Communication in WoW. Survey

[adamoszkovics]

Hi!

My name is Adam Kolozsvari, and I'm from Romania. I'm a student and I'm writing my license exam about the communication in MMORPG-s . You can help me a lot if you complete this survey ( its fast).

How do you complete it? You can copy past it to your response box and write in your answers. Or you can send me the answers by e-mail. Email address removed for Adam's protection. Please PM him if you want his email address. ~ Cairenn

When I'm done I will post my results.

I. Age:

II. Gender:

III. Hours played in a week? :

IV. For how long do you play WoW? :

V. Which factors are important for you in the game? You can choose more options: 1. Progress, 2. Power, 3. Competition, 4. Achievements 5. Provoke others, 6. Dominate others, 7. Socializing, making friends, 8. Helping others, 9. Deeper relationships, 10. Teamwork, collaboration, 11. Finding rare items, 12. Discovering the world, 13. Trade, 14. Story, 15. Role-playing, 16. Appearance of the character, 17. Relaxing, 18. Escaping from real world problems, 19. Other ( specify):

VI. Are you in a Guild? :

VII. Do you prefer to play in solo or in a group, when the difficulty of the task does not require more players (questing, etc)? :

VIII. How important is the communication for you in WoW ? Rate from 1 to 10:

IX. Rate the options of communication given by the game from 1 to 10:

X. For what purpose do you use the communication? Make an importance sequence by writing the number of the options in the answer: 1.Talking the strategy, collaboration 2. Calling for help, 3. Giving help, 4. Socializing, making friends, 5. Casual chat, 6. Developing deeper relationships, 7. Competition, 8. Expressing power and social state, 9. Destroying social state of others, 10. Provocation, 11. Trade, 12. Role-playing, 13. Other ( specify):

XI. What is your opinion, how important is communication for making progress in the game? Rate from 1 to 10:

XII. When you was learning the game did you prefer to ask others for help or did you tried to figure it out by yourself ( using WoWHead and similar websites goes to the second option) ? :

XIII. How important is the communication for you to be successful in the game? Rate from 1 to 10:

XIV. Did the in game communication influence your real life (RL) communication? Rate it from 1 to 10 ( 10 if your RL communication got better (( better organization skill, cooperative skill, team working skill etc. )), 5 if it did not change your RL communication, 1 if your RL communication skill got weaker):

XV. Your opinion about in game communication (optional):

Thank very much for completing it.

[kaisoul]

I. Age: 30

II. Gender: Male

III. Hours played in a week? : about 8-12+ hours a day for 7 days a week

IV. For how long do you play WoW? : pretty much all day

V. Which factors are important for you in the game? You can choose more options: 1. Progress, 2. Power, 3. Competition, 4. Achievements , 7. Socializing, making friends, 11. Finding rare items, 12. Discovering the world, 14. Story, 16. Appearance of the character, 17. Relaxing, 18. Escaping from real world problems

VI. Are you in a Guild? : yes

VII. Do you prefer to play in solo or in a group, when the difficulty of the task does not require more players (questing, etc)? : no preference

VIII. How important is the communication for you in WoW ? Rate from 1 to 10: 8 if 10 is the highest

IX. Rate the options of communication given by the game from 1 to 10: 3 if 10 is highest

X. For what purpose do you use the communication? Make an importance sequence by writing the number of the options in the answer: 1.Talking the strategy, collaboration 2. Calling for help, 3. Giving help, 4. Socializing, making friends, 5. Casual chat, 7. Competition, 8. Expressing power and social state, 11. Trade
XI. What is your opinion, how important is communication for making progress in the game? Rate from 1 to 10: 10 being the highest

XII. When you was learning the game did you prefer to ask others for help or did you tried to figure it out by yourself ( using WoWHead and similar websites goes to the second option) ? :
Asked was given the self help sites then used the self help sites first before even remotely asking others for help.
XIII. How important is the communication for you to be successful in the game? Rate from 1 to 10: 5

XIV. Did the in game communication influence your real life (RL) communication? Rate it from 1 to 10 ( 10 if your RL communication got better (( better organization skill, cooperative skill, team working skill etc. )), 5 if it did not change your RL communication, 1 if your RL communication skill got weaker): 5

XV. Your opinion about in game communication (optional): text chat is usefull but flawed. and the in game voice is almost useless compared to most Viop.

