User blog:StormWarriors2/Game Study

So I am doing a project/interview. And I thought that this would be quite helpful for me to understand gamers in general.

So if you would like To  PM  me with the answer to these questions that would be great. Please use quotes to answer each question!

This is for an unofficial study! Have fun!

1. What games do you regularly play? What are a few of your all-time favorite games?

2. Why do you play games, generally? Why do you play the specific games from question 1?

3. With which game pleasures do you most identify?

(*LET ME EXPLAIN THIS*) These are all pleasures you have in games! 1. Sensation Game as sense-pleasure (Visual, auditorial senses are effected Such as transistor) 2. Fantasy Game as make-believe (like a power fantasy, but it doesn't just have to be this) 3. Narrative Game as drama 4. Challenge Game as obstacle course 5. Fellowship Game as social framework 6. Discovery Game as uncharted territory 7. Expression Game as self-discovery 8. Submission Game as pastime

4. Let’s discuss how your taste in gaming differs from my own. For instance I like narrative driven games. I like games that are based on character interaction and storylines.

5. To what extent do your gaming preferences follow the recognized gender trends? Meaning do you like the following? PLEASE NOTE: Male and female traits can be interchangable! Males Like TRIAL AND ERROR They like learning things as they go. They are driven by competition. Men like to master their game. This means you like to able to play a game that is difficult and to be able to defeat it.... Destruction! You like to destroy things.... ALOT. But this also goes along with you like to make something yours. You like to become possessive of those games. You are interested in spatial puzzles, studies basically show that males generally have stronger skills of spatial reasoning than females. Females Emotions, you like to experience the richness of human emotion in games. Real world, you perfer something that you can be meaningful, such as learning a skill. Think Dinner dash. (Micromanagement etc) Nurturing, you enjoy being the care giver in terms of healing, or controlling and making it grow larger. Such as nurturing a dragon back to health. Dialog and verbal puzzles, it is often though that women have increased verbal skills (Though this doubted by many game designers including myself)

6. To what extent do your gaming experiences follow the age-based demographic trends? 0–3: Infant/Toddler. Children in this age bracket are very interested in toys, but the complexity and problem solving involved in games is generally too much for them. ● 4–6: Preschooler. This is the age where children generally show their first interest in games. The games are very simple, and played with parents more often than with one another, because the parents know how to bend the rules to keep the games enjoyable and interesting. 101 DEMOGRAPHICS ● 7–9: Kids. The age of seven has long been called the “age of reason. ” At this age, children have entered school, are generally able to read, are able to think things through, and solve hard problems. Naturally, they become very interested in game playing. This is also the age where children start making their own decisions about what kinds of toys and games they like and dislike, no longer just accepting whatever their parents choose for them. ● 10–13: Preteen or “ Tween ”. It is only recently that marketers have started to recognize this group as distinct from both “ kids ”and “ teens. ”Children this age are going through a period of tremendous neurological growth and are suddenly able to think about things more deeply and with more nuance than they were a few years back. This age is sometimes called the “age of obsession, ” because children this age start to get quite passionate about their interests. For boys especially, these interests are often games. ● 13–18: Teen. The job of a teenager is to start getting ready for adulthood. At this age we generally see a significant divergence between male and female interests. Boys continue to be interested (and often get more interested) in competition and mastery, whereas girls become more focused on real-world issues and communication. This makes boy and girl game interests very different at this age. Teens of both genders are very interested in experimenting with new kinds of experiences, though, and some of those can happen through gameplay. ● 18–24: Young Adult. This is the first “adult ”age grouping, and the mark of an important transition. Adults, in general, play less than children do. Most adults do continue to play, but at this point, with their teenage experiments out of the way, they have established certain tastes about the kind of play and entertainment they enjoy. Young adults usually have both time and money on their hands, which makes them big consumers of games. ● 25–35: Twenties and Thirties. At this age, time starts to become more precious. This is the age of “peak family formation. ” As the responsibilities of adulthood start to add up, most adults in this age bracket are only casual game players, playing games as an occasional amusement, or playing games with their young children. On the other hand, “hardcore gamers ” in this age bracket — that is, people for whom playing games is their primary hobby — are an important target market because they purchase a lot of games, and are often quite vocal about what they do and don’t like, potentially influencing the buying decisions of their social network. ● 35–50: Thirties and Forties. Sometimes referred to as the “family maturation ” stage, most adults in this bracket are very caught up in career and family responsibilities and are only casual game players. As their children become older, adults in this age group are often the ones who make decisions about expensive game purchases, and when possible, they look for game playing opportunities the whole family can enjoy together. ● 50: Fifties and Up. Often called the “empty nesters, ” adults in this age bracket suddenly have a lot of time on their hands — their children have moved out, and they will soon be facing retirement. Some return to games they enjoyed when younger, and others, looking for a change, turn to new game experiences. Adults in this age group are particularly interested in game experiences that have a strong social component, such as golf, tennis, bridge, and online multiplayer games.

7. What demographic groups (age/gender primarily) do YOUR gaming peers generally belong?

8. What do you assume the “average gamer” looks like (age/gender/etc)?

You can use examples in this if you feel like you can do that.

<span style="color:rgb(186,186,186);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">As an example!

<span style="color:rgb(186,186,186);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">1. Regularly play at least three hours of video games per a day. My most favorite game of all time is probably Warcraft 3. It is mainly narrative driven and one that I will always remember of having as a great story, and great cinematics.

<span style="color:rgb(186,186,186);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">2. I play generally to make myself feel better, or just to play games just because I like to play games, it is my field and is one that I enjoy quite often. I like  <span class="glossaryitem" style="color:rgb(248,239,134);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">RTS <span style="color:rgb(186,186,186);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;"> games, basically anything I can get my hands on. I play that game in particular due to its replaybility

<span style="color:rgb(186,186,186);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">3. I mostly identify with the Narrative DRIVEN games. As I usually only ever play games if I know they are suppose to have good stories in them. I mainly do this because As a Kid I loved reading books.

<span style="color:rgb(186,186,186);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">4. (WORK IN PROGRESS) <span style="color:rgb(186,186,186);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">Basically list each game with a pleasure. If you need my help just  <span class="glossaryitem" style="color:rgb(248,239,134);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">PM <span style="color:rgb(186,186,186);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;"> me. I will do an example <span style="color:rgb(186,186,186);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">Bioshock Infinite - Sensation <span style="color:rgb(186,186,186);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">Skyrim - Fantasy <span style="color:rgb(186,186,186);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">Spec Ops The Line - Narrative <span style="color:rgb(186,186,186);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">Rouge Legacy - Challenge <span style="color:rgb(186,186,186);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">Diablo 3 - Fellowship <span style="color:rgb(186,186,186);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">Minecraft - Discovery <span style="color:rgb(186,186,186);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">Minecraft - Expression <span style="color:rgb(186,186,186);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">Hearthstone - Submission

<span style="color:rgb(186,186,186);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">5. I mainly follow the female trend a bit more than the male trend. I don't like destroying things, I don't like to be competitive. I just like to do things. I enjoy things that allow me to be able to apply it to the real world. So I can take some type of message from a game, not just an experience.

<span style="color:rgb(186,186,186);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">6. I play less than I used to, now I write and play more 'adult' games. Going away from childish games like Call Of duty.

7. Usually the same, but my peers are usually in the teenager trend. This is mostly because I much older than most of my peers.

8. I think they are just normal people. A gamer looks like a normal person, some are toned, some are not. Some are nerds, some are not. But most gamers are around the ages of 10 to around thirty years old. That is the usual age for gamers. But it is not unusual for gamers to be much older or younger.