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Ohio State is doing a survey on hobby gamers, the games they like, the games they don't and why.  It's a little long but has some interesting ideas.

 

http://research.comm.ohio-state.edu/projects/bguillory/games2/games2.htm

 

In the "what game would you like to see," section I put down ARGs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_reality_game

A friend of mine at UCLA is in a project that's making one.

What is alternative reality? The modern world in a parallel universe (The Man In The High Castle)?

It was quite a long survey. I think they could have divided up the questions a bit better. For example, I've never played any collectible games of any type, so huge areas of Q&A were irrelevant.

I would be interested to see the results.

I really think they should have asked for genre (sci-fi, huistorical, fantasy etc) and then form (collectable mini, paint mini, card, board) but that may not have been what they were checking for.

Anyway I really liked the set of questions where you first rate why you play games and then they compare your favorite and least favorite games and say which game better encompases which quality. Really made me think.

I put Star Wars Starship battles as my current fav and Magic the Gathering as my least fav. While MTG would be better as far as finding opponants, meeting people etc SW-SSB has a stronger storyline which for me is the bigger thing.

I always knew D&D was my least favorite game.

What didn't realise till I took the quiz, was that I've had the most fun playing it...

what is a euro game? and a pma game?

You know strangely enough MTG went down as my least favorite too, Warhammer 40k and D&D went up as my current and all time favorites, but that's almost entirely because of the friends i play those with.

A Euro game is a game like Settlers of Catan -- a board game with elaborate rules and strategy compared to Cluedo or Monopoly but not an all-out wargame like Panzerblitz or Up Front.

I don't know what a PMA game is.

Part of the survey is to find out how players pick games, which is a complex topic.

Personally I have always leant towards historicals in tabletop, fantasy/SF in RPG and a mix in boardgaming. But I've always played particular games because I could find other players, and because they were good games (whatever that means.) I didn't think to myself, "Hmm, let's do SF" or something.

Posted By Narlix on 05/18/2007 6:28 AM
what is a euro game? and a pma game?

Euro Games are the european-style board games like Settlers of Catan, Puerto Rico, Carcazone, and so on.

PBM games are play by mail.  I don't know PMA.

Comparing my current favorite (Warmachine) and my least favorite (MTG) made me realize that the things they have in common are the things that piss me off.

Holy crap, it keeps going...!

Ozymandias, King of Kings

My least favorite (40k 4th edition) and favorite (Warmachine) have so much in common that most of my answers comparing them were neutral. Just letting you all know that I'm skewing the results toward the middle.

This is awesome. I liked the question about presentation of boxed displays. I always enjoy video game box displays but crappy miniatures box displays are most of what I see. Especially blisters that without knowing the finished model from an online example, you wouldn't know what it is just from looking at the blister. I love GW's decision to photoshop painted minis for box art. It'd be great if somebody can start an industry push to do the same, or at least include pictures of finished minis, for blisters as well.

Survey reaffirmed my beliefs in enjoying games to increase skill and dislike/apathetic to games relying on immersion. Tried D&D thrice, never could get into it. Decided to hit the gym and take martial arts lessons to be a real fighter-class instead I suppose.

Ahahahhaha I love the "playing as a reason to hang out with others" and "being able to ease loneliness" questions. If I can work up the courage to post this link to the Blizzard forums, I'm sure all the poopsocking raid-5-times-a-week guys can answer this one for us!

Personally, I thought photshopping the minis was way over the top, but I also agree there should be a painted picture of the mini on both boxes and blisters. Though not as common now as it was a decade ago, some minis aren't in the codex, and so it's nice to have an idea for a paint scheme. But the smoke and photoshop back grounds, and explosions are just ridiculous to me. Make a diorama and photograph that.

I buy nearly all my wargames stuff online these days, so box art is basically irrelevant to me. However, good pictures of both painted and unpainted miniatures are useful, to show the customer what they actually get, and how good it can look if painted well.

most surveys like this have only a few key questions that they really want answers to, the rest just help with the honesty. The more questions you ask the more likely the person taking the survey is going to give the answer they believe is true, not the one they think you want to hear.