Unit 3 - Research

What is research:

• research is the gathering of information about a certain subject, this could be looking at primary sources 
• Data is plural
• 1- begin with secondary
• sources = book, paper, website .org, government census, questionnaire, podcasts, interviews, journal
• secondary research is someone else who has found the data

• 3 sections of the unit:
• 1000 word report
• power point presentation
• TV interview primary research

What research is needed to make League of Legends?

Secondary sources of research

Research competitive games and how they handle high and low tier play (for example Counter strike)
Look at the basic MOBA formula (E.G. Dota 1) and see how it can be modified.
Research how abilities vary in different games and on different types of characters.
Look at existing fiction for inspiration of background lore and regions of the world that the characters came from.
https://nexus.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/2017/06/origins-riven/









https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8crNITkcX0
https://nexus.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/2017/06/origins-azir/
these videos and blog posts are reliable data as it comes from riot themselves, they published it and they said that for this "Nasus" skin the were inspired by meso american gods, this is repeatable data. therefore it is reliable. i believe that this data is valid because you can clearly see that the skin is inspired by meso american gods.

Primary sources questionnaire, I/V, social experiments.

For league of legends they took in information from the player base and feedback about the game to improve the game (forums, questionnaires and polls). They also have a dedicated play team of actual players
Riot also do dev streams on twitch where they talk about new things which will be coming into their game and the community can post their views in the comments where the comments can then be used to improve the game

Analysis of secondary data

• Analyse the data
• Write what you think
• Then find out what someone else thinks

Qualitative Definition:
Qualitative data is typically gained from open questions and from this you get quality detailed data, not just simple numerical data.

Quantitative:
Quantitative data is typically gained from closed questions, you will get a quantity of answers (numerical data) from quantitative questions which can be used as or for statistics.

Open questions:

• Why?
• How?
• When?
• Who (whom)?
• What?
• Where?

Closed questions = yes or no:

• Do...?
• Am i...?
• Is it...?
• Alright...?

Open question for a gamer:

• Why do you enjoy MMO RPGs?

Close question for a gamer:

• Do you like MMO RPGs?

2 Yes or no questions:

• Does 9 + 10 = 21
• Do you live in England?

2 Closed questions that have more than 1 answer:

• From 1 - 10 how much do you like me
• Are you happy, sad or mad

An open question that can only be answered with yes or no

• when your steam, account is deleted can you keep playing honnie pop

Questions about games:

• Do you like retro games?
• What is your prefered art style:
• hyper realistic
• cartoon 
• anime
• noire
• 8-bit

Types of answers:

• Written
• verbal
• yes/no
• scale/percentage
• multiple choice

Quantitative data:

• Normally has a closed question
• is numerical
• statistics

Qualitative data:

• Normally open questions
• normally has written or verbal answers

Quantitative questions:

• Age?
• How many...?
• On average how much...?
• what is your...?
• Example = What is your eye colour?

My quantitative question:

• Where do you live?

Qualitative question information that is gained:

• People's attributes
• behaviour
• culture
• aspirations
• lifestyle

Qualitative data is gained by...:

• Interviews
• Open surveys
• Emails
• Notes
• Photos
• Videos

From qualitative questions you are looking for emotion.

Interview techniques:

• Being engaged
• Eye contact
• The power of silence
• Nod when they are answering questions
• The technique of mirroring

Valid = Believable

Reliable = Repeatable

For example I own a dog called Milo. This data is valid as it is believable that i have a dog called Milo furthermore if you ask my family members they would also be able to confirm that i have a dog called Milo therefore the data is reliable too because it is repeatable.

However if i was to say have a panda in my back garden from china, this data would not be valid as it is not believable that i have a pet panda also if you were to ask any of my friends or family that could not confirm that i have a pet panda therefore this data is not reliable because it isn't repeatable.

https://www.msnbc.com/katy-tur/watch/government-shutdown-impacting-american-farmers-1425656899940

The link above is an interview where the interviewer from MSNBC is interviewing the founder and president of the national black farmers association and he says because of the US president's bad decisions. The selling prices of soybeans has dropped by 50%, this drop in prices is reliable because he said that these problems has affected 30,000 soybean producers. this data is also valid as a lot of other industries so it's not surprising that it has affected the soybean production industry.

Dave:

• student
• male
• fat
• lives with parents
• basement in three bed house
• acne
• glasses
• 2004 corsa
• works in McDonald's
• £5000 annual

Artjem:

• muscular
• female
• Russian
• shares flat with Vietnamese bf
• beautiful
• ice white hair
• mobile games
• bus
• works in mobile bus gym
• 320,000 Russian rubles

Artjem's day:

8 AM: breakfast, FB, mobile, walks to bus

8:30 AM: drives to park exercises in mobile gym.

Lunch: never stops

5 PM: home, gets food

6 PM onward: Streams mobile legends bang bang with Vietnamese boyfriend.

10 PM: watches Netflix

12 PM: goes to bed

Dave's day:

10 AM: wakes up, gets pancakes with maple syrup.

11 AM: goes to work at McDonald's

12 AM: tries to flirt with co-worker at lunch and get denied

4 PM: goes home feeling sad, goes into his basement

6 PM: gets Domino's ordered

7 PM: eats Domino's

7:30 PM: plays video games on his PC

1 AM: does course work for college

3 AM: goes to sleep

Demographic:

• age range
• race
• ethnicity
• location
• work
• gender

Geo-demographic:

• you gain clusters
• you'll have a Dave in Japan, in Brazil and in England...

