in forums specific to any particular game.
Greetings Leigh and thanks for the opportunity to be part of your survey.
As a fellow analyst, albeit one of sociology, it is always encouraging to see someone taking an actual academic interest in game design and development and I very much look forward to the summary come that time.
Until then, consider this a tag for possible future reference and good luck with the rest of your studies mate.
Cheers.
I participated in your Survey, and enjoyed it. Thanks for the chance to take part in the survey.
Qworg, I have heard that name before...
Yes a neverwinter night mod with creature arena - same Qworg perhaps?
I tried to answer your survey but found it lacking in many ways, esp.
all the questions concerning what you call 1st, 2nd and future generation
MMORPGs.
To start with it's completely unclear what separates a 1st generation from a 2nd generation game in your survey, for example Anarchy Online given as example for a 1st generation game with DAoC given as example for a 2nd generation game. Both these games were released in 2001 within a few months of each other I believe.
It's even more unclear what would separate a 3rd generation game from a 2nd generation one with Tabula Rasa mentioned as the one and only candidate for a 3rd generation game. (???)
Sorry for being so negative, it's not meant to flame you but it's meant to give you feedback about your survey.
I maintain this List of Sandbox MMORPGs. Please post or send PM for corrections and suggestions.
Better than a lot I've seen but still feels like you have already decided your position on a few aspects of online gaming.
Still, good luck and thanks for the oportunity to participate
All you guys and gals need to fill out this survey...
It's better be hated for who you are, than loved for who you aren't.
What deserves to be done, deserves to be "well" done...
i~ku~ra
Pretty bad questions.
Like no 7. where you ask whats the worst issues in mmorpgs. The survey is clearly based on the EQ/WOW clones. These are not the only mmorpgs you know. It's the most predominant mmorpg right now, but certainly not something alot of us would want to play.
And "ninja looters" and "Downtime while LFG (Looking for Group)" also only a problem in the item grind mmorpgs that require big groups to do repetitive threadmill pve. Games like UO or AC, and other mmorpgs didnt have any of these problems.
How about adding these issues instead:
Instances - making the world less immersive and dividing the world into small group games.
Item grinding in order to be competitive, and instead of content.
Restrictions - devs seem to be going in the direction of disallowing all player freedom and forcing players down certain paths, setting up unnatural restrictions, like pvp switches, not allowing enemies to communicate, etc.
--
Instead you have listed "Instances" under the list of things you can choose to LIKE in a mmorpg???! Instances don't belong in a mmorpg - you really seem to know very little, I am sorry I have to say this. This is a useless survey.
And WTF:
"Competition for Resource Nodes (eg. metals, wood, etc for crafting items)"
This is listed under things you can choose you dont like in a mmorpg. Thats like one of the things that make a mmorpg GREAT, if you have to fight and compete over ressources.
I am sorry I can't finish this survey.. many things i like about mmorpgs are listed under things to hate, and the other way around.
Khael[SUN]
SUN - peekayin since pong
Webdeveloper on:
http://www.guildofsun.com
http://www.bloodmonarchy.com
and good luck with the thesis.
As i expected from other surveys i have done ,i had to quit filling in answers.Often games will ask your input as to why you quit there game.These questions almost always give misleading answers.
there were a few examples but i will elude to just one to show how misleading they are...."
Did you ever buy items or in game money from an outside service?"
If i answer yes does this mean i condone it?if i answer no does this mean i am against it?
most game economy's are inflated way beyond the design of the game because of bot farming services.So did i answer yes because it was the only way i could afford anything in game?
there were other questions that wanted me to number them 1-5, well most of these questions i would rate all a "1" but because i would have to use 1-5 it would give very inaccurate assumptions.Example if i rated graphics number "1"does this mean i would play a piece of junk game just because the graphics were great?Not at all i would rate graphics/battle system/LAG/ all sorts of things into a must for me to p2p a game.
the questions that had say 15 examples ...i rate 1-5 how do the other 6-15 get rated..they don't!because if i had a choice of anything i would rate something like guilding a 15 outa 15,i would rate it a deffinate waste of time.I had my best times in FFXI and EQ2 playing in static parties as a non guilded player.So by not rating the other 6-15 gives a very inaccurate survey.....sorry but that's me i just look at things in a very realistic manner,there is no simple yes or no.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Alright, we need MORE participation people! This survey might just be the very thing to ensure a better future (or at least, an initiative to start for a blueprint...) of upcoming MMORPGs!
To the OP, may we ask for an extension of permission to repost the survey's link in other fan forums that participants might have access to than yourself?
Good job indeed Leigh!
Ok, Firstly thank you everyone whom participated in this survey and those who kept bumping the thread, you have helped make my thesis a hell of a lot easier!
Secondly, Thanks to your support and those in a few other forums, I
have plenty of data now and not much time to sort through it all, so I
am officially closing the survey.
Sorry to those that disliked the survey...but I am on very limited time, a one year thesis in total. And yeah, there is very very little to do with MMORPGs within journals, conference papers, etc.