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Editorial
Games Research Project, 1st Sortie
The Methods
We conducted an online survey, hosted by Ohio State University, and partnered with GAMA and The Wargamer to assist in distribution. The survey was live from 28 April to 31 May. We registered a URL used to redirect to the survey, to make the web address easier to remember. Ultimately, we received a worldwide response (see statistics) and found over 35 separate unique sites linked to survey. Our final number of participants was 3551.
Even though we wanted to get beyond demographics in our analysis, the Ohio State University Research Foundation requires all surveys to collect certain demographic information. Since we were required to collect it, and it's easy to display, we've included the basic demographic information for the respondents here. As nice as the demographic data is, it doesn’t help to explain why a white male, age 31-40, with a graduate degree, working in the technical field, making $55,000 per year, would choose to play games 1-2 times each week. A demographic profile can allow some guesses at motivation, but cannot by itself provide significant insight in the reasons why gamers play the games they do.
It is important to note that the demographic profiles are not an attempt to map out the population of game players in any representative fashion. We are not trying to say that over 85% of all gamers are from the US. We are saying that 85% of the respondents to the survey are from the US.
So, what motivational factors exist for hobby game players? And are these motivational factors different when controlled for preferences of type/genre of game?
We conducted factor analyses of scaled items to reveal underlying motivations (also known as uses & gratifications). These are intended to get at the reasons that gamers play the games they do. These factors were compared with choices of favorite games, to see if certain motivations led players to certain types of games.
We started with a broad brush, analyzing the population as a whole, rather than breaking down too many sub-categories for the initial analysis.
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