Avatar Research Results and Research pt2

[RinaVrinn]

Hello Everyone!

A few years ago, I posted a questionnaire to look into avatar-player relationships. Well, years later, I can post the unpublished paper if anyone is still interested in reading the results:
Avatar Player Relationship Research Results*

Then... in pursuit of my PhD thesis, I'm continuing my research into game user experience and which parts of the gaming experience contribute more to overall game user experience and I would be really grateful if you could please complete the following questionnaire:
Gaming User Experience Questionnaire*

The questionnaire should take approximately 20-25mins and please feel free to leave any feedback in the thread.

Thanks in advance and I hope you all have a pleasant day!

[VelKallor]

Thank you, will review it soon.

Your questionnaire was in depth and I was VERY impressed with the range of questions.

Done in full.

[Knot_D]

Damn I wish my university allows me to make this topic, seems pretty fun to do

[VelKallor]

Rina

In answer to one of your questions..years ago in WOW, I ran into one of those players who was whats called "hard parking", sitting in Stormwind in his "leet raid armour" so that the others could "ooh" and 'ahh" over his gear in admiration.

You know the type.

I looked at him and asked him bluntly "I just have one question..is that you wearing that armour..or is that armour wearing you". He sort of shuffled a little, then walked away. I think the fact he realised he was acting like a clothes horse might have had something to do with it

[Treesus]

Very interesting questionnaire. Had to really mull over my answers for a few questions. The parts about how you view yourself and your in game character really made me think about how, unlike some people, I dont see any of my characters as a version, or even alike to myself, but much more like how id view characters in a book. 10/10 was fun filling out.

[Renalt]

Oh yeah I'm totally interested in this. I'll have to look it over when not at work though.

[GrizzlyTank]

Neat numbers on the sex/char-sex ratio, kinda breaks the notion that every female is secretly a male.

[Catwho]

My current character IS sort of like an idealized version of myself, but previous character designs are more like separate people, with wholly different backgrounds and stories.

[Silverbane]

I question the validity of the methodology behind this work. Typically, when you ask people to volunteer to take a survey but tell them what the subject of the survey is in advance, you get a self-selected sample that skews towards the shallow ends of the bell curve.

I also think the range of possible motivations implied by the previous survey was too limited: for example, it overlooked the possibility that, in a game where you are basically just moving through the game's story with no meaningful option to affect the outcome, some people just want an avatar that they enjoy watching. That seems a reasonable explanation for so many players having opposite-sex avatars.

Personally, I run 8 characters on Faerie alone, ranging from a min-height Lala male to a max-height Viera female, in a full range of coloration. I've run every race but Hrothgar, with apparent ages ranging from (human equivalent, to my eye) late-teens to early-forties, and I'd run older-looking characters given the right options.

None of them are me, an idealized me, my idealized partner, modeled on an existing character, or any of that. I just like the look of them, enjoyed designing them, and enjoy dressing them up in outfits reflecting the classes/jobs they have.

So my avatars are essentially animated flower arrangements I enjoyed making and enjoy looking at, nothing deeper or more meaningful than that. The survey does not seem to comprehend such a straight-forward motive, but among the people I play with (who run multiple characters) it is a common motive.

[BluexBird]

Those were some nice results. Nice to know most of the girls you see online are actually guys. Can't say I'm surprised. lol

One thing I wish you'd put in how our character is perceived is "cute". Or maybe you were trying to cover than with Affectionate. However, I'm pretty sure most Lalafells and perhaps some of the taller races were just trying to go with as cute of a character as they could.