Student in want of help.

[Tsimcha]

I'm a college student going for Computer Simulation and Gaming. My team and I are suppose to ask gamers questions.
So I made up a Gaming Questionnaire and I would like your help.
I'll truly appreciate it and it's about 20 Questions total.

It's on google but you don't need an account to do the questionnaire.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1yOQWGr3Kg5U3FOLN2MlbcsaOqwmTewOyqz45Y4Lqbqo/viewform

Thanks ahead.
And if anyone's interested on my RPG Maker project, here's a link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C4R5oxREN4

 

[Shaz]

Your questionnaire is very biased.


Your list of possible genre is very limited - the typical "what would a young male play?" list. I like many types of games, but NONE of them are in that list, and I don't like any that ARE in that list.


Also your list of "where do you normally purchase" - I have never purchased a game from any of those sources.


You either need to include options that you might not personally choose, or you need to include an "other" option for the rest of us who aren't "young males" Since you don't have any "other" choices, I can't fill out your questionnaire, because I'm unable to answer those questions.

 

[Tsimcha]

I forgot strategy, simulation and racing.
Where do you buy your games?
And thanks for your input. Please tell me more.

 

[Shaz]

What about time management, hidden object, match 3, visual novel, RPG, marble popper, word games, card games, board games?


There are many online portals where you can buy games. There are many stores not in your list (which seems to be USA-specific) that sell games, including chain stores (like Walmart, but not Walmart) as well as dedicated game stores. You cannot possibly list all of them, but you need to allow for "none of the above" as a valid answer.

 

[Tsimcha]

YES!!! You are greatest! Thank you greatly. I can only think as far as what I like so yes, you are correct this set of questionnaire is very biased.

You are free to list the other online portals if you want. I can only think of GOG.

And I have add an other option for most questions thanks to your help.

 

[Shaz]

Big Fish Games and GameHouse are two popular ones for casual players (not into the action-filled genera you have listed). Several seem to have merged or been bought out over the last few years, so I probably couldn't give you a good list.


Keep in mind though, now you only have a list containing the types of games YOU like to play, and the types of games I like to play (or rather the major ones listed by BFG). Others could probably add even more to the list.


If you have the time, maybe you should start off by asking people what they like, where they buy, etc, and let them help you fill in more options, and THEN do your questionnaire based on a wider player base.

 

[Kes]

If your college regularly asks students to compile questionnaires, there is almost certain to be decent guidance for how to construct them adequately.  Check this out with your class supervisor, as constructing a useful questionnaire is actually quite difficult - even the order you put the questions in can significantly affect the results.  If you college does not provide this sort of support, then ask them to do so, as a badly constructed questionnaire will give highly misleading data.

On to just a few specifics:

Although you have listed other types of games, most of your questions relate to fighting style.  If this is the only type of game that you actually want to collect information on, then you should make that clear at the very beginning, and then those who play other types of games can bail out before they waste time looking through the questions.

Think a bit more about your wording in order to avoid ambiguity.  What does "support" mean in the question "Do you support indie developers/games"?  Most people would think that support means "buy", but your next question is "Do you buy indie games?", so either it means something else or you have a duplicate question.  If it's a duplicate the second is a clearer question, but be aware that not every player will know what an indie game is.

Camera angles: what happens if the player hasn't played the game you name to illustrate the term?  Although many players will know the term without having done so, not all players will.

Look at your list of personality types.  No one is going to choose "Boring/dull character" (your bias is so blatant here!) but might choose something like "Ordinary guy".  Note: all your character types are described in such a way as to imply that they are male.  This simply will not do if you want decent data.

You might want to consider adding a question about the country the respondent is based in.  You also might want to consider extending your gender categorisation beyond simply male/female.

 

[Tsimcha]

Believe or not but my college isn't teaching me or my classmates good. We're expected to do everything on our own. My first class is a business class where the market apparently doesn't exist so we're told to do these questionnaires with no direction on how to do them. I have been really criticizing my classes so far and we're currently in our mid-term week.
My second class is a Unity class. Where we're just playing around with Unity. The instructor isn't teaching us anything. We're just monitor in a class doing the free tutorials Unity offers.

So thank you two for judging and criticizing my questionnaire because it has help me a lot.

 

[Chompil]

I tried filling it, but the options are still limited.


I don't like fighting aliens or zombies or anything, not with swords nor with guns.. I prefer 'silly' games with a nice music, and some strategy, where hopefully nobody dies a horrible death. my 'favorite platform' is my PC, and there's no such option. but yeah.. maybe I'm your target audience anyway XD

 

[Tsimcha]

I added discription before that this was more towards an action/combat game.
There's an option for PC, it's Gaming PC.

Thanks for your time though. =)

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Believe or not but my college isn't teaching me or my classmates good. We're expected to do everything on our own. My first class is a business class where the market apparently doesn't exist so we're told to do these questionnaires with no direction on how to do them. I have been really criticizing my classes so far and we're currently in our mid-term week.

My second class is a Unity class. Where we're just playing around with Unity. The instructor isn't teaching us anything. We're just monitor in a class doing the free tutorials Unity offers.

So thank you two for judging and criticizing my questionnaire because it has help me a lot.

I think most high level universities and colleges do that... and you know why? because it's like that in real life... once you land a job, a lot of times, you need to do things on your own... your boss is like, do this! do that!... if you need help, then you should ask for help, don't expect people (your prof for example) to offer you help when you're not asking for help... I think one of the problems that most student have is that they are afraid to ask their instructors, which is a really bad thing... The instructors are there to help you, you just need to ask them to...

College learning is far different than the way that you learned from pre-school up to high school, in which your teachers kind of spoon-feed you with knowledge... In college, it's like I give you the basics then we'll test if you can apply it to more advanced things... Also class starters like that where you are asked to do something without telling you how to is normal and it's normally done so that the professor can gauge the current knowledge and skill level of his students... 

anyway, I'll start answering the questionnaire and tell you if I find any problem with it...

EDIT:

First, if you have other as choice, better have a blank textbox in which people can specify what their answer would be... that way you can have a better grasp of the answers rather than having any outlier as simply "others"

Second, I think Horror is more of a sub-genre like romance etc...

Some genre are really overlapping too but IDK if you can do something about that...

I think rather than a dropdown, the platform where you usually play should be multiple choice type too

You should add something like Story in the what do you look for in a game... right now they seem to all be what you expect from zombie killing shooter games...

The theme part could use a Fantasy choice and also Others

Personally, I think lots of the questions are better off as Answer anything that we like rather than pick your choice type...

 

[Celianna]

Those are some very specific questions, as if you have one type of person in mind, instead of making it all inclusive.


At first, you can select which genres you like. One of them is 'fighting' (that would fall under action by the way). You can choose to not select it, but further down, you ask what they like to fight against, which fighting style they like to use, and which weapon they prefer. If someone didn't answer 'fighting' (or action) at the first question, then these questions don't matter at all to them. Not to mention there's no way to select 'other' or 'not applicable' in that question, so the person who doesn't play action games is forced to pretend they do.


Because of the biased questions that seem to be geared towards one type of player, this gives you some really faulty data.


Also, include an 'other' option when asking for their gender. Always do this.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Actually you can leave it blank, I did...