Would somebody like to participate in my academic survey? [CLOSED]

[Neyo.1950]

Hello!I am conducting a survey for my university about character identification in Guild Wars 2. Anybody who feels like participating would help me out a lot.I study Animation & Game and used to be an active Guild Wars 2 Player. The survey takes about 10 minutes.If you are interested in the results I would gladly send them to you once I'm done.

Link (closed)

Thanks in advance! :)

Edit:Thanks again for eveyone who made this possible. I am now closing the survey!

[Seera.5916]

One area that I found hard to do was the question about what content. It wasn't a multiple choice answer.

I use may main for more than just one area of play so I picked the one I use her for mostly. And those with only one character may do everything with their character and not be able to answer that question truthfully.

[Neyo.1950]

Thanks so much for noticing! I accidently chose the wrong kind of question format here. I changed it, so multiple answers are possible now!

[Fenella.2634]

Why is it important where we come from?Honestly, this is a bit strange for a university project. What kind of thesis are you doing? Is this going to be published?

It's quite unusual that there is no official introduction, or link to your university, or anything like that. I often participate in those surveys, but this one seems a bit... different.

[Neyo.1950]

I am a student and this is the first survey I made. If it seems different to you it's because I'm not experienced. It's probably not going to be published.It is not important where you come from, that's why it's not a mandatory question but I think it's interesting to see if origin shows any correlation with other things.

[Fenella.2634]

Ah, alright, thanks for the clarification. :)

[Raknar.4735]

Filled out. I just used my main as reference, since there's no option for more than one character.

[Frostfang.5109]

Filled out! Happy to be Cable to helt ?

[tinymurder.5791]

This isn't the first of these posts I've seen on these forums. I'm always curious about what kind of class is an MMO study useful for.

[Lurana.7506]

Filled out :)

@Fenella.2634 said:It's quite unusual that there is no official introduction, or link to your university, or anything like that. I often participate in those surveys, but this one seems a bit... different.

Yes, the introduction with information about what will be done with the information and data protecting stuff etc. is missing. Normally those things need to be on the very first page.

I wish you good luck with your survey and thesis :) Alles Gute!

@tinymurder.5791 said:This isn't the first of these posts I've seen on these forums. I'm always curious about what kind of class is an MMO study useful for.

It always depends on what you want to find out. I finished my bachelor's thesis in linguistics a few weeks ago. It was about communication amongst german speaking players in Guild Wars 2 (I focused on open world and raids).

[Teratus.2859]

I did it, used my main as a reference too as there was no multiple choice on race, gender etc

[TheLadyOfTheRings.9148]

Done :) I really like the topic you're studying and research in general! Do you mind sharing more about your project? What's your research question? What kind of study is it? :)

And just out of curiosity - and maybe as a suggestion for future research -, why didn't you include a neutral option for the Likert-scale? I feel that for some questions a neutral option would have been more accurate to me and closer to how I feel. In general, it's good to have a neutral option, so I'm curious to why you thought for this case it wasn't necessary. Maybe because of your research goal?

Anyway, good luck with your project. I would love to know more about it if possible :)

[ugrakarma.9416]

..........i checked the research doesn't look have any harm but........, but just warning that in Microsoft hotmail early era , a common scam was pretending to be doing college research, and asking questions about personal preferences. The hotmail security system at time had a option to recover a password based on a personal question like "whats the name of your best friend?" or "whats the name of food your most like?",,,, then i was distracted at a pvp match in other game, and someone on chat scammed me with this babbling about doing university research and i was hacked, this was 8~10 years ago and today most emails system dont use that system of personal questions anymore, ... but still keep your eye open guys...

[Neyo.1950]

First of all, thanks to all who participated so far! I really appreciate it!

@tinymurder.5791 said:This isn't the first of these posts I've seen on these forums. I'm always curious about what kind of class is an MMO study useful for.

