FFXIV Player Survey

[Nixxe]

When you asked about general MMORPG preferences, it was a bit difficult to answer because my answer to a few of the questions are game or even content specific. For instance, I'm generally not very concerned with min/maxing in FFXIV or SWTOR at all, but in WoW I was downright compulsive about it, but I was also doing serious content there.

[Zenier]

When you asked about general MMORPG preferences, it was a bit difficult to answer because my answer to a few of the questions are game or even content specific. For instance, I'm generally not very concerned with min/maxing in FFXIV or SWTOR at all, but in WoW I was downright compulsive about it, but I was also doing serious content there.

Yeah, the shift to general MMORPG preferences is due to that section using Nick Yee's "Game Play Motivations" scale from 2006 (that is aimed specifically at MMORPGs, despite the name). And if possible I do not want to edit already existing scales so that the data I have, is comparable to earlier publications using it. Also, it gives me better grounds to work on the data to test my hypotheses.

[Nixxe]

Yeah, the shift to general MMORPG preferences is due to that section using Nick Yee's "Game Play Motivations" scale from 2006 (that is aimed specifically at MMORPGs, despite the name). And if possible I do not want to edit already existing scales so that the data I have, is comparable to earlier publications using it. Also, it gives me better grounds to work on the data to test my hypotheses.

That makes sense then. However, it's a general concern of mine with any sort of research based surveys where very often here is a lack of nuance in the questions. Obviously you can't provide appropriate nuance or granularity to cover every person because the survey needs discrete categories to work with and I know that's partly to force people to pick answers as well as make those answers categorizable in a way letting them waffle about in a noncommittal fashion wouldn't, but I always wonder if it might not impact the final conclusions of the research. Using my example, for instance, forced to choose only one answer, which do I pick? Do I pick WoW, the game that has decidedly been my primary MMORPG for about a decade or do I pick the other games I play less that may more broadly represent my preferences? I don't think there's really a correct answer here, but it's noise I'm always left wondering about when it comes to research based on surveys and self-reporting.

[Zenier]

*snip*

Indeed, this is one of the issues I realized myself. I, too, focus differently in different games (and MMORPGs) and thus answering some of these surveys is hard and I find myself thinking the same way you do. And no, there is no one correct answer, but maybe in a future technology, theories and studies develop ways to remove this issue amongst others.

There are indeed issues with self-reporting surveys, but I think there are aspects of game play and players that at this time are infeasible to study in other ways. Even with access to server data (as is the case in some surveys and publications) not everything can be gathered without asking players themselves.

However, it means that there is still a lot of work to do in this area of study and the only way is forward.