Another, different research project

[stonebystone]

Hi, everyone! Although this is my first post on the forum, I’ve been lurking for a few months and have been following development of the game since around 2009. I also realize I’m a little late to the research party (which, now that I think about it, doesn’t sound like a very fun party), given that Prof. Coyote has already posted a research survey here (and not that long ago).

Even though I’m in the same discipline as Prof. Coyote (I also teach writing), I think it’s interesting that we want to look at very different things in and around this game. Game studies is one of my primary research areas, and I’ve written a lot about gameplay, narrative, and player interpretation in the past, so it’s that intersection that I want to explore. So, without further ado, here’s who I am:

My name is Kevin Rutherford, and I’m a PhD student in the Department of English at Miami University (it's in Ohio; the one in Florida is the University of Miami). I’m interested in studying player responses and interpretations of Katawa Shoujo. To do that, I’ve set up a survey on SurveyMonkey (link removed - I have over 200 responses now, holy crap) and I’m asking that you consider participating. The survey itself will be hosted off-forum because I’m asking some numerical and ‘check all that apply’ kinds of questions, and so I’d like to have the site do all of my data calculation for me. Additionally, I want to offer confidentiality, so I’d rather set up a space to do that than wade through PMs. It shouldn't take more than 20 minutes to complete, depending on how much you write in the open-ended questions.

In the survey, I'm asking questions such as: “How many games have you played that included a representation of a person with disabilities?”, “On a scale of 1-5, how positively do you think Katawa Shoujo represents physical disability?” and “Do you think Katawa Shoujo’s interface/gameplay influences players’ identification with the protagonist? If so, how?” Also in the survey I will ask interested people to contact me for a follow-up interview if they wish.

Because disability is underrepresented in video games and because Katawa Shoujo has a loyal community of fans (including me) who are invested in the game’s subject matter, I believe this research will be of tremendous benefit to the academic community of games studies scholars and educators, as well as to the game development community at large. In addition, I will share my results with forum members by posting some survey results.

This research has been reviewed by the Research Compliance Office at Miami University for adherence to the principles of the ethical conduct of research: protocol # E00489. If you have any questions for my university (about the project, research in general, or my approval to do this) please contact Miami University’s Office of Advancement of Research and Scholarship at 513.529.3600 or humansubjects@muohio.edu.

If you have any questions for me (about the research or anything else), feel free to post them here, PM me, or email me at rutherk2@muohio.edu and I’ll do my best to answer them. I’d also be happy to share my credentials in more detail (including previous research I’ve presented at conferences).

I have over 200 responses now - time to call this survey finished!

Thanks in advance for any participation!

By the way, I don't want to step on any toes with this research - I'd be ecstatic to work with Prof. Coyote (or any other lurking academic presences on these forums) to put together a panel for a conference.

I'd like to say thank you to everyone who participated in my survey - the response has been overwhelming. I'm still working to catch up with email and get back to everyone who has expressed interest in being interviewed, so I will do that soon.

I really want to emphasize how grateful I am to the whole community. I'll be posting some aggregate data for quantitative responses in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully that will also give me time to look for some trends in the open ended responses and provide them too.

Seriously, you guys. You're awesome.

[Mirrormn]

Finished the survey; hopefully it is helpful to you. I appreciated the opportunities to expand on all of my multiple-choice responses with context and reasoning, and utilized those opportunities with much verbosity.

[stonebystone]

Great! I appreciate it. Survey design is a lot harder than it seems (or, at least, it was to me). I wanted to include an opportunity for everyone to comment at every stage of the process. I hope other people take advantage of the text boxes too - even if it's just as a space to complicate the questions I'm asking.

[Silentcook]

Since you've gone the extra mile to get your data sorted away from the forums, and considering that there's no need for anyone to answer and bump this thread, I'll make it a sticky until the end of June. I assume two months will give it enough visibility, same as the other survey thread.

Feel free to contact me if you need to discuss details.

(EDIT: got contacted with instructions to drop the sticky, with thanks. So I did.)

[megiddo]

Is the survey just there so you can collect a few responses and thoughts, or is it supposed to be used for some serious statistical emiysis analysis?

Also, out of curiosity, do you think video games are art?

[gRaViJa]

completed the survey (useless post this, but hey :p)

[PikKirby]

Finished poll as well. I think this isn't useless because we're giving the depiction that this poll is being active.

[Bara]

Just completed the poll myself. The questions were a bit different from the previous surveys.

[Mugendai]

I responded to the survey as well.

[encrypted12345]

The interesting people who visit this forum are the reason I still lurk here. Sure, I'll take the survey.

[Danze]

The interesting people who visit this forum are the reason I still lurk here. Sure, I'll take the survey.

I agree. That's the reason I've been coming back here since finishing the story. Stonebystone, I took your survey. I hope the data helps out your research project!

[alien.marksman]

Surveyed!!
Now.. To volunteer for the interview or not?? Hmmm.

[stonebystone]

Since you've gone the extra mile to get your data sorted away from the forums, and considering that there's no need for anyone to answer and bump this thread, I'll make it a sticky until the end of June. I assume two months will give it enough visibility, same as the other survey thread.

Feel free to contact me if you need to discuss details.

Thanks for the sticky! Two months should definitely be enough.

[stonebystone]

Is the survey just there so you can collect a few responses and thoughts, or is it supposed to be used for some serious statistical emiysis analysis?

Also, out of curiosity, do you think video games are art?

The broader context for this survey (besides potentially feeding into my dissertation) is as part of a project for a course I'm taking on research methods/methodology. In both of those cases I think the more rigorous and analytical I can be with the data, the better. So, I guess I don't see the process of collecting responses/thoughts and also having some statistical analysis as mutually exclusive. Of course, I'm in the humanities, so my research process almost necessarily gives a lot of weight to qualitative, open-ended, dialogic responses.

I absolutely think video games are art. This is a media form that can potentially provide a much more visceral emotional reaction than film or alphabetic text, and can also be used to express some complex system thinking in ways that older media can't. Of course, that doesn't automatically make every video game an incredibly "meaningful" cultural object, any more than saying film is art makes Michael Bay movies incredibly "meaningful" cultural objects. I don't think that's a problem with the medium as much as it is with systems of production and circulation, though. I guess I really mean that games can be more than escapist adolescent power fantasies (again, just like film or literature or visual art or poetry) but unfortunately it seems like the majority still are.

[Accel]

You said you would share the data on the forum?
Also, rather then the game aspects, I'm more interested in the physiology and sociology of how this game was created and the fascinating response it has generated. Social exchange would predict that the developers would follow the ideas of rational exchange, social or material. Clearly there are no material benefits to this project for the developers except perhaps that their skills would get better, but that result could be better found through smaller projects and more concentrated effort. As for (personal) social benefits, the developers have not released their true names and might argue it's counter productive to do so in more ways then one. The only social benefits they could find would be behind masks on specific corners of the internet, namely this website and 4Chan.

This underlines the issue that is part of the social exchange theory. It depends entirely on rational and selfish choice during interaction, and ignores emotional and community based choices.