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Gemini Lupus
2011-03-29, 11:32 PM
Hey there fellow playgrounders!

I'm an education major and today I was sitting in my Educational Measurements and Evaluations class and we were talking about different types of assessment and we came to affective assessment and began talking about surveys. We talked about having surveys at the beginning of class, to get a gauge on what your students already know/have trouble with or what interests them, so that you might be able to modify your lesson plans to spend more time on sections that they need more help with or find interesting and not as much on what they already know, so that your not boring the majority of your students. We also talked about the surveys that students fill out critiquing their teacher, what they did well, what they didn't do well, etc.

So I have this idea. I could have surveys for my role playing group! Naturally, I tune out for the rest of the class as I begin to think about what sort of surveys I could have and I thought of having two surveys. One that is given before a new game starts to see what the players want in their games and one given at the end of the game, to provide feedback to the Game Master.

What I ask of you, my fellow playgrounders, is two things: do y'all like this idea and would you help me construct these surveys. I'll get us started and if you would be kind enough to provide feedback, I would be eternally grateful.

The two types of questions I want are short-essay questions and questions that fall into the Likert Scale (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Likert_scale). i.e. questions that can be answered with Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree or some similar scale.

I'll get us started and divide questions that pertain to the feedback survey and the pre-game survey. Also, if you all would like to help me come up with better names, feel free! :smallbiggrin:

Pre-Game Survey

What do you want to see in this game/campaign? (Short Answer Question)

What do you find enjoyable in a role playing game? (SAQ)

I enjoy intense tactical combat. SA A N D SD

I enjoy developing my character to it's fullest potential. SA A N D SD

I like complex storylines and heavy role play. SA A N D SD

I enjoy the accumulation of shinies. SA A N D SD

Feedback Survey

What did the GM do that was particularly memorable?

What did they do particularly well?

What could the GM improve upon?

The GM provided a good mix of combat and role playing. SA A N D SD

The GM provided memorable NPCs who felt like real characters. SA A N D SD

The combats provided were challenging yet enjoyable. SA A N D SD

The story was immersive. SA A N D SD

So what do you think of this and what questions could y'all add to this grouping? Are there other types of surveys we could develop?

Thank you for taking the time to read this and giving me your assistance.

Savannah
2011-03-30, 01:15 AM
I think the biggest thing is to figure out exactly what you want to be measuring. For example, on the pre-game survey, it seems like the first two questions and the last four questions are trying to measure the same thing (playstyle). While using multiple questions to assess something can be useful, I don't think it's terribly necessary for a D&D game.

Also think about what you want to do with the information once you've got it. How long are you going to have between the first survey and the start of the game to modify your game based on the answers? (And furthermore, do you really need this information or are you just doing this because you were in a class on surveys and it sounded cool? If you have an established group, wouldn't you be able to tell most of the information in the pre-game survey from observing their reaction in previous games?)

Personally, I wouldn't want to answer short-answer questions for a game. I don't like writing out that sort of stuff in the first place, and I really wouldn't want to do it for something where I'm just wanting to play. If they're fairly simple short answer questions ("Is there anything that you particularly want in the game - monsters, storylines, magic items, etc?" and "Is there anything you particularly don't want in the game?"), I wouldn't mind too much, but "What do you find enjoyable in a role playing game?" is so open ended that I'd either give a pointless answer ("it varies") or a massive essay to try to explain it. Of course, that's just me....

Gemini Lupus
2011-03-31, 08:32 PM
First off, thanks for replying. I don't actually need this information, it mostly just sounded cool, but it could also be something that is available here in the playground for everyone to use. I've been with my current group for over two years, so I know approximately what they like, but a survey can allow my players to tell me on paper what they like and don't like. The use of multiple questions to assess playstyle can be useful to assess to what degree players enjoy certain playstyles.

I may have as long as two weeks to a month after the first survey to modify my game, so that's plenty of time to modify things.

