When looking at video games we have to look at the different
ways that we can research them to create our own video game that will be
success. Research comes under four different types:
·
Primary research
·
Secondary research
·
Quantitative research
·
Qualitative research
Each research sheds a new light on what we should look for
and will be explained in this document.
Primary research
Primary research is research that is original; it is done by
the person themselves and doesn’t use the information from others. It is
entirely new research conducted by someone who wants to know new information;
this can be done within groups of people or by singular people. There are both
advantages and disadvantages of primary research:
However, there are disadvantages that come with this such
as, it can be harder to conduct primary research compared to the other
researches because secondary research can be found on the internet straight away
with a large amount of data collected whereas primary research can take a long
time to conduct as you may not have the equipment or money to do so, the amount
of information needed may not be met or up to standard as there may be
possibilities which may not be considered when planning the research which could
occur and halt the progress or corrupt it.
I have conducted primary research myself when I have played video
games, this can be considered secondary research as well as primary research since
these video games were not created by me. However, it was my experience that
made it primary. When playing the games I looked at the mechanics of the game,
how they made the movement of the characters, the animations and graphics put
into the games and I listened to the sound and the music placed into the games.
While looking at each of these aspects I thought about how they made me feel
and why they were used.The information I looked at showed a pattern and significance to the games. A lot of platform and
adventure games use a unique main character which is quite quirky and re-memorable, a lot of good games involved fluid movement making for easy and fun manoeuvring, each game has a unique art style but the ones that stand out the most are again quirky and memorable however, some can be vibrant and full of colour while others can be realistic and use a more sketchy art style. The music differed depending on which genre the game followed (as with every other aspect) I could see this in fighting games when it was quite intense yet when I was platforming on another game on a beach it went quite tropical and soothing.
Examples of primary research are:
Questionnaires/surveys – Questionnaire can come under quantitative research as well, these can provide both lots and not enough information and gives a pretty big insight or not enough insight on the research. This gives insight because with a questionnaire you can collect a range of thoughts and opinions from different amounts of people; this allows for a wider view and can offer a lot of information upon the research needed. With questionnaires they can be very limited though because people may not be informed of the thing you are trying to research and so cannot give a valid opinion on it and it is from the mind of someone else and is their opinion so you cannot tell how truthful, biased or correct the information will be.
Secondary research
Secondary research is where you interpret or analyse another
piece of information or project that has been created by someone else. It
mainly consists of taking information from an article of primary research and
turning it into your own work, this does not mean that secondary research is
where you plagiarise (copy the work word for word) and say that is your own
work, it is in fact where you get inspiration from that amount of information and
turn it into your own words. Again, there are some advantages and
disadvantages:
The advantages are that it is quite easy and fast to access
secondary information as we have the internet, magazines, newspapers and many
other pieces of material that can present us with secondary research, sometimes
when conducting primary research it may have to cost a bit to get the equipment
needed when depending on what you are trying to research but with secondary
research you can access the information at a very low cost and secondary
research can even help when conducting any of the researches as information can
tell people how to carry the needed experiments.
I have conducted secondary research myself when I played
video games and looked at reviews on video games. When I play video games I can
gather information from them such as what kind of music people are looking for
when it comes to the different genres. What kind of gameplay they want, what
graphics they would like to see and how each one of these elements and aspects
combine to change each other and fit together like a puzzle. When I look at
reviews it gives the same kind of aspect as when I play video games but from a
different players view, it gives me a larger amount of insight into how I can
compare his research to mine and other reviewer’s experiences an example of
this is looking at reviews on uncharted:
“This game is **** horrible the
worst game of the uncharted series. The story is paper thin and becomes rubbish
at the end. The characters I got to say **** Charlie Cutter he is a whiney
pathetic oaf throughout this horrendous garbage also it is worse than Indiana
Jones Temple of doom.”-klaww 25 I can tell from this review that the
game is not for everyone as he describes he didn’t like the story which tells
me to be sceptical of buying this game as I might not get interested but
looking at other reviews such as:
“The visuals are breath-taking, the story is fascinating and the
gameplay is never-ending. Uncharted 3 is like a fast-paced locomotive that
cannot be stopped. The expectations were high, but Naughty Dog met them and
even added an action-oriented frantic multiplayer. This third title clearly
honours its parents, but as a child it does tricks with its pulsing vigour.”-
gamez.cz From this review I can expect an amazing experience as he
describes in detail everything that makes this game great and can give me a
guarantee that I will enjoy this game.
