How to use these questions
Where possible, we try to provide survey response option scales that include:
Five or seven response points, in order to provide a reasonable trade off between granularity and ease of response,
A central neutral option,
Negative responses below the neutral response, and positive responses above it.
This structure allows us to assign positive, negative or neutral scores to responses (from -2 to +2, or -3 to +3) which can be helpful in visualising and communicating outcomes later on.
Some questions are scored in specific ways:
Where questions are reverse coded, this means that responses on the upper end of the scale are negative. If you want to compare these questions directly with other questions that are non reverse coded, you will need invert the scores.
Where questions are middle-optimal, this means that the most positive response is in the middle of the response scale. The lowest and highest scores here represent negative extremes: e.g. 'too hard' or 'too easy'.
These questions are not formally validated or part of a single tool or scale, so feel free to use individual items or modify questions for your current research goal. However, you might find more value in them by using them repeatedly, whether across multiple playtests, or in some cases, on multiple days on a longitudinal playtest. This way you can track changes to these responses over time, especially where you have enough players to aggregate responses.
Currencies - e.g. [gems, crystals, coins] - were easy to understand
Multiple choice (single selection)
1 – Strongly disagree
2 – Disagree
3 – Somewhat disagree
4 – Neither agree or disagree
5 – Somewhat agree
6 – Agree
7 – Strongly agree
I understood which currencies - e.g. [gems, crystals, coins] - were worth more than others
Multiple choice (single selection)
1 – Strongly disagree
2 – Disagree
3 – Somewhat disagree
4 – Neither agree or disagree
5 – Somewhat agree
6 – Agree
7 – Strongly agree
I knew how to get more of each currency
Multiple choice (single selection)
1 – Strongly disagree
2 – Disagree
3 – Somewhat disagree
4 – Neither agree or disagree
5 – Somewhat agree
6 – Agree
7 – Strongly agree
I understood the value of the rewards I received
Multiple choice (single selection)
1 – Strongly disagree
2 – Disagree
3 – Somewhat disagree
4 – Neither agree or disagree
5 – Somewhat agree
6 – Agree
7 – Strongly agree
It was clear how to make my character stronger
Multiple choice (single selection)
1 – Strongly disagree
2 – Disagree
3 – Somewhat disagree
4 – Neither agree or disagree
5 – Somewhat agree
6 – Agree
7 – Strongly agree
I understood how [items, powerups, gear etc] made my character stronger
Multiple choice (single selection)
1 – Strongly disagree
2 – Disagree
3 – Somewhat disagree
4 – Neither agree or disagree
5 – Somewhat agree
6 – Agree
7 – Strongly agree
I always knew what my goals were in the current or next [game/match]
Multiple choice (single selection)
1 – Strongly disagree
2 – Disagree
3 – Somewhat disagree
4 – Neither agree or disagree
5 – Somewhat agree
6 – Agree
7 – Strongly agree
I always knew what goals I was aiming for in the current game session (that is, that I was aiming to complete before closing the game)
Multiple choice (single selection)
1 – Strongly disagree
2 – Disagree
3 – Somewhat disagree
4 – Neither agree or disagree
5 – Somewhat agree
6 – Agree
7 – Strongly agree
I understood the game's longer-term goals; that is, those that might take a week or longer to complete
Multiple choice (single selection)
1 – Strongly disagree
2 – Disagree
3 – Somewhat disagree
4 – Neither agree or disagree
5 – Somewhat agree
6 – Agree
7 – Strongly agree