Profiling is when the behavior patterns and personal characteristics of someone is analysed to discover generalizations about the person in question. This is primarily used for gender profiling.
Online Questionnaires:
In order to define the target audience for Skyrim, I made an online survey via SurveyMonkey and posted the link online. By doing this I would start to determine the target audience of Skyrim. I structured my questionnaire similarly to the online questionnaire from when I was looking for the target audience for Pokemon GO.
My first question starts off simple, with a question that asks the person answering whether they have even heard of the game and if they have, if they have played it. By doing this, I can determine how many people that have heard about Skyrim, have actually gone on to play it. Another purpose of this question, is to stop people who haven't heard or played Skyrim from answering half of the survey in regards to age, gender etc, before they realise that the survey doesn't apply to them.
My second question is to determine how the person answering heard about Skyrim. This allows me to find out the variety of ways people have heard of Skyrim and how the target audience consumes media.
Once I had determined the basic information of the person answering the survey, I went onto the time they spent playing the game. This would allow me to gauge the interest the people who played had for the game and if they enjoyed it enough to warrant a 50 hour plus play through. Due to the games RPG nature, I expect answers more towards the 50 plus hour mark due to the game length and popularity.
While question 5 would have more or less answered the question of whether they liked it or not, I went for a more direct approach due to the prior question having a more ambiguous answer to whether they liked the game or not. By answering this question, they confirm whether they liked the game or not, giving more accuracy to the results of the survey.
With question 7, I went for a less serious approach, with a hidden purpose to it. From first glance, it merely asks the persons preference for two of the games main warring factions, but it has a hidden purpose to it. One of the factions, The Stormcloaks, are defending their country from the other faction, the Imperials, who are trying to take over the Stormcloaks homeland. From the answers given, I can find whether the person playing is more aggressive (The Imperials) or Passive (The Stormcloaks). This can help gauge the nature of the games target audience and whether the game is targeted at more aggressive or passive people.
For question 8, I began to profile the audience by using the uses and gratifications theory. By using this, I could get a more accurate profile of the player base and as a result, find out if those answering the survey fit the estimated target audience.
By asking those answering about their income, I can gauge which NRS social grade they fall into and as a result profile them more accurately and find out who the audience of Skyrim is composed of.
As seen by my results, the people who answered my survey all have played Skyrim. Despite the fact only two people completed the survey, it shows that the game is popular enough that if people have heard of it, they may have gone on to play it at some point. However, the survey may of been answered only by people who have played Skyrim, making the result's inaccurate. People who have never played Skyrim before, may of opened up the survey, and upon seeing the questions, closed it due to it being a waste of their time. This leads to the results seen above potentially be inaccurate.
As seen in the above results, all the participants in the Survey were male. This implies that Skyrim's player base may be predominately male. The results may be inaccurate, due to the anonymous nature of then survey and the fact that only two people answered making the answers on the survey a poor representation of the player base and audience at large.
As shown in the above results, all survey participants said that they were in the 15 to 18 age range. This shows that the audience for Skyrim is generally younger, but they are still within the estimated age range of 18 to 29. Once again however, the results may be inaccurate, due to the small amount of participants, and the anonymous nature of the survey.
As seen in the results above, all survey participants played Skyrim for over 50 hours or more. This implies that the target audience for Skyrim is younger. This is because a younger person may have more time on their hands which would allow them to play games for long periods of time. Adults however, generally have full time jobs and families to look after, making playing games for over 50 hours very difficult due to the responsibility's they have to put before a game.
As seen in the results above, all survey participants enjoyed playing Skyrim. This is to be expected, due to the participants having played over 50 hours each, which would imply a like for the game. However, this goes to show the game does appeal primarily to a younger demographic which apply's to my thoughts of the target audience being 18 to 29.
For question 8, one person answered with 'For Entertainment' showing that Skyrim is consumed as a media text for the purposes of entertainment in accordance to Bulmer and Katz's Uses and Gratifications theory.
