Curse

Conani · Nov 17, 2008, 03:44 PM // 15:44

Hi,

I've been browsing through the forum and didn’t see anything wrong with posting this, if there is then remove it moderators!

I'm currently gathering data for my thesis. I’m using an online questionnaire to explore MMORPGs. If anyone has any free time could you please fill it in? It's confidential and it’s exploring the psychosocial effects of online game playing.

I want as many participants as possible. So your participation would be greatly appreciated.

The link below provides you with more details about my project;

http://ess.ntu.ac.uk/surveys/zhussain.htm

Here is the link to the questionnaire;

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?s...dfN9iqmQ_3d_3d

Sorry for the shameless plug,

Thank you for your time.

See ya

Aera · Nov 17, 2008, 05:01 PM // 17:01

Done.

All I can say is that the survey is quite aimed at WoW players :/

Snograt · Nov 17, 2008, 06:49 PM // 18:49

Annoyingly WoW-centric. Understandable, given its dominance, I suppose. Still irritating, though :/

Completed it anyway - good luck with this.

I pwnd U · Nov 17, 2008, 06:53 PM // 18:53

Done. Good luck.

Abedeus · Nov 17, 2008, 07:11 PM // 19:11

Completed, but same as Snograt and Aera - Too many questions for WoW players. Race in GW? Heh, good one.

zwei2stein · Nov 17, 2008, 08:31 PM // 20:31

I dont want to be overly negative but: Thesis about MMORPGs is just ... overdone. Its like every other student that also plays MMOs does one about them.

Plus I suspect most of disertation like this end up biased based on what author likes/enjoys/experienced.

I strongly suggest doing something more original, because while attept to join ones personal interests with academical pursuits is commendable, something like this will be later quite undesirable in your CV when applying for job. (I have seen coleagues that handle recruitment literally throw CVs with likes of "research of mmo player habits" thesis to bin, for fairly obvious reasons.)

answered your stuff btw.

Pariah · Nov 17, 2008, 08:46 PM // 20:46

I did it. Good luck.

Conani · Nov 19, 2008, 11:48 AM // 11:48

Hi people,

Thanks for completing the survey. And thanks for the constructive criticism, I never thought about the WoW orientation. Thanks for picking that up.

I try to be objective as possible, however I can only talk about things which have come up in the data. So if gamers like to play with PUGs rather than solo then that's what I'll say. The data from gamers influence my writing which is normal and objective.

Hey Zwei2Stein I get your point, I know the MMORPG research thesis could look bad on my CV now that you've mentioned it. I never thought about it in that way.

Could you please suggest some original topic areas to research in the future? I'd like to hear from all you gamers out there. Peace!!!

I haven't back from any of you guys and girls (especially snograt, Aera, Abedeus or zwei2stein). I'd like to hear from you soon.

Abedeus · Nov 21, 2008, 03:01 PM // 15:01

Well, hard to tell. I'd say something about piracy, if you really want to make something about gamers.

Ask about what people think about piracy, why they (if they do) pirate games, what would make them change their mind...

That's probably what I'd do.

zwei2stein · Nov 21, 2008, 03:31 PM // 15:31

Piracy is good idea because when well done it goes through a lot of important stuff:

Law
Encryption
Business
Social networks
Personal politics

Successful people usually work on topics that are multi-field. (Buddy works on how website user populations emerge and migrate to other sites, factors that help or hinder migration and how all that translates to economic viability of sites.)

Snograt · Nov 22, 2008, 08:19 PM // 20:19

Don't ask me - I never entered "further" education. I live on my intellect, rather than my education.

Does that make sense? I think I know what I mean ^^

Conani · Nov 24, 2008, 06:04 PM // 18:04

Hi all,

Thanks for the feedback. Piracy is a undr-researched area. The topics you mentioned could involve large groups of people (e.g., lawyers, businesses, social networking sites, etc.,).

I was thinking of getting the gamers and their online communities involved in research as they tend to be the people who experience MMORPGs. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

pamelf · Nov 24, 2008, 06:30 PM // 18:30

I've done the survey for you, but I found the questions to be assumptive. They weren't general enough to be useful for an MMORPG community as a whole. First example is the wording of the 6th question "How many MMO's are you currently subscribed to?" As GW is a non-subscription MMORPG (read CoRPG) this question is already irrellevant to this particular community. Then there are the 'race' issues already raised. For me the questionnaire seems generally to not have much intimate knowledge of the games it's researching... for instance, Guild Wars does not make you choose between PvE and PvP and so for this particular game you would need another option under that question for people who play both, because both are very important aspects of this game. Not to mention there are many, many MMORPG's out there all with a different business model, and all with a different style of gameplay.

The question "Have others unsuccessfully tried to reduce your MMORPG use?" assumes that people HAVE tried to reduce your MMORPG use thus making yet ANOTHER assumption... also, what did you mean by "having a self-sufficient character"? That question made absolutely no sense to me.

I wish you luck in your thesis, I've done one myself and know how difficult and stressful they can be, but frankly this questionnaire is not a good start in my opinion. It is biased, assumptive and leading. Perhaps learn a little more about the MMO/Co/JRPG community before constructing surveys like this. For general interest it's fine, but frankly as an academic study it is incredibly poor.

