Need gamers/developers to answer few questions
by Kia · in General Discussion · 08/15/2008 (2:49 pm) · 3 replies
Hello!
I'm a student at the University of Nottingham working on my MA dissertation. I've chosen to study user motivations to participate in value creating activities in online gaming communities. My research focuses on identifying user motives to participate in sharing game-related ideas and user-generated content (i.e. add-ons, new scenarios, maps, artwork etc).
I will be listing my questions in this post and would really appreciate it if those of you who are able to answer a given question shared your answers with me. I am open to conducting it on this thread or through alternative online methods which might be more convenient for you (chat, email etc). Please let me know through email if you'd like to answer the questions through PM, chat, email etc.
For issues of privacy and confidentiality I will give participating users pseudonyms in the body of my work unless you allow me to use your usernames when quoting your answers in my dissertation.
I am willing to provide a copy of my findings to any user that participates if they contact me and request one. If you have any additional questions regarding my research please do not hesitate to contact me.
Many thanks in advance!
I'm a student at the University of Nottingham working on my MA dissertation. I've chosen to study user motivations to participate in value creating activities in online gaming communities. My research focuses on identifying user motives to participate in sharing game-related ideas and user-generated content (i.e. add-ons, new scenarios, maps, artwork etc).
I will be listing my questions in this post and would really appreciate it if those of you who are able to answer a given question shared your answers with me. I am open to conducting it on this thread or through alternative online methods which might be more convenient for you (chat, email etc). Please let me know through email if you'd like to answer the questions through PM, chat, email etc.
For issues of privacy and confidentiality I will give participating users pseudonyms in the body of my work unless you allow me to use your usernames when quoting your answers in my dissertation.
I am willing to provide a copy of my findings to any user that participates if they contact me and request one. If you have any additional questions regarding my research please do not hesitate to contact me.
Many thanks in advance!
#2
I will however, speak directly to what I think is the heart of your question, which seems to be.. "Why are we here". That I'm happy to answer, speaking strictly for myself, but I'm not sure it's information that's dissertation worthy.
Simply, one starts by coming to this resource for answers. You don't understand how to use something, you are looking for suggestions, something's broken -- whatever it is -- you're looking for an answer. Quite often, you get the answer, and it's a good one. So you're encouraged, when the next problem comes along, to try again.
After awhile, you've come to have received quite a bit of useful information from the community. If you've any sort of moral fiber at all, at some point you begin to think that perhaps you want to share something back. Most of us are uncomfortable after so long of simply taking, and like to ease our conscience by offering something in return. So you create your own resource, or you try to answer other people's questions, or you provide discussion or tips or articles -- you contribute.
And out of that take and give, a community thrives.
There is, finally one other reason as well. All of us are here building something, and most of us are hopeful that along the way we'll be able to sell it ourselves. To do that, you must make acquaintances. You must network. And participating in the community in which you are practicing your profession is the best and most sure way of networking. I think it was Jeff Tunnel whom, somewhere in his blog, made the statement, You must participate in the social framework of the industry in which you are partaking. Don't hold me to the letter of that quote, but I couldn't agree more. It's important. Plus it's just nice. :)
Best of luck with your survey, and your dissertation.
08/15/2008 (3:11 pm)
Wow. Well I wish you the best of luck. I think I'm probably outside your target demographic, so I won't be providing my age. I'm also not all the keen on providing marketeers data on how they can best appeal to the development community, so I'm not going to answer your survey, directly. I will however, speak directly to what I think is the heart of your question, which seems to be.. "Why are we here". That I'm happy to answer, speaking strictly for myself, but I'm not sure it's information that's dissertation worthy.
Simply, one starts by coming to this resource for answers. You don't understand how to use something, you are looking for suggestions, something's broken -- whatever it is -- you're looking for an answer. Quite often, you get the answer, and it's a good one. So you're encouraged, when the next problem comes along, to try again.