Upon gathering and analyzing the questionnaire results, I began taking interviews about Skyrim, in order to find out which demographics the game appealed to most and what aspects of the game they enjoyed the most.
Interview Transcript:
Q: Have you played Skyrim, and if so, did you enjoy it?
A:
Yes I have played Skyrim and I thought it was a very interesting game with plenty of side quests and there's always plenty of things to be doing in it.
Q: What did you enjoy about Skyrim?
A:
I like how lots of different characters are very unique, there are numerous different races, so for example Argonians and Khajiit. Its very interesting how all these different races interact and how conflicts and stuff are going on alongside all the quests and things like that, its quite interesting.
Q: What would you say are Skyrim's strengths?
A:
The music is pretty good actually now you mention it, and how the themes very catchy and it makes you want to sing along to it. The quests are quite interesting, I think Bethesda's been very good at that, the writings very good and things like that. Their always very good at it.
Q: Would you say Skyrim has any particular weaknesses?
A:
I've noticed there's plenty of bugs within the game for example if a troll can knock you up into the air but apart from that, I actually can't think of anything else of the top of my head.
Q: Did you play the DLC's for Skyrim, if so which of them did you play and did you enjoy them?
A:
I got all of the three DLC's for Skyrim and I did enjoy them. The Dawnguard DLC wasn't particularly interesting in the whole vampire aspect of it, but I did enjoy Dragonborn as it added on to the Dragonborns story and explained more about what it is and whats the history of the Dragonborn sort of thing. The Hearthfire one was relatively simple however.
Q: How much time would you say you put into Skyrim, and did you spend this time over multiple playthroughs, or just one character?
A:
When I first got the game I made one character and I spent numerous hours playing that character, mainly because there's lots of different things within the game. However I have started again and made new characters just because I'd like to see what the strengths are of those particular characters like the Wood Elves can be quite sneaky and good with a bow and you have Nords who are very hardy and good for melee combat. I like to try out different characters and classes and what not.
Interview Analysis:
For the interview, I asked a 17 year old male questions about The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and recorded his answers. Upon completing the interview I recorded footage of the interviewee playing Skyrim and placed the audio on top of the game audio. From the interview, I can deduce the interviewee enjoyed Skyrim and put a substantial amount of time into the game over the course of several characters and playthroughs. He particularly enjoyed the games music and quests, but also disliked the numerous glitches Skyrim is known for. Since he is 17, he is within the target audience. .
Interview Video:
Second Interview Transcript:
Q: Have you played Skyrim, and if so, did you enjoy it?
A: I have played Skyrim and I enjoyed it very much so. To the point it has been my favorite game for several years now.
Q: What did you enjoy about Skyrim?
A: I found the open world to be both detailed and even believable at some points. I enjoyed the aspects that there are multiple quest-lines, which I had not come across in a game before I played Skyrim. I enjoyed the combat and the music also.
Q: What would you say are Skyrims Strengths?
A: I'd say Skyrims Strengths are its open world, attention to detail, freedom and its music. I feel its open world is genre defining and the attention to detail Bethesda have put into the game is incredible and a testament to the teams accomplishments over the years. The music is arguably some of the best music the games industry has ever produced with Jeremy Soule's compositions capable of eliciting strong emotions backed up with the stunning vistas Skyrim has to offer. It is one of the greatest moments in gaming when you are walking through the vast and beautiful tundras of Skyrim while the incredible music is playing. It is simply glorious.
Q; Would you say Skyrim has any particular weaknesses?
A: I'd say Skyrim has plenty of weaknesses. Firstly is the combat. While I personally enjoy it, many find it to be clunky and cumbersome. Should a player like to play as a mage archetype, they are faced with limited Magicka which restricts their in-game offensive capabilities. The sneak mechanics are very inconsistent with NPC's walking across dead bodies and dismissing them, allowing for sneak type characters to walk through dungeons with no threat of opposition if they exploit the AI. The console versions of the game have long and frequent loading screen courtesy of the Xbox 360's and PS3's low RAM. The load time's are that bad that many player speculate that over half their playtime is spent looking at black screens. This is issue if not prevalent on PC for the most part, but since the main player base is console, it is enough to be a big problem.
