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ArmouredBlood

Measuring altruism - survey

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UPDATE: Project is done, results in screenshot form here

I'm doing a final project for my quantitative methods class and I need some data. Initially I wanted to get some statistics from the dsda about how you could tell which wads are most popular by comparing demos/map and demos/wad, but when I talked to my professor it came up that this had nothing to do with biology. And of course I thought to myself, what does drinking or not have to do with biology, as that's more a social problem but so many students can get away with doing it ... but in any case, we got to talking about the free nature of doom and she became interested in why people would spend their time making maps for free.

My reasons are pretty general - I wanted to make some fun maps in a playstyle I liked, and it was free and relatively easy to start, though definitely not easy to master, if I could consider myself one.

Anyway, some questions that I could use answers to, and if you have some comments on what else I might ask (or where to ask, heheh), it'd be appreciated.

UPDATE: survey!

Thanks for any responses.

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I'll bite :)

What is your favorite style of map to make?
Large, detailed, interconnected, non-linear maps with paced gameplay. Actually that's not entirely true; those sort of maps are really love/hate for me. They start out fun though!

What is your most common style of map to make?
At this moment in time, I have made more deathmatch maps than anything else. So I guess it would be highly detailed, medium-sized deathmatch maps with emphasis on somewhat complex and interconnected layouts.

What is your favorite style of map to play?
I can get enjoyment out of almost any kind of maps aside from the really brutal slaughterfets. I'd say the style of gameplay showcased in Scythe II is probably my favorite (excellent pacing with a nice difficulty curve as you progress). I also get lots and lots of enjoyment out of maps that make use of interesting architecture and detailing.

What got you into mapping?
The first time I can recall wanting to learn how to map was when I first played UT99. However I could never get the editor to work on my computer back then. I had been a huge fan of Doom since it came out and so I eventually found my way to the Doom Builder site. I played some custom maps and I tried to emulate them. It took me a few years but I eventually learned the basics of mapping. Once I joined the community, my interest just took off. I have a mild interest in architecture and mapping is one way to explore that interest. Combined with Doom's excellent gameplay, I find mapping to be a very enjoyable hobby even after all of these years. I find it hard to believe that I'll give it up anytime soon.

What editor(s) do you use?
As far as mapping is concerned, just Doom Builder. From the whole perspective though, I use many editors - XWE, SLADE3, GIMP, and then a bazillion different specific utilities.

Where do you get your resources (music, textures, mods, etcs)?
Well there are all sorts of different places both within and outside of the community. Vgmusic and The Mod Archive are sites I've used in the past to find music and there are also some excellent musicians within the community that have contributed to some of my works in the past. Afterglow's texture site and Torm's site are good places to find texture packs (occasionally I'll look around at other game communities for textures too). Sometimes I can make some of the simpler graphics myself from-scratch and I'm currently attempting to learn how to make textures.

How often do you map?
Lately mapping has been an on/off sort of thing. When I do map, I will sometimes do it every day for a few hours or more, depending on how much free time I have to kill. That can sometimes last for a month or two. After that I usually have to take a break. That can last anywhere from a few days to a month.

When did you start mapping?
Probably around 2001 or 2002; earlier than that if you count the attempts I made at mapping for UT99. I didn't seriously start mapping until around 2005~ish.

When did you last upload a map to idgames/others?
Um, I guess that would have been 32in24 #10 (unless you count the Vela Pax beta). So that was November of 2010.

How's that? I tried not to ramble too much.

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What is your favorite style of map to make?
---------
Maps with progressing but tough (sometimes relentless) gameplay, interesting layout, a strong sense of place and a lot of arch-viles.


What is your most common style of map to make?
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Slaughter/semi-slaughter


What is your favorite style of map to play?
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Anything with fast-paced gameplay and a good level of challenge


What got you into mapping?
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I love creating things, and maps are one of the few things I'm remotely good at creating.


What editor(s) do you use?
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DB 1, XWE


Where do you get your resources (music, textures, mods, etcs)?
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Internet, I suck at creating my own resources.


How often do you map?
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Varies. I just finished my first map in over half a year, but last summer I was mapping like crazy.


When did you start mapping?
---------
Around 2000-2001, with edmap :]


When did you last upload a map to idgames/others?
---------
Ten hours ago!

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You aren't going to be able to easily make any kind of meaningful quantitative analysis with such open ended questions. Some of your questions are more qualitative than quantitative. For instance the questions "What is your favorite style of map to make?" and "What is your most common style of map to make?" are open to interpretation and are going to be difficult to put into codes. I suggest you offer some set options for these questions with an "other" option. Even with questions such as "What editor(s) do you use?" is open to interpretation. Some people are going to just list the Doom editing tools they use, while others may also list the text editors, image tools, etc they use. You really need to define EXACTLY what information you're looking for.

Anyway, I think you really need to think re-think some of the questions you're asking if this is really a quantitative assignment. I also suggest you use a web based survey tool such as Survey Monkey to gather your data rather than having to manually copy it out responses in a thread into Excel or whatever you're going to use to analyse your data.