Comparing these two reviews I can already see biased
information from both, in the first review he
only talks about the story and a
certain character. He doesn’t want to make an expansion about his experience
with the graphics, sounds or any other aspect of the game, he just gives a
small rant about the story which could give me a warning to not get my hopes up
but also tells me that this guy isn’t a fan of the uncharted series in the
first place as he doesn’t want to expand into any other territory which could
hook another gamer in leaving this to be very biased. As for the second review
it likes to expand on why they enjoy the game in multiple areas but this still
gives me a biased view as this reviewer could just enjoy naughty dog games or
the uncharted series and wants to defend it in as many ways as possible. From
my experience on the game I can agree with the second reviewer more as I quite
enjoyed the story, visuals and everything else about the game which goes on to
tell me even more about how these reviewers think, what they are interested in
and how biased they are being proving the point of how secondary research can
be both good and bad to use.
Quantitative
research
Quantitative research is research that consists of getting
the thoughts and views of a numerical amount of people, it produces amounts of
data and information that can be measured and counted. You get the varied
thoughts and views from vast amounts of people giving you a wide range of
information, again there are some advantages and disadvantages:
The advantages are since it is based around numerical
information then it is easy to gain, as we can
see rom tables, charts and diagrams. Also while looking at charts and tables you can see that it is quick and easy to read and get information from which could be considered to saving time making it very efficient.
see rom tables, charts and diagrams. Also while looking at charts and tables you can see that it is quick and easy to read and get information from which could be considered to saving time making it very efficient.
I have conducted quantitative research myself, when I made a
small playable game on the computer I allowed my class mates to play it, once
they had played it they had to fill in a questionnaire that I had designed. It
helped me to gain feedback on how I can develop the game and make it better.
Qualitative
research
The
advantages of Qualitative research are since it gives you the personal
preference from people
then you can learn more about the item in a lot more depth and have different opinions letting you create an overall judgement without just using your own knowledge to make it biased, it also gives you more in depth information as people can comment compared to quantitative which is based more around numerical opinion. Another advantage is qualitative research does not need to be planned leading or design plan leading to freedom and let any information that you gather to become quite natural.
The disadvantages of qualitative research are the opinion
gathered at hand could be biased or unneeded as it is the view point of an
individual. This could lead to them not knowing enough on the subject or just
choosing a side that they believe is correct. Another disadvantage is since
qualitative research is used to gather opinions then the subject at hand does
not have a hypothesis that you can base your questions, where this can be an advantage
(as it can lead towards an hypothesis)it doesn’t allow the researcher to
determine the best possible solution to choose from an array of options.
Sources
Qualitative research is where you gather opinions and
preferences from other people to get information on the subject being
researched. Qualitative research is used to get an expanded view from people
allowing you to gain more insight and knowledge.
The
advantages of Qualitative research are since it gives you the personal
preference from people then you can learn more about the item in a lot more depth and have different opinions letting you create an overall judgement without just using your own knowledge to make it biased, it also gives you more in depth information as people can comment compared to quantitative which is based more around numerical opinion. Another advantage is qualitative research does not need to be planned leading or design plan leading to freedom and let any information that you gather to become quite natural.
Sources
Secondary research task 1:
Qualitative research task 1:
Market research: http://www.winmarkcorporation.com/
Business suit with market research: http://www.institute-for-competitive-intelligence.com/ici-workshops/ici-5-primary-research
Primary sources chart: http://katysresearchassignment.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/primary-and-secondary-research.html
Primary research: http://www.123rf.com/photo_16720053_abstract-word-cloud-for-primary-research-with-related-tags-and-terms.html
The perfect review: http://www.ship2block20.com/fr/dont-put-personal-bias-reviews/
Quantitative research chart: http://www.anglopacificresearch.com/research.php
Qualitative research: http://whalingcitygolfcourse.com/quantitative-case-study-research-design/
Qualitative research slideshow: http://www.slideshare.net/jadallah/qualitative-research-3138560
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