Q: Did you play all of the DLC's for Skyrim, if so which of them did you play and did you enjoy them?
A: I played all three DLC for Skyrim and I enjoyed all three thoroughly. I found Hearthfire the least enjoyable of the DLC's, due to its content being minimal with the ability to adopt children and build three manor houses. I found what was within enjoyable but I preferred the large quest based DLC's. I enjoyed Dawnguard much more, and I enjoyed the vampire hunting aspect much more over the Hearthfire DLC's house building emphasis. It had much more content than Hearthfire and was better value for money all round. The last DLC was Dragonborn which I played and absolutely loved. Dragonborn was more of a Expansion Pack than DLC due to its large amount of content. I played all I could of Dragonborn and I regard it as one of the greatest DLC's ever made second only to the seminal Blood and Wine for the Witcher 3.
Q: How much time would you say you put into Skyrim, and did you spend this time over multiple playthroughs, or just one character?
A: I would say I have put over 500 hours into Skyrim which was put in over multiple play-through and over 3 platforms. The majority of my playtime is on my main character on the 360 version of the game with other characters on the PC and Xbox One. I enjoy creating other characters and trying different play-styles with each character.
Interview Analysis:
For this interview, I interviewed an 18 year old male and asked him the same set of question that were presented to the other interviewee. Upon looking at his answers, I can deduce that the interviewee played and enjoyed Skyrim to the point it became his favorite game. He had played hundreds of hours of the game and seemed to have enjoyed every minute of it. He had even purchased it for 3 different platforms. Due to his age, he fitted in to the target audience. The interview has shown that the game has appealed to members of the target audience, though due to the interviewee only being one person, it may not apply to the target audience as a whole. However, this interview does show that the theory that the audience is 18 to 29 is not too far off if not accurate. He had also played game's of the same genre such as The Witcher 3 which shows that maybe that age range has a particular affinity for the Open World RPG genre and as such make the estimated target audience more of a reality.
Third Interview Transcript:
Q: Have you played Skyrim?
A: I have and quite frequently. I currently have over 4 complete playthroughs with a playtime of over 300 hours.
Q: Firstly, what is your age?
A: I am 52 years old.
Q: Why did you play Skyrim?
A: I play Skyrim to pass the time, I have played video games as a hobby for many years now, and as such, Skyrim appealed to me due to the fact it features and large open world and the fact it has simply hours of content. I personally like RPG games a lot which influenced me to purchase and play Skyrim. I enjoyed it very much.
Q: Are you currently employed, if so what is your profession?
A: I am currently self employed as a independent Financial Adviser and I have been in this profession for over a decade. I have worked in that line of work pretty much my entire working life.
Q: Due to the fact you have a job and as a result work frequently, do you find time to play Skyrim? Being an Open World RPG, it has a large amount of content which a job may prevent you from getting through.
A: I do, being self employed I can find more time to play games than someone employed conventionally, and going back to the first question, I have completed the game fully four times since release which means I can spend much of my time playing games regardless to being employed or not. Don't get me wrong, I still work frequently, but I have more time to play video games than say someone who works 9 till 5 all day everyday.
Interview Analysis:
For this interview, I interviewed a 52 year old male and presented a different set of questions than the ones used previously. The questions used before focused more on the interviewee's opinion on the game opposed to finding more about them in order to profile them. The interviewee is age 52, which puts them above the target age group. This shows that a wider variety of ages play Skyrim not just teenager or young adults. Despite being employed, the interviewee found time to play video games more than the average person, due to the nature of his employment being self employed. Being a financial Adviser by trade, he would fit into B grade in accordance to the NRS social grade showing that people from all backgrounds and professions play Skyrim.
Visual References:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/home/
Written References:
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/profiling
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NRS_social_grade
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