[MUD-Dev] Using the survey Info to make real factual argument WAS: Everquest player survey with interesting points

[Sasha Hart]

[Olof]

> Many of the things covered in the survey tie in closely to threads
> currently or recently active on this list.

I found this particularly interesting in light of the girls/boys
discussion that's been in here lately...

Particularly, persistent complaints that facts are irrelevant or too
hard to get, therefore failures to say anything with content should
be thrown out as unreasonable or something...

[EQ player survey]

> Playing EQ with a romantic partner 
 
> 25% (N=1094) of EQ players play the game with a romantic
> partner. There is a significant gender difference. 69.5% of female
> players play the game with a romantic partner, while only 16.4% of
> male players do (p<.001).

Assuming that this is a meaningful result, it is gigantic. 69.5%!!
How to interpret this?

The author of the study says:

> We could ask, for example, how gender is projected into
> EverQuest. What differences in role-playing preferences or in-game
> behaviors can we find between male and female players? Does
> EverQuest appeal to male and female players in the same way? Do
> they continue to play for the same reasons? Or do they get
> different things out of playing the game?

Pretty similar things are getting said in our thread.

I ask questions, so I can try answering it using *real info*:
(*WOW*!!)

  --- Do women particularly enjoy playing with romantic partners?

  --- Possibly, is EQ repellent to women, (e.g. a guy game), but
  played as a way of interacting/being with their S.O.s?

Looking at the evidence this site provides: [From a figure]: 25.8%
have responded yes to "I have had a crush on or fallen in love with
another EQ player."

Some women are probably hooking up in EQ.

> 14.5% (N=269) of female players and 3.3% (N=1406) of male players
> are in real-life romantic relationships that started in EQ.

This confirms it; note however the discrepancy between ~70% who play
with romantic partners, and 14.5% who met current partners on
EQ. There's no way to tell how many people met partners on EQ but do
not play with them, probably not many but some. Also there are
probably some who did not meet their current partners in EQ per se,
but who play EQ independently of relationships (e.g. if two EQ
addicts hooked up at school.)

So at the most , let's say about 50% of women are playing with
people they met outside of EQ. That's a ton, but mind, it's only
half still, and it's a generous estimate.

Oh, look:

> Of those EQ players who game with a romantic partner, about
> one-third (33.8%, N=160) purchased the game specifically as
> something they could do together.

> Of those EQ players who game with a romantic partner, about a
> third (35%, N=160) say they almost always are grouped with their
> partner. Another 20% say that they are often grouped.

The first number is awfully close to the number who purchased the
game as something to do together.  This is across genders, though,
and I assume two copies have to be purchased for a couple to play;
so we don't really know who is buying what.

Although there is some difficulty interpreting the data, I'm much
farther along than if I'd just assumed that my initial idea was the
case and argued it heatedly.

Now I can see that it is almost certainly the case with some
substantial part of the population, but definitely not even a
majority.  Significance doesn't really tell us about how universal
the generalization is; when I say (with justification) that a lot of
women play EQ to be with their S.Os, I am only half right in the
sense that probably at least 50% of women are NOT doing so, even if
a number ARE.

And I am by most indications wrong if I say that women are less
invested in the game. They are playing just as much; why assume they
like it less?  Seems to me that EQ is a girl game as much as it is a
boy game, that is, to the girls who are in there...

> About a quarter (23.7%, N=2474) of EQ players have at least one
> character above level 50. ..  There are no significant gender
> differences.

> Female players get significantly more satisfaction than male
> players from killing mobs (T[1496]=-2.17, Mmale(1256)=2.77,
> Mfemale(242)=2.89, p=.03), from completing a quest (T[1495]=-3.80,
> Mmale(1255)=3.43, Mfemale(242)=3.61, p<.001), from crafting a
> complex trade skill item (T[1487]=-3.90, Mmale(1248)=3.1,
> Mfemale(241)=3.35, p<.001), and from making friends in EQ
> (T[1492]=-5.60, Mmale(1253)=3.3, Mfemale(241)=3.59, p<.001).

> Female players are significantly more likely than male players to
> have upgraded their internet connection for EQ (%male(2074)=29.9,
> %female(367)=38.4, p=.001) Female players are significantly more
> likely to have upgraded their computers for EQ when compared with
> male players (%male(2068)=44.9%, %female(368)=64.7, p<.001).

> About one-third (36.0%, N=1397) of players who are in guilds are
> in an officer or leader position. Female players are significantly
> more likely to be in officer or leader positions than male players
> are (%male(1146)=33.9, %female(230)=45.2, p<.001).

My initial idea was probably wrong. Not only have I answered my
question to my satisfaction, but I know other things about EQ at any
rate: that playing with an S.O. is done and important to many women,
but does not mean that women who do play are any less interested or
invested in the game.

If an opinion about a factual matter is one for which no information
is available, maybe the time is not yet ripe for everyone to believe
it without qualification. Unless the *goal* is a pissing contest. :)
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