Percentage of people who play games at a certain age: 

16-24: 16%

25-27: 14%

28-30: 12%

31-34: 10%

35-40: 8.6%

41+: 10%

Research essay 1000+ words:

• Define Secondary research.
• Define Primary research.
• Define Qualitative & Quantitative data.
• Define Valid and Reliable data.
• When you define things show your sources.
• Have the sources related to games
• Define the historical Audience/player of a game (Consumer only)
• Define the historical Market research for a game (How do i make a game that exceeds expectation) e.g. Fortnite, GTA
• Research game's history.
• similar games and statistics for those similar games.
• look at platforms
• Examples can be how a company did something good or bad
• create 10 questions for T.V. interview

GTA V Demographic and Geo-demographic:

https://www.wepc.com/news/video-game-statistics/#gamers-demographic

General gamer statistics:

GTA in US states:

GTA in other countries:

GTA in UK: 

Tertiary research: are references to secondary research.

Interview questions:

• Create 10 primary research questions
• Qual? Quant?
• Valid? Reliable?
• Open/Closed?

Primary Research Questions:

Question 1:

This question will introduce the I/Vee to the general prospect of the I/V it will also give me the ability to gather a general percentage of people opinions on tycoon/simulation games

initial question:"What genres of games do you play?"

expected answer: MMO RPGs
this answer is useless to me as I am looking for information about tycoon/simulation games.

new question: "What are your opinions on tycoon/simulation games? And what is your favourite simulation/tycoon game?"

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/132866-rollercoaster-tycoon/stats

Question 2:

In the screen grab below these are  the features of city skylines now what i want to know is what features in tycoon games does the I/Vee like and what features do you wish were in all tycoon/simulation games to make them good.

 initial question: "What would you wish were in tycoon/simulation games to improve your opinion on them?"

new question:  "What features would you wish were in tycoon/simulation games to improve your opinion on them?"

https://skylines.paradoxwikis.com/Features

Question 3:

in this question i want to find out what the players would want in the game to make it have replay-ability. in the screen grab below you can see some data about roller-coaster tycoon 3 which has a lot of replay-ability in the game

initial question:"Do you believe that tycoon/simulation games have to have replay-ability"

new question:"what do you think a tycoon/simulation game could have to give the game replay-ability?"

https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/rollercoaster-tycoon-3-review/1900-6112017/

Question 4:

for this question i would like to find out about what the I/Vee's views on perspectives are for the tycoon games. here you can see a screen grab of city skylines  which has a top down/isometric perspective.

initial question"Do you think that 2.5D isometric perspective is the best for tycoon/simulation games? if so why?"

 new question:"What perspective do you believe are most popular in tycoon/simulation games? why do you think this perspective is the most used?"

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/08/28/cities-skylines-green-cities-silicon-valley/

Question 5:

again this question is a follow up from the last and it's wondering what the I/Vee's views on having first person in a tycoon game would be. in this screen grab you can see a review about sims 4 and how that game again has a isometric perspective.

 initial question:"Do you think you would enjoy a first person tycoon/simulation game"

new question:"what benefits do you think would be added to a tycoon/simulation game if the perspective was in first person instead of _insert previous answer here_? Or do you think it wouldn't add benefits if so why?"

https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/the-sims-4-review/

Question 6:

In this question i want to find the best theme/setting/time period for my game, for example the screen grab is of a zombie survival tycoon/simulator game "they are billions" this game is set in the past but in a steam punk type universe.

initial question"do you think a tycoon/simulation game set in the modern day is better or in the past is better?"

again this question is a simple closed question which i don't get a lot of data from.

new question:"which setting and time period do you think is best for a simulation/tycoon game? eg: steam punk, futuristic, medieval..."

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/01/14/have-you-played-they-are-billions/

Question 7:

the screen grab below is of stats about online games and how succesful they are which is why i want to know if having online would be a good addition.

initial question:"When you play video games do you prefer playing alone or with friends"

this question is a closed question with only two possible answers.

new question:"What are your views on playing games online and would you personally benefit from having them in a game? why would/wouldn't you benefit from having these features?"

https://www.wepc.com/news/video-game-statistics/#online-gaming

Question 8:

the screen grab below is about the amount of money activison has made form micro transactions so in this question i'd like to find out if the I/Vee thinks that having micro transactions would benefit the game and why they think that.

initial question:"Would you think having micro transactions in a tycoon/simulation game work such as purchasing money with a special in game currency or new cosmetics "

new question:"what do you think would be the best way to implement micro-transactions into a tycoon/simulation game or do you think they are better without them? if you think it would be better without them then why is that?"

https://www.fraghero.com/wont-believe-much-money-activision-made-1-year-microtransactions-alone/

Question 9:

The screen grab below you can see the success of the sims which has multiple DLCs and is also a tycoon/simulation game. and you can see the the sims 3 is the best selling PC game of all time in the US and sims 4 is the 11th best selling game of all time in the US.

initial question:"Do you agree with games having DLC in games"

The initial question was too vague because i want to focus on tycoon games.

new question:"Do you think having DLC in tycoon/simulation games is a good addition to a game? why do you think this?"

Question 10:

In this screen grab you can see the success of rainbow six siege in how it's free DLC is good so this question is essentially a followup from the previous one because the Sims 4 has paid DLC however games can be successful with free DLC such as rainbow six siege.

"Do you believe that DLC in games should be paid for or free? Why do you believe this?"

https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2016/11/22/ubisoft-says-its-learned-dlc-lessons-from-rainbow-six-sieges-success/#6cc4a6a24800