[MiniStew]

I had to do a study on competitive gaming and tried to get information for very experienced players to no avail. Helping you is cause I got no help and I hope you do well with your Essay or whatever it is for


I. Age: 18

II. Gender: Male

III. Hours played in a week? : 40 hours avg.

IV. For how long do you play WoW? : 2007 off and on.

V. Which factors are important for you in the game? You can choose more options:
1. Progress,
3. Competition,
4. Achievements
7. Socializing, making friends,
8. Helping others,
10. Teamwork, collaboration,
13. Trade,
17. Relaxing,
18. Escaping from real world problems,


VI. Are you in a Guild? : Yes

VII. Do you prefer to play in solo or in a group, when the difficulty of the task does not require more players (questing, etc)? : I prefer to play in a group whenever it suits me.

VIII. How important is the communication for you in WoW ? Rate from 1 to 10: 10

IX. Rate the options of communication given by the game from 1 to 10: 5

X. For what purpose do you use the communication? Make an importance sequence by writing the number of the options in the answer:
1. Talking the strategy, collaboration
3. Giving help,
4. Socializing, making friends,
5. Casual chat,
7. Competition,
11. Trade,


XI. What is your opinion, how important is communication for making progress in the game? Rate from 1 to 10: 11(10 if u can't have 11 )

XII. When you was learning the game did you prefer to ask others for help or did you tried to figure it out by yourself ( using WoWHead and similar websites goes to the second option) ? : I was a total noobcake so I had no knowledge of wowhead, even addons :P so I asked people playing and then with basic knowledge from other players I found out other information myself.

XIII. How important is the communication for you to be successful in the game? Rate from 1 to 10: 8

XIV. Did the in game communication influence your real life (RL) communication? Rate it from 1 to 10 ( 10 if your RL communication got better (( better organization skill, cooperative skill, team working skill etc. )), 5 if it did not change your RL communication, 1 if your RL communication skill got weaker): 1

XV. Your opinion about in game communication (optional): I don't understand people who don't join guilds, play the game solo, like quest to level max level, leave that char and create another. You can only level so many different ways once. So that isn't the point of the game. And the game starts at max level to be honest and you need communication at max level.

[Vlad]

I. Age:
21.

II. Gender:
Male.

III. Hours played in a week? :
6 or less the last weeks, was around double as much when I was active.

IV. For how long do you play WoW? :
Since late 2004.

V. Which factors are important for you in the game? You can choose more options: 1. Progress, 2. Power, 3. Competition, 4. Achievements 5. Provoke others, 6. Dominate others, 7. Socializing, making friends, 8. Helping others, 9. Deeper relationships, 10. Teamwork, collaboration, 11. Finding rare items, 12. Discovering the world, 13. Trade, 14. Story, 15. Role-playing, 16. Appearance of the character, 17. Relaxing, 18. Escaping from real world problems, 19. Other ( specify):
8, 7, 10, 17, 3, 6, ... something along those lines.

VI. Are you in a Guild? :
No.

VII. Do you prefer to play in solo or in a group, when the difficulty of the task does not require more players (questing, etc)? :
If someone nearby is doing the same thing I'd like to group -usually they don't as they are 5 mobs ahead of me and don't wanna wait around, sadly but understandable.

VIII. How important is the communication for you in WoW ? Rate from 1 to 10:
8 but when tired I'm happy if we can get things done with less talking.

IX. Rate the options of communication given by the game from 1 to 10:
5, chatting is good and all but talking would be more efficient in many situations -hence why using Mumble with my friends when we PvP, gives us the edge.

X. For what purpose do you use the communication? Make an importance sequence by writing the number of the options in the answer: 1.Talking the strategy, collaboration 2. Calling for help, 3. Giving help, 4. Socializing, making friends, 5. Casual chat, 6. Developing deeper relationships, 7. Competition, 8. Expressing power and social state, 9. Destroying social state of others, 10. Provocation, 11. Trade, 12. Role-playing, 13. Other ( specify):
5, 1, 3 and 2 share spot kind of. And of course 13 for random chit chat about anything really, doesn't have to be game related at all.

