Please spare a minute of your time to be part of a most intresting study! Only 11 small questions that will make a big difference, thanks. What’s this all about? I am a Student in Multimedia Design; my degree level studies require a thesis. This survey is part of that requirement. As such I would ask that those inclined to participate (to those I am extremely grateful) abide by the set rules. This is a serious investigation that will contribute towards my degree study. What is the Goal? This questionnaire was implemented to investigate current theories held on the multiple and changing relationships of player and character in game. It forms part of a further study upon aspects of immersion and engagement within gaming media. The aims of it are to explore and assess gaming media past and present. Ultimately I would hope studies such as this should prove useful in maximising our enjoyment of gaming, lending its uses to gamers and developers alike. Your information, where does it go? Your contribution will form part of a statistical analysis backing up theory work. All that will be used is numerical and statistical results, no personal data will be used in the study apart from age ranges. The collection of personal data, i.e. name will only be used for separation and collation of findings, nothing more. Rules 1. Please....only participate if you fall between the ages of 20-24. 2. Do NOT participate if you have little or no experience with games. 3. Only answer in the directed manner. Thank you, begin ................................................................................ Name: Age: ................................................................................ 1. Do you feel necessary to be able to relate to a controllable game character? Answer: YES/NO ................................................................................ 2. Can you relate to them emotionally while in play? Answer: YES/NO ................................................................................ 3. Are you actively aware of character visuals while in play? Answer: YES/NO ................................................................................ 4. Do alternating perspectives/camera angles impact upon your engagement with a games environment? Answer: YES/NO ................................................................................ 5. Is a first person perspective more immersive than a third i.e. quake vs. tomb raider? Answer: YES/NO ................................................................................ 6. Please specify for the games below in which you play as (become the character), play with (play remotely) or substitute (you replace/cancel out the character). Please note your immediate impression while in control, not as an observer. Answer: B = Play R = Play remotely C = Cancel out. Title Answer Pac-man Tomb Raider Black and White Doom III Super Mario bros Duke Nukem 3D Age of Empires Quake Rome: Total War Metal Gear Solid SimCity 4 Half-Life 2 ................................................................................ 7. Would you agree that an intuitive control style is a very important aspect of game play? Answer: YES/NO ................................................................................ 8. Do you agree that graphics and game play are mutually exclusive of one another? Answer: YES/NO ................................................................................ 9. Do visual elements of a game heavily influence your purchasing decision? Answer: YES/NO ................................................................................ 10. Would you still enjoy a game with high playability and less focus on visuals? Answer: YES/NO ................................................................................ 11. Put these broadly identified elements of game construction into an order of importance, with 1 being of greatest importance. a. Visuals b. Gameplay c. Narrative Answer: 1. 2. 3. ................................................................................ Thank you for your contribution and your time. Rhys Davies

You might wanna do a pretest and / or clarify a few of the questions. Most of them are rather imprecise, in the wording of the question as well as the answer options.
For example:

1. Do you feel necessary to be able to relate to a controllable game character?

too broad - In adventures I think it´s absolutely necessary to be able to relate to the character, same in RPGs. With FPSes it´s not that clear anymore, and for strategy games I don´t think it´s necessary at all.
Then there´s the people who´d answer "It´s not necessary, but I think it´s nice if I can...".

I´m not sure what exactly your course requirements are, but I think you might be better off sticking to one genre, or making a larger questionnaire and looking at the cross-genre differences in player/character relationships..


I didn´t want to come across as preachy, but I´ve conducted my fair share of questionnaire-based tests and those kinds of imprecisions lead to a lot of aggravation and tears down the line when it comes to drawing conclusions from the data (been there, done that). ;)

Yeah, question 1 is very ambiguous - what does 'relate' mean, exactly? What if you haven't played half of the example games? You'd do better to describe types of games than lsting specific examples I think. What constitutes 'less focus on visuals'? A game with average graphics, a game with crappy graphics, a text-based game...? And for questions like 11, for a story-based game they're all vital, while for a puzzle game or something you can forget the narrative.

Thanks for the input guys, problems as you have helped point out. I will revise this and repost today.