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Thomas said:

You aren't going to be able to easily make any kind of meaningful quantitative analysis with such open ended questions. Some of your questions are more qualitative than quantitative. For instance the questions "What is your favorite style of map to make?" and "What is your most common style of map to make?" are open to interpretation and are going to be difficult to put into codes. I suggest you offer some set options for these questions with an "other" option. Even with questions such as "What editor(s) do you use?" is open to interpretation. Some people are going to just list the Doom editing tools they use, while others may also list the text editors, image tools, etc they use. You really need to define EXACTLY what information you're looking for.

Anyway, I think you really need to think re-think some of the questions you're asking if this is really a quantitative assignment. I also suggest you use a web based survey tool such as Survey Monkey to gather your data rather than having to manually copy it out responses in a thread into Excel or whatever you're going to use to analyse your data.


Yeah I haven't really been thinking about this project, it's like a 203 class and I've been focusing on 300/400 level stuff. I'll look into survey monkey. Thank you mech and jodwin for your time answering the questions. Anyone else who would like to answer, you might want to wait until I get survey monkey or something else figured out.

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ArmouredBlood I'm happy to give you further advice and look over your questionnaire before you "re-launch" it. Just PM me! I work in the market research industry, so I know quite a bit about questionnaire design.

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I'm inactive ATM and not quite productive, but I'll take a bite.

ArmouredBlood said:

Questions:
What is your favorite style of map to make?

Gothic nightmare or at least inferno. It gives me unlimited freedom, unlike techbases, which have to be realistic.

What is your most common style of map to make?

See above.

What is your favorite style of map to play?

Anything that isn't Doom 2-themed (it has to be either sci-fi or fantasy, not mundane).


What got you into mapping?

My childhood imagination.

What editor(s) do you use?

Doom Builder 2, Slade 3 and Whacked 2. For Doom 3 it's DoomEdit and for 3d models I'm attempting to use Blender (which is free).

Where do you get your resources (music, textures, mods, etcs)?

Music: I usually take it from /idgames/music or other external MIDI-supplying sites. I also import good-quality GuitarPro tabs sometimes. I might also think about using MP3 remixes of Doom music if the wad asks for it (or minutes-long ambiental noise from various sound-supplying sites).
Textures: I prefer to draw these myself, because they're the easiest type of art to do, and I can become better in time on this. Still, I tend to import useful stock textures from NiGHTMARE's resources or the Doom alpha some times. For Doom 3, I've found textures at filterforge and in the Photorealistic Texture Pack.
Sounds: from websites, either free (freesound) or where I've managed to get free monthly ratios (soundsnap).

How often do you map?

Rarely. I have other things to do right now srsly.

When did you start mapping?

When I was 10 or 11, but understandably, it was hard (I was using WinDEU too). I did manage to build an impressive looking start of a map, but I was 12 at that time, and now I don't want to change it any more, preferring to keep it to myself for historical value. I did actually give it to someone by whim, but fortunately his computer got crashed and lost the file. Here it is: http://www.wadsinprogress.info/index.php?a=showshot&wad=967&shot=1

When did you last upload a map to idgames/others?

At the start of 2008 in a community wad called Dark Resolution. Now it's the Tuneup challenge that's incoming with a tuneup by me in it.

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Thanks to thomas's input, I have created a survey that should help me a lot more and also cut down on your response time. Though if you want to discuss questions and your answers, it's not my forum to say you can't ;)

Survey

And damnit printz, you posted right as I was about to post =/

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There is a problem with the last question in the survey ("When looking for resources, do you go for things already made or make your own resources?"). I could only select one option, that applied to every line.

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What is your favorite style of map to make?
Short maps that are simple in design and layout, with not a lot of detail but with enough height variation and texutre variation to stop it from looking bland. Tough Gameplay giving the player limited ammo/health.
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What is your most common style of map to make?
As above
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What is your favorite style of map to play?
Short, challenging maps that look good without going over the top on detail.
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What got you into mapping?
I suppose I like being able to create levels, I'd always enjoyed playing other peoples levels but being able to create my own and decide what was in them gave me a sense of empowerment.
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What editor(s) do you use?
DB2, before that DB1
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Where do you get your resources (music, textures, mods, etcs)?
Mostly from IWADS, some textures ripped from projects that I enjoy, I also use some of the texture packs from Realm667
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How often do you map?
Every day
-------------
When did you start mapping?
About 3 or 4 yrs ago
-------------
When did you last upload a map to idgames/others?
November 2010 I think

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Phml said:

There is a problem with the last question in the survey ("When looking for resources, do you go for things already made or make your own resources?"). I could only select one option, that applied to every line.


Ah man, fixed it. Thought it said 'only one answer per row', not column. Should work now.

And I'm not surprised technician ;p

Oh no foodles ... going to have to change the first post.

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So now you're about to know how many people on DW like to make slaughter maps vs. Plutonia maps (wtf is a slaughter map???), what does that have to do with altruism?

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Seriously, I'm not totally sure, but if I get enough data, I might correlate that most mappers like a certain type of map, and those who do are the most altruistic, because there are more. Maybe. Or something. Really, it's just a final project in a 200 level class, and though I'd like it to be good ... I'm more likely to just find fluff.

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So I finished the project, it's not great but I think it'll be plenty to let me pass with my test grades. A guy on the zdoom forums was interested in the results, so I thought why not put them up. Survey monkey doesn't allow linking of results unless you get a 'professional' account, so I just screenshotted them and put them in a zip. link

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