Thursday, May 27, 2021

Survey: Relation Between Video Gamers' Roles and Play Styles with Real-Life Behavior (Discussion Part 1)

For someone who REALLY likes knowing other people's opinions, this is weird for me 'cause this is the first time I've made an actual survey with Google Forms and published it. It's on r/HytaleInfo, by the way.

But anyway, on to serious stuff.

This survey is part of my final requirement for graduation from the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU). It aims to identify possible relationships (or lack thereof) between players' behavior in video games and in real life, with a focus on people waiting for the release of Hytale due to their varied gaming backgrounds.

You can take this survey here. (You don't need to know Hytale.)

Anyway, to mentally prepare myself to explain the questions I chose in academic language, I first wanna try it in my own natural way of talking. Not all of the content in this discussion post will be in my final draft, though.

I know the name of the person who's going to review my final draft (he has taught me in a previous course), though I'm not allowed to contact him. For safety, I'll assume he knows almost nothing about video games so I'll explain video game terms in the final draft.

The #1 Question

Does aggressive video game behavior equal aggressive behavior in real life, for example? Conversely, does passive video game behavior equal passive real-life behavior?

Hytale-Specific Questions

The "roleplay/social elements" part was heavily inspired by VRChat. Unlike VRChat, though, Hytale's modding tools offer almost endless possibilities, allowing players to accurately roleplay almost any character.
Maybe I can actually use Xingqiu's Raincutter with a Xingqiu skin, for example.

I was initially drawn into Hytale by its similarity to Minecraft combined with its very original elements and the Hypixel Studios name, which is why I also included this.

"Bugs/glitches" was literally the first thing I thought when writing the question "What worries you the most about Hytale?". Freakin' Cyberpunk 2077.

Riot Games is owned by Tencent, a Chinese company that is partially controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which is why I added the Riot Games thing. 

You might be surprised as to why I included "Too early release". That's mainly aimed towards me because I'm not yet ready to do full-time YouTube; I still suck at editing videos. I also want to focus on English tutoring and firetrucking school.
The way I would justify it in my final draft is, "Some gamers may think an early release is too rushed, similar to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim which has missing content such as events in the Skyrim Civil War." I might change it, though; it feels shallow, specific, and boring to those who don't know Skyrim.

Video Game Behavior

Combat-Based Games

This was inspired by my Minecraft experience. I observe that most players do things to help themselves in team games, not necessarily to help other players. They only give items when they have excesses. When I talk tactics, they often don't pay attention.

Interestingly, when I first played VALORANT, I noticed a lot of players played Sage, a healer, in games with random strangers. My hypothesis was that most gamers aren't interested in heavily support-oriented roles.

Stealth was included because, for some players, it can be a bore chore because of how slow it can be.

Competitive Multiplayer

There's more to multiplayer than simply killing every enemy player within sight, after all.

I usually can't keep up with whatever the heck people talk about in everyday situations because I don't pay attention to many worldwide trends.

Of course, I'm sure there's a meta slave or two who REALLY likes talking tactics.

It usually doesn't happen in-game, but discussion about a game's developers often happens outside of the game, like on social media and in forums. I included it anyway 'cause, often, when gamers talk about devs, it's about suggesting/speculating on new features or complaining about content in the game.

Some Discord servers have rules against political topics and I know politics can be an extremely sensitive topic, which is why I included this question.

RPG Questions

The classes were heavily inspired by the 4 classes in the D&D 5e Basic Rules: Fighter, Rogue, Cleric, and Wizard. Many fantasy RPG classes in other games, including D&D itself, are variations and/or combinations of these classes, but I wanted to keep things simple.

As knowledgeable as I am about RPGs in general, I don't play a lot of games in general, instead preferring to heavily focus on a few games, which is why I added a blank for "Other Character Classes".

Real-Life Behavior

I admit this section has a lot of limitations. We're not exactly the best judges of ourselves or other people, after all.

The four items in the "Would your family members or friends describe you with the following adjectives?" question are based on the DISC personalities, but I chose to use only positive and common adjectives.

My hypothesis is most people are much shyer in dating compared to other situations, which is why I included questions that focus on dating.

Part 2?

I admit this post is mostly filler 'cause I've been going through some emotional problems that I'd rather not discuss to preserve my honor.

In Part 2, I'll discuss my own answers to my survey.

I had a few friends test the survey before I published it, but for their privacy, I won't discuss their answers.

Hopefully, I won't get in trouble with UPOU for publishing my own answers.

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