XI. What is your opinion, how important is communication for making progress in the game? Rate from 1 to 10:
8, knowing is half the battle, talking while fighting are the last 3 points. The missing 2 is skill that you gain while trying, failing and succeeding.

XII. When you was learning the game did you prefer to ask others for help or did you tried to figure it out by yourself ( using WoWHead and similar websites goes to the second option) ? :
I liked to figure out all the things and I still kind of do. I'd use many ways like feign death, pets, items, to find out things about bosses and mobs that are hard to kill. It wasn't until later I started to use Allakhazam more often (still not that much) and finally around 2007 Wowhead got more focus on my end, didn't have to figure out all on my own anymore.

XIII. How important is the communication for you to be successful in the game? Rate from 1 to 10:
I would give the same answer like on question XI.

XIV. Did the in game communication influence your real life (RL) communication? Rate it from 1 to 10 ( 10 if your RL communication got better (( better organization skill, cooperative skill, team working skill etc. )), 5 if it did not change your RL communication, 1 if your RL communication skill got weaker):
8, I got too learn a lot of things by solving game issues, since the issues usually involve people so it kind of improved some of my people skills too. Listening to British, Scotsmen, Greeks and Swedes talk is always fun and educating in some cases. I wrote sites (and still do) for guild calendar, raid schedules with signups, DKP systems, addons, e.g. The motivation was to help out the guild and grow, I like to help others and I wish more let me do so -I feed on their positive feedback and my ego grows that way!

XV. Your opinion about in game communication (optional):
Voice chat was the most useless thing implemented as it's really poor and nearly useless even if you try, you never get your voice level high enough so others can hear you... /sigh Would be otherwise nice having an "alias" feature for all friends, it'd help a bit imo.

[adamoszkovics]

I made a regular online survey. You can complete that if its more easy. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8S3MJTK

[Petrah]

I. Age: 46

II. Gender: Female

III. Hours played in a week? : Roughly 25 hours give or take

IV. For how long do you play WoW? : Roughly 5 hours in the evening

V. Which factors are important for you in the game? You can choose more options: 1. Progress, 2. Power, 3. Competition, 4. Achievements 5. Provoke others, 6. Dominate others, 7. Socializing, making friends, 8. Helping others, 9. Deeper relationships, 10. Teamwork, collaboration, 11. Finding rare items, 12. Discovering the world, 13. Trade, 14. Story, 15. Role-playing, 16. Appearance of the character, 17. Relaxing, 18. Escaping from real world problems, 19. Other ( specify):
Progress, socializing, helping others, teamwork, collaboration, relaxing.

VI. Are you in a Guild? : Yes

VII. Do you prefer to play in solo or in a group, when the difficulty of the task does not require more players (questing, etc)? : A little of both.

VIII. How important is the communication for you in WoW ? Rate from 1 to 10: 10

IX. Rate the options of communication given by the game from 1 to 10: 10

X. For what purpose do you use the communication? Make an importance sequence by writing the number of the options in the answer: 1.Talking the strategy, collaboration 2. Calling for help, 3. Giving help, 4. Socializing, making friends, 5. Casual chat, 6. Developing deeper relationships, 7. Competition, 8. Expressing power and social state, 9. Destroying social state of others, 10. Provocation, 11. Trade, 12. Role-playing, 13. Other ( specify):
1, 3, 4, 5

XI. What is your opinion, how important is communication for making progress in the game? Rate from 1 to 10: 10

XII. When you was learning the game did you prefer to ask others for help or did you tried to figure it out by yourself ( using WoWHead and similar websites goes to the second option) ? : Tried to figure it out on my own via Google

XIII. How important is the communication for you to be successful in the game? Rate from 1 to 10: 10

XIV. Did the in game communication influence your real life (RL) communication? Rate it from 1 to 10 ( 10 if your RL communication got better (( better organization skill, cooperative skill, team working skill etc. )), 5 if it did not change your RL communication, 1 if your RL communication skill got weaker): 10

XV. Your opinion about in game communication (optional): My soul purpose for playing this game is to spend time with my boyfriend in the evenings. It's a long distance relationship (almost 5 years), and I feel that if we lived in the same city I would have no use for World of Warcraft or any other games really. I would definitely stay in touch with those people in game that I consider to be friends though.