I study Animation and Game at Hochschule Darmstadt. I learn how to be a Game Developer there =)

@"TheLadyOfTheRings.9148" said:Done :) I really like the topic you're studying and research in general! Do you mind sharing more about your project? What's your research question? What kind of study is it? :)

And just out of curiosity - and maybe as a suggestion for future research -, why didn't you include a neutral option for the Likert-scale? I feel that for some questions a neutral option would have been more accurate to me and closer to how I feel. In general, it's good to have a neutral option, so I'm curious to why you thought for this case it wasn't necessary. Maybe because of your research goal?

Anyway, good luck with your project. I would love to know more about it if possible :)

My main research topic is identification with non-human characters. Many studies say that players do more easily identify with a character that is similar to them and almost every game (especially AAA games) has human protagonists.In my study I want to check if players identify more with human characters than with for example Charr. So far the race doesn't seem to have that impact.This study is just a small portion of my overall project btw. The main part is the creation of a game in a small team. (In this game we have a non-human protagonist, thats why I chose the topic for the research.)If you are interested in that check out our instagram.

I didn't include a neutral option in the likert-scale because I wanted to see the tendency of the answer, if participants are feeling a bit more pro or contra. It's a technique that scientific surveys sometimes use if they want to find this tendency.

@"ugrakarma.9416" said:..........i checked the research doesn't look have any harm but........, but just warning that in Microsoft hotmail early era , a common scam was pretending to be doing college research, and asking questions about personal preferences. The hotmail security system at time had a option to recover a password based on a personal question like "whats the name of your best friend?" or "whats the name of food your most like?",,,, then i was distracted at a pvp match in other game, and someone on chat scammed me with this babbling about doing university research and i was hacked, this was 8~10 years ago and today most emails system dont use that system of personal questions anymore, ... but still keep your eye open guys...

No worries. The study is completely anonymous. I don't know who gave the answers, so I can't connect them with specific accounts or even connect your personal data with you :) It's a normal google survey. But always keep vigilant about strangers giving you ominous links!

[TheLadyOfTheRings.9148]

@Neyo.1950 said:

My main research topic is identification with non-human characters. Many studies say that players do more easily identify with a character that is similar to them and almost every game (especially AAA games) has human protagonists.In my study I want to check if players identify more with human characters than with for example Charr. So far the race doesn't seem to have that impact.This study is just a small portion of my overall project btw. The main part is the creation of a game in a small team. (In this game we have a non-human protagonist, thats why I chose the topic for the research.)

I didn't include a neutral option in the likert-scale because I wanted to see the tendency of the answer, if participants are feeling a bit more pro or contra. It's a technique that scientific surveys sometimes use if they want to find this tendency.

Thank you for clarifying! :)

[Naxos.2503]

A note perhaps to help you develop your study :Most of your questions seems centered on Physical appearances, and what I perceive to be personality and mindset, is a bit vague (My character is like me) That could be interpreted as both physical, or moral/mental, if you catch my drift.

You may want to develop the Cultural, moral and mental area questions between each races, what is commonly associated to each race in term of behaviour and cultural mindset. Does our character falls into that usual cultural mindset ? Does it stand against it ?

As you mentionned, your study focuses on Non-human races, which by the way, is a very pertinent question, especially considering the population disproportion. On that matter, I think it's particularly important to point out that while races are very different physically, they are -starkly- different from a culture point of view, and some players (of which I will count myself) are actually interested in both the physical And cultural difference. Charrs and Asura are technologically Advanced, but have a completely different society. They have very different focus. I think it's a very important part of Who a character is, and so would be relevant to your study

[Chichimec.9364]

Done. The questions looked interesting. Hope you can share the results and your conclusions with us at some point.

[Sir Vincent III.1286]

@Neyo.1950 said:My main research topic is identification with non-human characters. Many studies say that players do more easily identify with a character that is similar to them and almost every game (especially AAA games) has human protagonists.In my study I want to check if players identify more with human characters than with for example Charr. So far the race doesn't seem to have that impact.

