Help with research project

[moochew]

Dear Dragon Age:Origins player,

 

Are you interested in telling us about your experiences of playing DA:O as well as helping out with some serious psychological research? We are a team of researchers (who are also gamers) working at Middlesex University in London, England who are interested in people’s experiences and feelings about the characters you spend a lot of

time interacting with in DA:O. If you would like to help, please head over to

 

www.surveymonkey.com/s/DAO

 

If you would prefer to know the answers to a few common questions about this research before deciding whether to participate, please keep reading.

 

 

What do I have to do if I want to participate?

 

This research is carried out over the internet, and you can access it at www.surveymonkey.com/s/DAO

 

The research consists of a number of questionnaires, some about your real-life self, some about your

in-game character, and some about your feelings towards the other characters in the game. The questionnaires are very straightforward, and should take no longer than about twenty minutes to complete. All your responses are anonymous and cannot be linked to you in any way.

 

 

Who are you and why are you doing this?

 

We are a group of psychologists who work within the Department of Psychology at Middlesex University in London, England. You can read about the department at

 

http://www.mdx.ac.uk/aboutus/Schools/hssc/psychology/index.aspx

 

We are interested in how people form emotional attachments to others, in both real-life and game worlds, and DA:O offers a fascinating opportunity to investigate the latter. Because the game involves interactions with a relatively large number of companions, and because these interactions are similar for all players, this provides a unique opportunity to find out what makes people like or dislike others within virtual worlds.

 

 

What’s in it for me?

 

We believe the results of research like this will lead to games which are more exciting, realistic, and enjoyable. A greater understanding of how people form friendships, forge allegiances, and come to love and hate each other will help game companies design games which are more immersive, believable, and fun. So while there is no direct benefit to you other than our deep gratitude for making this research possible, there are indirect benefits in that future games which draw on research like this will offer more enjoyment for us players.

 

 

Are you sponsored by Bioware or some other game company?

 

This research is entirely independent - we are interested in it for its own sake and because we feel it is important. As academics we are free to study what we feel is interesting and potentially useful. We hope you share our feelings that this is an interesting and important topic of investigation.

 

The findings of research such as ours are public property, and we would be delighted to email you a copy of the research once it is completed. The survey contains a link where you can input an email address for this purpose.

 

 

Who can participate?

 

As DA:O has an ESRB certificate of 18, you must be over 18 in order to participate in this research. We also request that you have played through the game to the end on at least one occasion. You will need to confirm that both these things are true before participating. Other than this, there are no limits on who can take part.

 

If you have any questions about this research, we will be visiting these pages on a regular basis and will try to respond promptly. You can also email the lead researcher, Dr Mark Coulson, direct on [email protected]

 

 

A final reminder of the url where you can take the survey.

 

www.surveymonkey.com/s/DAO

 

Thank you for taking the time to read this post.

[Thandal]

Interesting survey. Wonder if the real question is "How deeply do people feel about these (fictional) relationships as measured by how much time they spend considering/composing their responses?"

 

(In which case my data will be waaaaaaay skewed because I was watching a movie on television as I worked through it and only entered info sporadically.)

 

Also seemed that there could have been a place for participants to provide a bit more generalized or contextual feedback for their entries. For instance, how should one reply to "Like/Dislike NPC's Appearance" if one uses face morphs? The response to the appearance of the character AS EXPERIENCED by the player is what's being examined, yet if that very appearance is deliberately, ummmmm, "enhanced" by the player to match own preferences, then of course the connection is easier/stronger.