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(Post made with permission from mods, Palpek specifically) Have little to no experience with digital Role-Playing Games? Or maybe you’re the biggest grognard to ever grog? Good! You are the perfect test subject for this survey. A Survey on Character Creation in RPGs But wait, what is this even about? I am currently in the process of doing my first Bachelor’s thesis, as part of a study in game design. Specifically, the aim of my research is to determine if there is a cut-off point during character creation in digital RPGs, where a player is overwhelmed by the amount of information on hand about base attributes and what they do, and when they would consider quitting or at least feel that the process is overly complex. So how do we figure that out? Surveys! Well, we could have done interviews as well, but that wouldn’t have given as many answers as a survey might, and just interviewing local friends seemed a bit lacking in scientific rigor. What exactly is in that survey then? You will be asked to answer how long you have played RPGs (if at all), then presented with 3 somewhat short pages of examples from 3 real games’ character creation, sans pictures. After deciding how you feel about each, there will be a follow-up page presenting what games you examined, and if the presentation changes your opinions from before. Any more info than that and I might taint the research. What’s the point? What, of life? Oh, the research. Well the hope is that either we can find a proper confirmation of the way people have been designing these games for the last few decades, either verifying how complex they are as cool and good, or figuring out that we need to design games in a different way for different people and maybe giving an inkling as to what those ways are. Working off of Stephen Miller’s theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magical_Number_Seven,_Plus_or_Minus_Two , and information chunking, we should be able to find a point where people get uncomfortable or overwhelmed, unless chunking works differently with RPG stats, in which case that is also a good venue forward for more research. Why are you asking us? As much as we joke about some of our fellow goons, the SA forums are moderated well, and even if that is not a guarantee, it would help produce answers that aren't simple joke posts. It is also fairly diverse in terms of what games people play, and since we are hoping to find people with both little and much experience, this seemed a safer bet. Plus, I could actually reach the mods and ask them if they thought this thread idea was ok and followed the rules, unlike some other places I could mention. Hey, I wanna get in touch with you or give feedback There’s a mail link in the top of the survey, and if you have PMs, just send those directly to me. Or just post here. Unless this thread somehow becomes popular and might get lost in a wave of people discussing their scientific thesis on how dice rolls work or something. And that’s that. If you’d like, spread this around to people you know don’t play or enjoy RPGs. Or, failing that, go out and play one of the three example games used in the survey. They are all fun... mostly.
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Apr 30, 2018 18:03
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Just popping in to add: Thank you! Also, an update on the progress of the survey. We've had almost half the amount of answers we need already for the survey to be viable. We are still looking for more people with less RPG experience, since right now about 80-90 percent of answers are by experienced or very experienced players, covering that base rather neatly. If you happen to know anyone like that, throw this survey their way if you have the time. The answers we've gotten so far are illuminating, and might lead to different results than the ones expected. Which is just how it should be. Again, thank you a bunch.
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May 2, 2018 16:01
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evilmiera posted:Just popping in to add: Thank you! Also, an update on the progress of the survey. Sorry, all my friends are nerds like me!
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May 2, 2018 17:22
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Don't be sorry, or I have to be sorry for the same reason. All answers are cool though, as are us nerds.
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May 2, 2018 19:06
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We hit the number for viable surveys a bit earlier today, but we are still lacking numbers for those newer to the process. Still, just getting viable numbers is great, and once again, thanks a bundle for that. SA really has saved my nerdy bacon.
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May 4, 2018 00:57
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And with that, the survey is closed. Thank you to all the people who participated, I hope you may help make this a fruitful endeavour! I will push some updates here in the future, depending on how it goes.
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May 7, 2018 02:02
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Well! After a few revisions, and a few late nightshifts messing with said revisions, the paper has been formally approved, based on my surveyed results! I will be uploading it to the DIVA portal in the coming days if all goes well, for perusal by anyone with some interest. It is as mentioned my first ever published material and to be honest, I still think it needs a lot of work. But if you are interested in just what the results are, that's the place to grab it. I'll update you all once again in the near future. Again, thank you all for participating! This study would not have been possible without you goons.
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Jul 5, 2018 20:17
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Well, that took longer than expected! Turns out my section supervisor just got swamped with work over the summer and beyond, which held back publication since it is an entirely optional thing. Here is the result of all your hard work! http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-355859 Enjoy, and thank you all for making this happen. Any comments about how my work sucks or how I got stuff wrong is greatly appreciated, though I probably won't be able to adjust anything in the actual paper.
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Sep 20, 2018 10:00
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Very well written paper, glad to have helped!
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Sep 20, 2018 20:18
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deathbagel posted:Very well written paper, glad to have helped! Thank you bunches! Hoping to advance towards a Master's next year, we will see if it turns out to be RPG-related.
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Nov 17, 2018 18:11
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Cool that this worked out so well for you, was an interesting thing to think about and it keeps coming up as more indie RPGs get released, especially throwbacks. I admit some level of morbid curiosity in me wants to see everyone else's full freeform comments but that probably wouldn't be terribly kosher. Good luck on your Master's.
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Nov 17, 2018 19:58
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