Neyo.1950

Of course this possibility always exists but for surveys you are always dependent on the honesty of participants. The results did not change after I said that in this case.

The survey asks for a single favourite character to answer these questions for because I did not want participants to have to answer these for like 20 different characters. It would have taken too much time. It's important for this survey to examine specific player-character relationships instead of "How do you feel about all of your characters in general?". About the "favourite" it's as I said: I did not want participants to have to take the time to answer all these questions for who knows how many different characters. And I would have liked to know more about player's motivations in open ended questions but sadly I don't have the capacities to fully look into that. The main question this survey aims to answer is if players identify more with characters that are human. This is because there is little to no scientific research about this. The reasons why each person may identify more with human or non-human characters is too complex a question for me alone to answer with one survey.

In GW2, it's not really about race or gender. For instance, I gravitate more towards the Olmakhan than the Legions of the north when it comes to the Charrs. Humans are mostly depicted in many RPG as a neutral race where other races has strong preferences that is why humans are the most commonly picked. However, if the race and gender doesn't matter, you'll find a wide variety of characters. Just like in real life, people gravitates more towards culture, for example, than race, gender, etc. because many cultures don't really care about your skin color or sexual preferences or your upbringing. Harmony is not about being part of a group of the same gender or skin color, it's about being part of a group that shares your culture, values, and moral. With that said, players may have chosen their character's race, gender because the player shares the character's culture, values, or moral. This is what is missing in your survey: cultures, values, and morals. GW2 is heavy in these areas despite what character the player had created. Your survey might show you data of the WHAT the players have chosen, but it will not show you the data of the WHY the player choose them, and it seems that you're looking to answer the Why. I think it is a missed opportunity. If you look at the GW2 character creation steps, this would have been a good guide to ask why players have chosen what they have chosen when creating their character. Nevertheless, good luck with your project. Thank you both for your input! I think you make a similar argument here and I agree. Cultural and moral values are an interesting aspect that will contibute to character identification. Sadly as I am just one person (and my deadline for this research is very close) I can't dig too deep into the question of why people identify with their character. I tried to cover mental similarity (that includes cultural values etc.) in some questions like the "my character is similar to me" or "my character is fascinating" or relatable. But I agree that this should be examined more thoroughly. I plan on sharing my results as soon as I am finished :)

First of all, thanks to all who participated so far! I really appreciate it! I study Animation and Game at Hochschule Darmstadt. I learn how to be a Game Developer there =) My main research topic is identification with non-human characters. Many studies say that players do more easily identify with a character that is similar to them and almost every game (especially AAA games) has human protagonists.In my study I want to check if players identify more with human characters than with for example Charr. So far the race doesn't seem to have that impact.This study is just a small portion of my overall project btw. The main part is the creation of a game in a small team. (In this game we have a non-human protagonist, thats why I chose the topic for the research.)If you are interested in that check out our instagram. I didn't include a neutral option in the likert-scale because I wanted to see the tendency of the answer, if participants are feeling a bit more pro or contra. It's a technique that scientific surveys sometimes use if they want to find this tendency. No worries. The study is completely anonymous. I don't know who gave the answers, so I can't connect them with specific accounts or even connect your personal data with you :) It's a normal google survey. But always keep vigilant about strangers giving you ominous links!

I am a student and this is the first survey I made. If it seems different to you it's because I'm not experienced. It's probably not going to be published.It is not important where you come from, that's why it's not a mandatory question but I think it's interesting to see if origin shows any correlation with other things.

Thanks so much for noticing! I accidently chose the wrong kind of question format here. I changed it, so multiple answers are possible now!

Hello!I am conducting a survey for my university about character identification in Guild Wars 2. Anybody who feels like participating would help me out a lot.I study Animation & Game and used to be an active Guild Wars 2 Player. The survey takes about 10 minutes.If you are interested in the results I would gladly send them to you once I'm done. Link (closed) Thanks in advance! :) Edit:Thanks again for eveyone who made this possible. I am now closing the survey!