Need Your Help! (PC Gaming Survey)

[Gertbeef]

I am working on a research project to finish up my degree and the focus is on Piracy of Games, the current method of using DRM to stop it, and alternative revenue streams for Developers such as in-game advertising and things along those lines. Anyway, I have to do primary research so I've thrown together a quick survey and see if I could get some folks here to help me out with.

It's less than 20 questions and should take maybe 5 minutes to do. I'd really appreciate anyone taking the time to fill it out. I'm a late bloomer to finishing college, and I'm ready to get this over with but I need a little help before I can. 

Not trying to start another piracy/DRM debate either, I just picked a topic that would cover everything I had to for my final paper and was on a subject that interested me. I'm not too big on fighting on the subject otherwise!

Thanks everyone. I'd much appreciate it if you could also pass the link on to any friends/relatives you have who would fit the bill as well. The DRM questions are obviously mostly geared towards PC gamers, but console gamers are needed as well and can just ignore those.

http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/survey.zgi?p=WEB228K9L6GXA8

[Purge]

Done.

[EngineNo9]

Yeah, sure thing.  I'd be interested to read your findings when you're done.  

[Lord Percy]

Done. What are you majoring in?

[Arclight]

Felt like a developers quiz on whether in game marketing might be a way to go to generate revenue..

I'd play a game for free and put up with "Coke" bill boards..........

[Gertbeef]

Majoring in Computer Operations Technology, so a pretty generic tech degree, but if there's an opportunity to bring gaming into work then I'm all for it.

I will definitely share the results of this survey. I meant to make the results public to anyone taking it, but I must have missed that option or it's not available.

Thanks again for taking it, and keep 'em coming.

[Arkon]

Done

[Huw the Poo]

Done.  I think I got them all right, too!

[Godzilla Blitz]

Done, but I wonder about the question:
Would you ever pirate a game?

I wonder if a better question would ask about frequency of pirating, or ratio of pirated games to purchased games.

[Gertbeef]

Done, but I wonder about the question:
Would you ever pirate a game?

I wonder if a better question would ask about frequency of pirating, or ratio of pirated games to purchased games.

Yeah, that's a question looking back on I think is almost throwaway. I'm not sure what I can really gain from that question. I could go to a torrent site or some such and get some figures if I need for people downloading games or look at numbers elsewhere.

Ratio/Frequency would be pretty interesting.

I think my reasoning with the question was that I had a feeling people would have trouble being honest with that question even in anonymous setting so I tried to word it in a non-threatening way.

Think the main thing I  learned from this experience is that writing a survey is nowhere near as simple as you'd think it be. Definitely have a new found respect for people who can do that well.

[Razgon]

done!

and about surveys - its an art - its also something people study for years, to be able to make a survey that actually works. I've seen firsthand major companies doing surveys specifically tailored to give them one specific result, to present to a board of directors...

[sgoldj]

Done

[Arnir]

Done, but a minor pet peeve of mine. Action/Adventure are NOT the same things.  Why do they get lumped together as the same type of game?  Adventure gamers have brutal arguments over adding action elements to adventure games.  Such classifications can skew the results.  Rant over.

[Gertbeef]

Done, but a minor pet peeve of mine. Action/Adventure are NOT the same things.  Why do they get lumped together as the same type of game?  Adventure gamers have brutal arguments over adding action elements to adventure games.  Such classifications can skew the results.  Rant over.

Oh I agree, they're extremely broad generalizations in general. I mostly lumped them because that seems to be the general consensus way to do it in surveys I compared with. All the categories are iffy, a person who likes sports games could be playing something like Football Manager or maybe Blitz. It's impossible to hit everything. It's all perspective I suppose, I'm a traditional adventure gamer who prefers the classic Sierra, LucasArts style adventures, but I'd still classify something like Uncharted or Tomb Raider as an Adventure game.

I'm not looking to take much of anything from this question unless I find some correlation to people who like a certain type of game being more inclined to notice advertising and remember where/what it was from. The main thing was I didn't want the survey to be bogged down with too many classifications for games.

That said, I understand your rant, and if I was doing something more based on the classifications I definitely would have broken it down more.

[Beer Goggles]

Done with 18/20 correct.

[Canuck]

Gah the survey's done! I feel left out.  I should go vent by pirating a game!