That said though, I would be interested in the results if you would be happy to post them here once the survey closes?

Abedeus · Nov 24, 2008, 06:49 PM // 18:49

Quote:

"having a self-sufficient character"

For example:

In City of Heroes, you can create a Blaster with total offense, which won't, however, last long time against a boss or a pack of monsters higher level than you (2-3 levels). He's a burst in PvE, he MUST give everything he's got and hope enemies will fall.

Often, such character isn't self-sufficient.

Another example - you can choose to play a Defender, which CAN deal damage, but he will have a really hard time killing enemies. He's semi-sufficient character, as he can survive long time against enemies, and might kill them, but it's way too boring.

And then you have a Controller, that can withstand a boss thanks to Control powers (Illusion, Mind, Gravity, Ice), but also defend himself using either defensive powers (like Force Field) or heal damage (Empathy, Radiation Emission, Kinetics).

Out of those three, Controller is obviously the most self-sufficient character (which is why I play him). But characters depending on other players usually exceed in their field. Controller will NEVER heal as good as a Defender, tank as good as Tanker or kill as fast as Blaster.

In Guild Wars, that character would be a Ritualist or a Dervish - they both can withstand some time 1 vs 1 and don't need that much support from team as other characters.

Conani · Nov 26, 2008, 10:49 AM // 10:49

Hey Abedeus and Pamelf,

Thank you for the information. Pamelf thank you very much for your views and criticisms. I acknowledge the points you have made they are well justified. I didn't know that Guild Wars had a joint server. As you mentioned some of the questions may be assumptive and leading but you can answer with a "strongly disagree" response.

I do need to do more research into MMORPGs, I'm a bit of a rookie in this area. When writing up my thesis I have to be objective and let the results of my project guide my conclusions.

Please email me if you would like me to send you the results. I need your email address to do this.

So, in Guild Wars what do have instead of Races and Profesisons?

Abedeus · Nov 26, 2008, 04:11 PM // 16:11

Quote:

So, in Guild Wars what do have instead of Races and Profesisons?

You know you could just look around the forum and you would notice 10 characters.

Quote:

I do need to do more research into MMORPGs, I'm a bit of a rookie in this area.

Wait, wait. Why do you do a survey about MMORPGs if you have no idea what are you asking about? If I were you, I would do something I have at least DECENT idea about.

Conani · Nov 28, 2008, 11:23 AM // 11:23

Hey,

I have a lot of knowledge of MMORPGs in terms of how they work and how to play them. But I'm rookie in-game. I'm a low-level player (this is because my life tends to be busy so I don't get to play MMORPGs that often). That's what I meant by being a rookie.

I've been playing MMORPGs for almost 1 year and a half now. So I have a quite a bit of knowledge of MMORPGs. Sorry if I misled you in my previous post.

I found these interesting stories today. This is the type of area I would like to explore with my research.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4173396.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6708417.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4253647.stm

What do you think of the stories? Has anyone made a fortune from playing MMORPGs?

So I'm not a 'real' rookie!!

Unlucky Slayer Edit: Use the Edit Button next time instead of multiple posts.

Abedeus · Dec 01, 2008, 02:32 PM // 14:32

Uhm. No, if you have played only 1 year and a half, you ARE a rookie.

You stop being a rookie after 3-4 years of online game. Maybe you are a rookie, because you use a word "rookie". Most of the "non-rookies" use the term "newbie".

Quote:

I have a lot of knowledge of MMORPGs in terms of how they work and how to play them.

If you gained a lot of knowledge about MMORPGs after a year and you claim to know how to play them... You are not. It's REALLY hard to master a game or grasp the concept of "knowing how to play" in ANY game in less then two years.

For example, I'm a Warhammer Online "pro", because I've been with the game for four months. But there are people with twice that much time spent (closed beta). So compared to them, I know nothing about the game.

Also, why did you respond to your own post after 3 days? Lag? xd

Sage01 · Dec 02, 2008, 03:53 AM // 03:53

Done. Good luck with this

a more general mmo survey would probably be better though

Conani · Dec 02, 2008, 05:16 PM // 17:16

Thanks for taking part. I must learn from my mistakes and make a more generic survey next time. Hopefully.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Abedeus

Uhm. No, if you have played only 1 year and a half, you ARE a rookie.

You stop being a rookie after 3-4 years of online game. Maybe you are a rookie, because you use a word "rookie". Most of the "non-rookies" use the term "newbie".

If you gained a lot of knowledge about MMORPGs after a year and you claim to know how to play them... You are not. It's REALLY hard to master a game or grasp the concept of "knowing how to play" in ANY game in less then two years.

For example, I'm a Warhammer Online "pro", because I've been with the game for four months. But there are people with twice that much time spent (closed beta). So compared to them, I know nothing about the game.

Dude, I ain't a rookie or a newbie. I'm a gamer with many years of experience. I've played on the C64, Sega MasterSystem, Sega MegaDrive, SNES, PS1 and PS2, the Wii. I have a copy of City of Heroes and LOTRO. And I'm currently a WoW player. I know how to play MMORPGs and video games.

I replied to my post by mistake dude. My bad. I think the post lagged that's why.

How long have you been playing MMORPGs? Have you ever been called a newb?