I want your opinions on video games. For science!

[Gav391]

Hey all,

I've made a survey that tells you what type of gamer personality you are. Are you an Immersion Engineer, or an Escape Artist? Do you battle with real people or seclude to the shadows in a world of your own making?

The reason why I made it is to gather research on people's gaming behaviours. Now as a gamer myself (WoW Heroic Tomb of Sargaras Raider), I feel like I have a good grasp of the gaming community, but as with all things, you need to do the research before making assumptions.

The survey itself is looking to explore information about:
• Different aspects of your personality
• What video games you play
• How much you play by yourself and with other people
• The impacts of your video game use on your daily life

You can find a link to the survey and more information here (you might need to disable adblocker):
https://sydneypsy.qualtrics.com/jfe/for ... LKWzw4yvBz

So let me know what you think. Do you think I guessed right? What did I miss?

One more thing. A survey like this is limited, and doesn't give people a voice to add what they want to say. I really encourage open opinions about the video game community and maybe how the news and public have a negative view of video games. Whenever I present, I add the personal messages people have sent me to encourage other researchers to remember that we are people too, not just numbers. Tell me what you think and let me know if I can share your comments in my presentations.

Thank you,
Gavin

[Erik_Twice]

While I appreciate research on the subject, I fear your survey is flawed in similar ways to other studies we have seen around here. In fact the survery is very similar to others I've done on this forum. Some potential issues:

a) You do not have a representative sample.

I know you might be a student and hence not have access to a represenative sample but you must seriously keep in mind that Racketboy does not represent the average gamer and your sample will be heavily biased by it. People here are way beyond hardcore gamers, own huge collections and have massive amounts of knowledge and expertise. They do not play games that are representative of what most people play.

b) Your categorization is overly broad yet understood as narrow

This is a recurring issue with this kind of studies. You ask me which genres I like but my and the study's definition of the genre and what are its most representative games are very different. In other words, if I say my favourite games are shooters you'll assume I'm talking about Overwatch, not Gradius.

Similarly, the "action" category is very broad and the "cards & gambling" made me uneasy. I don't think Magic: The Gathering or Netrunner which are strategy games which just happen to be card-based should be put in the same bag as gambling.

Also, I suspect rhytmn games classification is poor as it is grouped with "casual gaming" in every other study I've seen.

b) Your questions are very transparent and leading when it comes to addiction
c) Your questions require a knowledge of your game time that is very specific

I mean, I don't know how much I play on average. I don't have a set gaming time, sometimes I play more, sometimes I play less. The number I can give you is not accurate.

c) Usage of recursive categorization

Basically I see an issue where you build a big categorization on top of other categorizations. That is, I'm categorized depending on what kind of games I play, which is a categorization in an on itself.

I think it's not so much about what kind of games you play but how and why you play.

d) "European" is not an ethnicity.

e) Videogaming is not the whole of gaming

Here's an issue with the study: I've gamed a lot this week. Like, 4 whole days of gaming. However it was not videogaming, it was boardgaming and roleplaying. So the study thinks I haven't gamed that much when I actually have.

--

The categories I got seem to be caused by problems with the survey. I got "Reclusive Tactician" and "Masterful Traveller".

Reclusiva Tactician focuses Individual achivement as opposed to competition with others but these two are not exclusive! I can gain individual achivement through competition and I am indeed very competitive, I play in Netrunner tournaments at least once every two weeks! And most of my favourite games are very interactive and very competitive. I also prefer playing against others than to play alone.

I suspect the reason for this was that the study asked me about the videogame I played the most last week, which is a single-player game.

Masterful Traveller presumes that if I like many kinds of games I move quickly from one to another. This is not true, I hate playing new games and would rather play games I already like more than to learn how to play another game.

So dunno, I appreciate you sharing the study with us but I fear it has some of the same flaws we've seen in previous studies.

[Tanooki]

I started it but gave up your NEVER to always questions I found so poorly asked and limited I couldn't even gauge a fair answer. Surveys need to be clean, clear, and concise and not confusing where you can interpret multiple answers to the same question.

[marurun]

Surveys need to be clean, clear, and concise and not confusing where you can interpret multiple answers to the same question.

I disagree with this. Some surveys rely on questions that have answers that are open to interpretation, because sometimes we want to suss out subtle data differences. However, in those cases, there are typically several questions that sort of overlap, so even though you might feel like you are picked answers somewhat arbitrarily, other similar questions will attempt to pick up patterns. If you've ever taken a personality test or survey like the Myers Briggs, you know there's a lot of room for interpretation.

Now, whether or not this particular survey has that kind of overlap and redundancy to confirm or clarify seemingly ambiguous answers, I cannot speak to it. I haven't taken the survey, yet.

[Tanooki]

I have and the questions I'm nitpicking almost are begging to either ask if someone has some personality disorder with games as a crutch, or it's reaching for something else, but there are questions with no suitable answer as designed because 'never' or the other extreme can be interpreted more than one way which makes the entire question dubious due to confusion and misrepresentation of the readers/takers thoughts.

I hit a few that could be taken two ways with the same question which felt like entrapment so I closed it.

[marurun]

Gavin, can you tell us a little more about what you're trying to get at with this survey? Is this academic research? Industry research? Personal curiosity? Also, what kind of oversight or vetting has this questionnaire had?

[ElkinFencer10]

I got bored grading papers, so I took the survey.

[Reprise]

I took part in the survey. A few observations:

1. Interesting questions and analysis.
2. I'm afraid my love of Splatoon 2 falsely adjusted my results. I'm really not a huge online gamer or a huge fan of social interaction in games. I just love Splatoon a lot...
3. I'm pretty sure 'European' isn't an ethnicity. It's a nationality, at best. But I'm just being pedantic.

[Key-Glyph]

Interesting survey. I'm not done, but I wanted to write comments as I went along, because I'm afraid my answers are not actually what your questions were asking for.

RPGs: When asked how much I liked Role Playing Games, I thought the survey meant things like Final Fantasy (JRPGs), but instead the examples given were Mass Effect, WoW, and Fallout.. I really wasn't sure how to answer this, because Mass Effect is one of my top games of all time, but I don't play MMORPGs, and am typically not very interested in JRPGs. It seems too broad -- especially the inclusion of an MMORPG, which is really quite distinct.

Time Played: I really have no idea how much time I spent playing video games and feel bad that I was required to provide a number. I wouldn't base any of your research on the self-reporting of gamers' gaming time. I just made something up that sounded halfway decent.

Playing Socially: I'm not sure what the definition of "socially" is. Do you mean multiplayer interactions, or do you mean "in the room with someone else" or "discussing your experiences with friends?" I hardly ever multiplay, but watching/showcasing/discussing video game adventures is something I constantly do.

How Much Do You Enjoy Social Experiences Outside of Video Games: I answered this as if it meant "hanging out with friends" and not "partaking in specifically video game-themed communities and events."

Time Played Part 2: I'm being asked for more numbers and I really feel guilty putting things in. There is no way I can calculate how much I've played in the last few days, much a weekly average for the past six months.

And now I'm done!

All that said, I'm a Reclusive Tactician and Immersion Engineer, which seems like it hits the nail on the head. I'd be interested to see what the other results are.