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Mischiefblog: MMO Survey (found via Nerfbat)

I'm a sucker for surveys, and can usually milk an entire blog post out of my answers! It seems the only people who have filled in the survey in any appreciable numbers is the entire player-base of World War II Online, which is going to make for somewhat bizzarre reading in any context I suspect. So in an effort to prevent Advanced MMO Theory papers being written from the first-hand experiences of Squadron Leader Fossington-Smythe and Generalfeldmarschall Von Trapp, head on over and tell them a bit about your game. Fill out enough of these and who knows...one day there will be an MMO we, if not like, than at least will have trouble carping about on blogs!

Here what I wrote:

  • Page 1: Personal info. Having filled this in, I took a rare moment to step back from my life and take a long hard look at it. To my credit, I managed not to sob uncontrolably! I probably need to get out more.
  • Page 2: Gaming Background Stuff: Ah, here we go. I'm playing four technically, but EVE Online is my 'main' just now. I'm nothing if not fickle though. I tend not to alt, play for most of my waking free time, and have never managed to get anywhere significant in any game, despite going at this nonsense for over six years. If I ever actually made it to 'end-game or elder' content, I expect I would find lots to complain bitterly about - it's what I do! I really ought to get out more.
  • Page 3: Social/Guild Stuff: Don't get me started. I'm generally a soloer, and those rare occassions I do group, or guild do little to correct my heretical thinking. More on my current EVE Corp later. I definitely need to get out more.
  • Page 4: World Stuff: Ah, something I can be positive about! I've always loved EVE's look and feel and that excuses a lot of it's other shortcomings for me. Sometimes I just warp to a star and float there staring at it. I have to get out more.
  • Page 5: Achievement Stuff: I did most of this page giggling, but much of this comes out of the soloist vs group/guild thing. Having no-one to show off to, my progress and appearance matter little. I so need to get out more.
  • Page 6: Hype Stuff: The kind of stuff I rant about all the time. At present, I can't say I'm looking forward to any upcoming title. The genre lists are good though, showing a great deal more imagination than most MMO companies. I went with Other for favourite, since the chap seems to have forgotten Steampunk, and Fantasy for least favourite because I so very, very tired of Elves. I desparately need to get out more.
  • Page 7: Comms Stuff: For me, exterior communications takes me out of the world, so I tend to use only the stuff that was built into the game in the first place. I particularly dislike Voice Comms, as I feel stupid shouting at my PC, and get easily irritated by 'amusing' body noises and singing. I absolutely must get out more.
  • Page 8: Suggestion Box: It didn't look big enough to fit my blog archieve in, and in any case, I'm not entirely sure I qualify as a Typical MMO Gamer anymore anyway, so I left it alone. And anyway, I've got to get out more!

All in all, nothing too specific or revolutionary, but it is asking for the kinds of basic answers that probably need to be refreshed on a quite frequent basis. It's all very well going into specific ins and outs of some obscure aspect of end-game raid design, or trade skill implementation, but unless you have an accurate handle on the more rudimentary statistics; what people are playing, are they soloing lots, are the happy with the games they play, and so on, all the twiddley bits become rather academic.

Anyway, I like to help, and don't get out a lot anyway...