Escapists! I need YOU (for science)!

[Summonabatch]

Hello everyone. my name is Eric Ekman and I am a Masters of Cyberpsychology student at the Dun Laoghaire Institute for Art, Design, and Technology. For my master?s thesis, I am exploring video game motivations and behaviors. This study will ask you about your gaming habits and what it is about your favorite games that you find engaging.

I am a lifelong and avid gamer who has been exploring video games and video game culture for many years. When I was an undergraduate in 2006 I remember first trying to study video games in an academic setting and was surprised at how out of touch or out of date most of the studies and reference material was. While this has greatly improved, the academic study of video games is still a nascent discipline. This study hopes to provide a broad perspective of video game motivations and behaviors by not limiting respondents to particular genres or even one particular game. Hopefully, this will provide a more complete picture of what players find engaging about the games they love.

For this study to be successful, I need responses from a sizeable and diverse group of players. Please take a few minutes to answer my questionnaire by clicking the web link below and feel free to pass the link on to your friends and family who play video games, regardless of the what type of gamer they are, or how often they play. If you have any questions, I will occasionally be returning to this thread to reply or you can send me an email at [email protected].

You can find the questionnaire at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GameEngagement

 

[Gurgleflob]

I'd love to help, but i'm under 18. I hope you get what you need.

 

[Frission]

I'll give it a try.

 

[Sixcess]

filled it in. hope it helps. although it wasnt very clear until the end that its about video game addiction

Possibly that was the point, so as not to influence earlier answers?

In any case... completed. I found it quite interesting.

 

[Jamash]

So, what is this Nagafen's Lair code about?

It seems odd that a survey questioning gaming habits and addiction gives you a code for what seems to be a MMO at the end of it... are we suppose to investigate this game and perhaps sign up?

Is seems especially odd that this unsolicited code appears beneath a link to a Gaming Addiction help site, it's like handing someone a card with the Alcoholics Anonymous details on one side and a 2 for 1 drinks voucher on the other.

 

[Frission]

/snip

What other sites are you using? I feel that the survey might be a little skewed if you only use the escapist, knowing the demographic.

So, what is this Nagafen's Lair code about?

It seems odd that a survey questioning gaming habits and addiction gives you a code for what seems to be a MMO at the end of it... are we suppose to investigate this game and perhaps sign up?

Is seems especially odd that this unsolicited code appears beneath a link to a Gaming Addiction help site, it's like handing someone a card with the Alcoholics Anonymous details on one side and a 2 for 1 drinks voucher on the other.

This is also slightly strange.

 

[Summonabatch]

Oh yeah, sorry about the code. A buddy of mine runs an everquest emulator server known as Nagafen's lair. He was willing to give an in game item for completing the survey, so I had to put something up there for him to track who has taken it.

I've also got recruitment posts at ign, pcgamer, penny arcade forums, through friends/facebook, the eq emulator community through my friend, and soon /r gaming as well. Basically anywhere I can think of!

 

[Hawkeye 131]

Hope my contribution helps your endeavors. Love your avatar btw.

-Hawk

 

[Hero in a half shell]

I kinda guessed it was about videogame addiction, pretty well stuctured although an "any further comments" at the very end wouldn't have gone amiss.

All the best for your thesis!

 

[Voulan]

Done and done. I may have gone overboard with explaining why I love the games I chose, but that should be helpful for you anyway.

The last questions were a bit out of left field, though. I answered "no" to almost all of them for legitimate reasons, not just out of denial, I assure you. Probably a chance to comment would have been nice to explain why.