In GW2, it's not really about race or gender. For instance, I gravitate more towards the Olmakhan than the Legions of the north when it comes to the Charrs. Humans are mostly depicted in many RPG as a neutral race where other races has strong preferences that is why humans are the most commonly picked. However, if the race and gender doesn't matter, you'll find a wide variety of characters. Just like in real life, people gravitates more towards culture, for example, than race, gender, etc. because many cultures don't really care about your skin color or sexual preferences or your upbringing.

Harmony is not about being part of a group of the same gender or skin color, it's about being part of a group that shares your culture, values, and moral. With that said, players may have chosen their character's race, gender because the player shares the character's culture, values, or moral. This is what is missing in your survey: cultures, values, and morals. GW2 is heavy in these areas despite what character the player had created.

Your survey might show you data of the WHAT the players have chosen, but it will not show you the data of the WHY the player choose them, and it seems that you're looking to answer the Why. I think it is a missed opportunity. If you look at the GW2 character creation steps, this would have been a good guide to ask why players have chosen what they have chosen when creating their character.

Nevertheless, good luck with your project.

[Neyo.1950]

@Naxos.2503 said:A note perhaps to help you develop your study :Most of your questions seems centered on Physical appearances, and what I perceive to be personality and mindset, is a bit vague (My character is like me) That could be interpreted as both physical, or moral/mental, if you catch my drift.

You may want to develop the Cultural, moral and mental area questions between each races, what is commonly associated to each race in term of behaviour and cultural mindset. Does our character falls into that usual cultural mindset ? Does it stand against it ?

As you mentionned, your study focuses on Non-human races, which by the way, is a very pertinent question, especially considering the population disproportion. On that matter, I think it's particularly important to point out that while races are very different physically, they are -starkly- different from a culture point of view, and some players (of which I will count myself) are actually interested in both the physical And cultural difference. Charrs and Asura are technologically Advanced, but have a completely different society. They have very different focus. I think it's a very important part of Who a character is, and so would be relevant to your study

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:

@"Neyo.1950" said:My main research topic is identification with non-human characters. Many studies say that players do more easily identify with a character that is similar to them and almost every game (especially AAA games) has human protagonists.In my study I want to check if players identify more with human characters than with for example Charr. So far the race doesn't seem to have that impact.

In GW2, it's not really about race or gender. For instance, I gravitate more towards the Olmakhan than the Legions of the north when it comes to the Charrs. Humans are mostly depicted in many RPG as a neutral race where other races has strong preferences that is why humans are the most commonly picked. However, if the race and gender doesn't matter, you'll find a wide variety of characters. Just like in real life, people gravitates more towards culture, for example, than race, gender, etc. because many cultures don't really care about your skin color or sexual preferences or your upbringing.

Harmony is not about being part of a group of the same gender or skin color, it's about being part of a group that shares your culture, values, and moral. With that said, players may have chosen their character's race, gender because the player shares the character's culture, values, or moral. This is what is missing in your survey: cultures, values, and morals. GW2 is heavy in these areas despite what character the player had created.

Your survey might show you data of the WHAT the players have chosen, but it will not show you the data of the WHY the player choose them, and it seems that you're looking to answer the Why. I think it is a missed opportunity. If you look at the GW2 character creation steps, this would have been a good guide to ask why players have chosen what they have chosen when creating their character.

Nevertheless, good luck with your project.

Thank you both for your input! I think you make a similar argument here and I agree. Cultural and moral values are an interesting aspect that will contibute to character identification. Sadly as I am just one person (and my deadline for this research is very close) I can't dig too deep into the question of why people identify with their character. I tried to cover mental similarity (that includes cultural values etc.) in some questions like the "my character is similar to me" or "my character is fascinating" or relatable. But I agree that this should be examined more thoroughly.