In all honesty, the feedback survey is more important to me, because it can help me to become a better GM for my group and they can provide feedback as to what the particularly liked, disliked, and what I can improve upon in my GMing style.

As to your last point, that's why I'm posting this here, to get feedback from the numerous minds of the playground. I would want the short answer questions to be simple ones like what you suggested.

valadil
2011-03-31, 09:56 PM
I did one of these recently. It went pretty well IMO, but I didn't include a question on what the PCs thought of the survey :-P

I never liked the Likert Scale. Instead I went with more of a thumbs up/thumbs down approach. I wrote out three lists. NPCs, plots, and game elements. Players circled the aspects they enjoyed thus far and crossed out the items they didn't.

I also asked a few subjective questions, like favorite and least favorite part of the game.

Samurai Jill
2011-03-31, 11:03 PM
I enjoy developing my character to it's fullest potential.
This is very ambiguous. Are you talking about emotional/character development or just growing more powerful?

The story was immersive. SA A N D SD
This, too, is very ambiguous. A lot of people interpret 'immersive story' to simply mean 'There was some kind of story, and I wasn't bored.'

Other questions that might be worth asking-

* Do you enjoy following elaborate trails of clues and unravelling mysteries?
* Do you enjoy a detailed, self-consistent setting, established before play?
* To what extent do you value realism? In what form? Physics, biology, politics, historical accuracy, psychology?
* Do you value faithfulness to particular source materials?
* Do you enjoy an elaborate, detailed system of character generation?
* Do you enjoy establishing a detailed background for your character? Relationships, goals, personality traits?
* How do you prefer that character-proficiency advancement take place? An XP system or something similar? Practice-based advancement or something similar? Something entirely different? Not applicable?
* Do you enjoy the tactical niches of a class/level-based system, or prefer more flexibility?
* Do you believe that different classes/races/professions/builds should be strictly balanced in terms of effectiveness? Are you willing to accept a weak build to start for a strong build later? Or, do you feel that players must be responsible for making sure their own build is competitive?
* Are you willing to create a character that is powerful at the expense of being logical within the setting, or logical within the setting at the expense of being powerful?
* Are you particularly attracted to a particular class/race/profession/build out of a sense of 'wish-fulfillment' or desire to emulate a particular hero-figure?
* Do you enjoy formal mechanics that govern or guide personality- D&D alignments, GURPS disadvantages, BITs in Burning Wheel, etc.?
* Do you like your game to have clear guidelines on particular interpretations of moral and ethical conduct?
* Does your GM prefer to roll in the open, or behind a screen?
* Do you believe the GM should have the right to overturn rules whenever desired, or should be bound strictly by the rules?
* To what extent is your GM willing and able to improvise?
* Have you played games that lacked a single GM or distributed GM-duties in non-standard ways?
* Have you enjoyed games that included a metagame reward system for role-play, such as "Role-Play XP", Spiritual Attributes in The Riddle of Steel, or Willpower Points in NWoD? Did you find it helpful?
* Do you prefer acting solely on the basis of in-character information and motives, partly on the basis of in-character information and motives, or do you treat the character as a kind of 'chess pawn'?
* How much time, comparatively speaking, is spent on combat, social scenes, stealth, interrogation, chases, survival, athletics, etc. in your games?
* How much real-world socialising or joshing takes place in your games?
* How do you handle player absences or dropouts?
* How frequently do you meet, and how long do sessions last?
* What kind of relationships do you have with the other players?
* How busy are your schedules? What kind of work do you do? Do you have family obligations?

...I'm sure I could think of more, but that seems a reasonable start.

Samurai Jill
2011-04-03, 12:41 PM
...too much?

dsmiles
2011-04-03, 12:50 PM
...too much?A little. :smallwink:

As a casual gamer, I would honestly not want to fill out a survey for a game. I don't feel that it's conducive to a relaxed gaming environment. I would have to remember to think about the feedback questions during the game, and I would find it distracting.