After awhile, you've come to have received quite a bit of useful information from the community. If you've any sort of moral fiber at all, at some point you begin to think that perhaps you want to share something back. Most of us are uncomfortable after so long of simply taking, and like to ease our conscience by offering something in return. So you create your own resource, or you try to answer other people's questions, or you provide discussion or tips or articles -- you contribute.
And out of that take and give, a community thrives.
There is, finally one other reason as well. All of us are here building something, and most of us are hopeful that along the way we'll be able to sell it ourselves. To do that, you must make acquaintances. You must network. And participating in the community in which you are practicing your profession is the best and most sure way of networking. I think it was Jeff Tunnel whom, somewhere in his blog, made the statement, You must participate in the social framework of the industry in which you are partaking. Don't hold me to the letter of that quote, but I couldn't agree more. It's important. Plus it's just nice. :)
Best of luck with your survey, and your dissertation.
#3
Thanks for your insightful reply. I don't have a specific target demographic so you need not worry about that ;) (i only asked of that for descriptive purposes) but I respect your decision if you don't want to disclose that information. My topic really deals with two parts - why you contribute (or don't) with ideas and why you contribute (or don't) with user-generated content. You've shared your thoughts on the first part but perhaps you have some thoughts on the second part as well?
08/15/2008 (3:30 pm)
Hi Devon!Thanks for your insightful reply. I don't have a specific target demographic so you need not worry about that ;) (i only asked of that for descriptive purposes) but I respect your decision if you don't want to disclose that information. My topic really deals with two parts - why you contribute (or don't) with ideas and why you contribute (or don't) with user-generated content. You've shared your thoughts on the first part but perhaps you have some thoughts on the second part as well?
Kia
To give you an idea of the motives (motivations to do something) that I'm trying to establish, some of the following listed examples might be related to your answers although I'm not excluding other motives which might arise from your answers: fun, curiosity, quality-assurance, information-seeking, developing skills/gaining knowledge, influence game publishers (companies), recognition, career opportunities, passionate about brand, being helpful, making friends, and feelings of obligation to the community.
The interview questions are listed below. Please answer those that you are able to.
If you reply on the thread please list your answers by referring to the number of the question (i.e. #1, # 2, #3...) this way I will be able to see which question you are referring to.
I would appreciate it if you could avoid using short answers but try to elaborate your answers and cover everything which you feel is relevant to the questions that I'm asking. I encourage you to be descriptive in your answers and even give examples if you feel it's relevant.
Also I'm sure you don't have just one reason for any given answer but that there are several reasons you have in sharing information and creating user-generated content; for example one reason for engaging in discussions on the community could be because you want to learn something new and make new friends etc.
If any of your answers are the same as for other questions you can just copy paste your first answer (if it's exactly the same reasons).
Finally, please state your age and gender so that I can have an idea regarding the characteristics of the sample that has responded.
These are the interview questions (please answer those which you are able to):
1. Why do you join the online gaming community?
2. Why do you share your ideas/recommendations/experiences/criticism regarding the game with other users in the community?
3. Why do you share your ideas/recommendations/experiences/criticism with game publishers?
4. Have you ever had any ideas/recommendations/experiences/criticism about the game which you have not shared? If so why not?
5. Have you ever created any user-generated content (innovations) for the game (i.e. creating new scenarios, maps, graphics, artwork, modding etc)? If so why?
6. What extra content have you created and how did you create it?
7. If you have created user-generated content (innovation) related to the game and shared it with other users in the community why have you done so?
8. If you have created user-generated content (innovation) related to the game and shared it with game developers, why have you done so?
9. Have you ever created some user-generated content but not shared it? If so why?
10. If you have never created any user-generated content (innovation), what is the reason for not doing so?
11. Have you ever used other peoples' user-generated content? If so why?
12. How can gaming publishers further encourage community users to share ideas/recommendations/criticism and share user-generated game content with them on gaming communities?
13. Do you have any other comments which you feel relevant as to why you share your ideas and user-generated content (innovations) related to the game with other users in the community or game developers?