Task 1 - Types of research

Primary Research

Primary research is a type of research that is collected by you. It is a very good method to use when trying to collect information about different games. This research is from original data that has been gained from someone that you have been watching play a game. This is good as you can see many different aspects that the gamer will show whilst playing a game, such as facial expressions and how quick they can adapt to a new game that they have never played before or a game that they play on a regular basis. We can also see how they play in games like very offensive, tactical, defensive or strategic. This is key information that is needed for many different reasons in the games industry. Primary research is used for specific reasons to see how different types of games are played with players of different kinds. Data like this can be obtained from techniques such as surveys and questionnaires, which is a great method as you will receive all of the information that you want really easily and simple as you can personally choose what questions will go on the survey and then you will receive some good quality information about the things that you need to know about how people can play games and primary research. Interviews are a great way to collect different types of information as there are many different types of interviews you can use to get information you need. A phone interview is a great method as this will help you as this is a more serious technique and you will get more answers that are detailed and a good source of information. Also, a focus group could be another good method to get primary information as you can receive opinions that are straight forward and simple but they give a lot of information that can be useful as primary research.

Some advantages of this type of research would be that the information is what you collect so the information is most likely going to be relevant and this also means that it should be more reliable as you've collected it yourself so there should be no false information in the research. The information will also come in smaller amounts meaning that it will be easier to navigate certain facts and information meaning that time will be more efficient and used better. 

A big disadvantage is that you will have go and find this information by yourself rather than just going on the internet and searching it like secondary research. You will also need the right equipment in order to gain your own primary research which would mean that it would take a while to actually obtaining the research and the progress wouldn't flow as smoothly as it should.

I have collected my own primary evidence from playing games by myself and discovering new things that occur in the game play as I found out the information by myself and I didn't use anybody elses information about the game. I gathered different aspects that the game showed such as the mechanics, graphics and sound produced, which can change overall how good the game is and also how well it performs. After looking into this information of the game, you can see why it was used, as it gave the game a polish and a nice feel to it which also links to the players emotions of the game.

Primary evidence can differ largely depending of the genre of the game, for example, a horror game would have major changes from other genres as they usually tend to use spooky off pitch music or sounds that build up tension. They also usually include jump scare mechanics within a horror game in order to successfully scare the player. The characters used in games can also change depending on what genre is used and what play style the creator wants the game to have. For example in Pokemon Red, you're character obeys the rules of the game and goes through it without speaking which leads to the not having to much personality where as in other games like The Wolf Among Us and Corpse Party, you can give the character that you play as their own type of personality as the dialogue they use is chosen by you.

Secondary Research

Secondary research is another type of research that is fairly different to primary research as it is collected from another person’s research whereas primary is where you collect it all by yourself. This is used by people that research games and this type of research can be collected by reading books and magazines as information is collected from the information that has already been made or is not my own research. This can allows more ideas to flow which can help gather more secondary research in games. Information can also be taken from the internet as other people post information which can consist of genuine facts of the game and also opinions that they have on the game.

A really useful advantage about secondary research is that it is really easy to find in a very short amount of time as you can just simply browse it on the internet and the answer comes up straight away which is obviously very good and efficient. Another great thing is that you can gather secondary information together using general resources that are probably just laying about in your home such as the internet, magazines, newspapers and other materials. If not, then they cost only a very cheap amount which is also useful considering that the primary research would most likely cost a lot more.

A clear disadvantage is that it could take a while to gather the information that you need as you will find the information in large chunks filled with other stuff that you might not actually need and you will have to sort out which information you actually need. Also, you don't know if the information you are getting is going to be correct as it could just be someone assumption or opinion which could lead to gathering false information which obviously wouldn't be too good. 

Secondary research is very easy to obtain considering that it is practically posted all over the media and technology which includes the internet, magazines, articles and much more. This information can also be presented in many different ways as a common example is a review. Reviews contain information that is not collected by yourself but from another person which allows this to become secondary research and this information is most likely to go in depth describing bot good and bad points. This is useful as you can easily sort out the different facts, advantages and disadvantages of the game which would most likely benefit the reader as they are gather useful information that would benefit them. 

Quantitative Research

Quantitative research is basically data that is received in numeral figures which can be effective as is clearly states and shows different numbers and charts showing good and bad feedback from different types of games. These numbers are varied about the views and thoughts from information.

This is a very good research technique as you can gather lots of information just from numbers which are very easy to acquire and these usually given in charts, rom tables and diagrams. Also, considering that numbers are small, this makes the information very easy to read which is fast and efficient. 

However, there are some bad things about this method as the information is very simplistic and it doesn't give information in a detailed way which could include some crucial information that could be needed. This could also be a fairly unreliable method if a question was not read or written properly which could lead to answers that are not correct and it could completely change the outcome.

Game testing is a fairly effective way to gain fast feedback and advice of how to improve the game, and how to balance out the good and bad spots of a particular game which I have had personal experience on in my class where I got people to test my game and they gave me very useful advice of some crucial ways to improve my game.

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is information that can produce things such as personal opinions, views and preferences over different games and what they think about the game. This technique is great as it helps to gain information about what different types or groups of people think which is very important as it is key information to games. This is used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions and motivations. Qualitative research can also help to receive more information on something that has already been discussed briefly and it can help us obtain extra information about something in a more clear and detailed way. 

A good thing about qualitative research is that the explanations are a lot more detailed comparing to other methods such as quantitative as they go more in depth as the information is explored and talked about much more. Also, you can gather opinions from different people which can also be very good as this leads to knowing what type of people buy and enjoy the certain product such as a game. Another good thing is that this information isn't usually scripted meaning that the information is pure and natural so this can be elaborated to help other types of research.

Some disadvantages about this is that the information will not all be the same and it will come in different shapes and sizes considering that some people like to go into more detail and others like to keep it simple and this makes the process more confusing and time consuming to organise all of the information. Also, the information might not be fully correct as the person may have no clue what the question meant and just said something that doesn't even relate to the topic which makes this method slightly unreliable. 

A good example of qualitative research is a review considering that it gives the reader their view of the game and how well they think the game was structured. a review usually consists of giving the players personal opinions of the game, advantages, disadvantages and a rating of the game. This allows the qualitative information to be sorted out fairly easily as the rating will give the general statement of whether the game was actually good or not. This also leads to gathering easy information on the good and bad aspects of the game.