[PIGMI] Survey

Wed Aug 3 20:14:18 PDT 2011

Can't really say I agree.

Just as in website analytics 90% of the data collected is never used, and
thus totally irrelevant, unless you have someone dedicated to actually
trying to interpret your results and look for interesting relationships,
it's not worth bothering.

You can talk confidence intervals, statistical relevance, domain bias etc.
etc. but *really *unless you (or someone working for you) actually has the
experience and knowledge to apply these concepts, you're better off ignoring
them; in appropriately applied they just mess the data up and you end up
over fitter to outliers.

Broadly speaking, increased sample size --> increased survey accuracy.

I don't really think including demographic breakdown is relevant in many
surveys just *on general principles. *
*
*
Want to know about surfing games? Ask a question: Do you like surfing games?

Trying to figure out, oh, surfers are 'usually' 20-24 year old males (O_o)
and then reverse correlate that to results is just asking for trouble.

:) Just my $0.02. Been involved in a fair bit of web analytics and the
number of times I get asked if we can collect demographic data to see "if we
can see some interesting relationships" is just silly. No. You can't.

~
Doug.

On Thu, Aug 4, 2011 at 10:51 AM, Ellen Jurik <sunlightsylph at yahoo.com.au>wrote:

> Theoretically, every game appeals to everyone ever.
>
> And yet effective marketing and advertising relies on knowing who is likely
> to be a surfer and therefore where they will be and how they find out about
> it. While I agree that it can go overboard and become superfluous,
> demographics can point out false assumptions- maybe a surfing game would be
> more likely to be accessed via Facebook or a flash game portal, etc.
>
> It's not just me thinking this- almost every division of the entertainment
> industry does it, and I know for a fact that Tantalus approached "Pony
> Friends" that way, and it explains why there are so many "little girl" games
> on the DS- because little girls are more likely to have a DS, and DS
> consoles are more likely to be owned by little girls.
>
> Besides, sometimes it just puts your survey results in context, or can lead
> to interesting data or links you hadn't expected ;)
>
> Ps, you know me and I'm in no way attempting to undermine the validity of
> the results. I just do believe that demographics of age, sex, income etc
> shouldn't be dismissed as completely superfluous.
>
> Sent from Yahoo!7 Mail on Android
>
>  ------------------------------
> * From: * Paul Turbett (Black Lab Games) <paul at blacklabgames.com.au>;
> * To: * <pigmi at pigmi.org>;
> * Subject: * Re: [PIGMI] Survey
> * Sent: * Thu, Aug 4, 2011 2:34:29 AM
>
>   I respectfully disagree regarding demographics. Whilst it is possible to
> generalise about certain age and gender profiles gravitating to a particular
> platform, I think it's more useful to focus in interests. If somebody makes
> a game about surfing, it is going to appeal to people who surf. That covers
> a wide age range, and both genders.
>
> L8r, Paul
>
> On Thu, Aug 4, 2011 at 10:12 AM, Ellen Jurik <sunlightsylph at yahoo.com.au>wrote:
>
>> Demographic breakdown is certainly important for making design decisions
>> and choosing which platform for which game (eg, 9 year old girls might not
>> play on PS3, so the game would never sell). It can still be anonymous while
>> gathering that data- "anonymous" just means "without name" :)
>>
>> Meanwhile, ScreenAustralia's Audience Participation Survey didn't even
>> give the options of PCs (or macs) or non-mobile/phone handheld gaming
>> devices... Which data sources were you looking at, Wesley? Sometimes surveys
>> that look totally fair, scientific and impartial aren't actually designed
>> very well.
>>
>> Sent from Yahoo!7 Mail on Android
>>
>>  ------------------------------
>> * From: * Paul Turbett (Black Lab Games) <paul at blacklabgames.com.au>;
>> * To: * <pigmi at pigmi.org>;
>> * Subject: * Re: [PIGMI] Survey
>> * Sent: * Wed, Aug 3, 2011 9:21:02 AM
>>
>>   Hi Wesley
>>
>> The survey was anonymous, so I didn't collect that data. To be honest,
>> I don't think age and gender is really important (and certainly wasn't
>> relevant to the goal I had for the survey which was to assist with
>> some decisions about a project I have in the works).
>>
>> L8r, Paul
>>
>> On Wed, Aug 3, 2011 at 3:18 PM, Wesley Lamont <pigmi at raez.net> wrote:
>> > Thanks for sharing Paul.
>> >
>> > I also am unsure of the respondents. Could you put up a break down of
>> the people who replied? Age, platform reply was made, gender? If you
>> collected that data that is. From most other sources Consoles beat a PC for
>> games share by a rather whopping margin so I'm curious as to the reasons
>> (apart from those you have already mentioned in the article).
>> >
>> > Wesley Lamont
>> >
>> >
>> > On 03/08/2011, at 2:29 PM, Paul Turbett (Black Lab Games) wrote:
>> >
>> >> The survey was web-based, so it could be taken on any web-enabled
>> >> device. The other thing is that it asked how frequently each of the
>> >> platforms are used for gaming, which I think it independent from the
>> >> device being used to answer the questions.
>> >>
>> >> However I think the results are skewed for sure - by the sources I
>> >> used to direct people to the questionnaire. But like I said in the
>> >> post, that was intentional, because the sources are related to the
>> >> people I'm seeking to make games for.
>> >>
>> >> L8r, Paul
>> >>
>> >> On Wed, Aug 3, 2011 at 1:25 PM, Michael B <michael.sg at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> >>> Hi Paul, i just had a thought, don't you think that the results might
>> be
>> >>> compromised by having the survey on a PC?
>> >>>
>> >>> Ie if the survey was given to kids in school, high school, tafe, even
>> >>> university whether the kids and adults who couldnt afford PC's or
>> iphone's
>> >>> would make up a larger majority than PC users ?
>> >>>
>> >>> Michael
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> On 3 August 2011 12:16, Paul Turbett (Black Lab Games)
>> >>> <paul at blacklabgames.com.au> wrote:
>> >>>>
>> >>>> Hi All!
>> >>>>
>> >>>> For those interested in stats (and lets face it, that's everybody
>> >>>> right?), I've just got around to my first post on the survey I
>> >>>> conducted in June. http://blacklabgames.com.au/blog/2011/08/stats/
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>> L8r, Paul
>> >>>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> _______________________________________________
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>> >>> Unsubscribe: http://lists.pigmi.org/listinfo.cgi/pigmi-pigmi.org
>> >>>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> --
>> >> Paul Turbett
>> >> Black Lab Games
>> >> www.blacklabgames.com.au
>> >> _______________________________________________
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>> >
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>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Paul Turbett
>> Black Lab Games
>> www.blacklabgames.com.au
>> _______________________________________________
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>
>
>
> --
> Paul Turbett
> Black Lab Games
> www.blacklabgames.com.au
>
>
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