@Chichimec.9364 said:Done. The questions looked interesting. Hope you can share the results and your conclusions with us at some point.

I plan on sharing my results as soon as I am finished :)

[ShadowGryphon.6257]

I play multiple races yet this is not offered as a choice.

[XatraZaytrax.2601]

I picked a "favorite" character because I was prompted to do so in the survey. But I really like them all equally, and I have ones of each race and gender. But in playing this game I go full fantasy. As a writer I get to play out my own version of this epic journey using the skeletal backstory and motivations Anet has provided me. So, for that reason, most of my characters are not like me because I have tried hard to develope their own stories. The only thing they have in common is this ideal of being AGENTS OF CHANGE -- the hero that has the ability to do what needs to be done despite personal risk or cost to self. The "good" or "bad" of their action can only be judged by the morals of society -- now and in the future -- but they forge on because as an agent of change, it is in their nature. Sure I created characters that I think look good -- or more to the point the roles I gave them.

All this being said, due to the limitations of this survey format, you really can't get at a players true motivations. So in the future, if you do a survey, you might consider an open ended question seeking a text answer. Sure it may not give hard data, but may serve to give you an idea if your results reflect what people are thinking about their motivations

[Neyo.1950]

@"ShadowGryphon.6257" said:I play multiple races yet this is not offered as a choice.

The survey asks for a single favourite character to answer these questions for because I did not want participants to have to answer these for like 20 different characters. It would have taken too much time. It's important for this survey to examine specific player-character relationships instead of "How do you feel about all of your characters in general?".

@"XatraZaytrax.2601" said:I picked a "favorite" character because I was prompted to do so in the survey. But I really like them all equally, and I have ones of each race and gender. But in playing this game I go full fantasy. As a writer I get to play out my own version of this epic journey using the skeletal backstory and motivations Anet has provided me. So, for that reason, most of my characters are not like me because I have tried hard to develope their own stories. The only thing they have in common is this ideal of being AGENTS OF CHANGE -- the hero that has the ability to do what needs to be done despite personal risk or cost to self. The "good" or "bad" of their action can only be judged by the morals of society -- now and in the future -- but they forge on because as an agent of change, it is in their nature. Sure I created characters that I think look good -- or more to the point the roles I gave them.

All this being said, due to the limitations of this survey format, you really can't get at a players true motivations. So in the future, if you do a survey, you might consider an open ended question seeking a text answer. Sure it may not give hard data, but may serve to give you an idea if your results reflect what people are thinking about their motivations

About the "favourite" it's as I said: I did not want participants to have to take the time to answer all these questions for who knows how many different characters.

And I would have liked to know more about player's motivations in open ended questions but sadly I don't have the capacities to fully look into that. The main question this survey aims to answer is if players identify more with characters that are human. This is because there is little to no scientific research about this. The reasons why each person may identify more with human or non-human characters is too complex a question for me alone to answer with one survey.

[kharmin.7683]

@Neyo.1950 said:So far the race doesn't seem to have that impact.Would stating this fact now maybe add bias to the results? Would new participants who read this skew their answer(s)?

[Sir Vincent III.1286]

@kharmin.7683 said:

@Neyo.1950 said:So far the race doesn't seem to have that impact.Would stating this fact now maybe add bias to the results? Would new participants who read this skew their answer(s)?

lol too late for that.

@Neyo.1950 said:My main research topic is identification with non-human characters. Many studies say that players do more easily identify with a character that is similar to them and almost every game (especially AAA games) has human protagonists.

[Menadena.7482]

@"Neyo.1950" said:Hello!I am conducting a survey for my university about character identification in Guild Wars 2. Anybody who feels like participating would help me out a lot.I study Animation & Game and used to be an active Guild Wars 2 Player. The survey takes about 10 minutes.If you are interested in the results I would gladly send them to you once I'm done.

Link

Thanks in advance! :)

If I had a nickel for every time I saw that question posted on one gaming forum or another ...