Survey Design and Results Analysis

In this section, we present the survey we did during this semester. We introduced how we designed the survey and the tools we used during the process. Then, we show the results we collected from the survey and the analysis about from these results.

Survey Design

We used the online survey tool (Survey Monkey) to design our survey, and then posted the links to Facebook, Twitter, RenRen (Chinese Facebook) and Weibo (Chinese twitter). After collecting the data, we made figures using Excel and present them below.

Background of Respondents

Our research generated 98 samples which basically came from the Internet. The age range for our respondents is 15 to 40, majorly teenagers. Most of our respondents are male, and it is understandable by considering the fact that males are more likely to be attracted by game related subjects. Only 5% of the respondents did not go to college, so our survey results will be majorly about the attitudes and views of people with high-level education. The income of majority respondents dropped in the range of 0-$44999.

Gaming Behaviors

Most respondents are playing or have played online games, and they usually spend money on gaming. Only a few gamers sell their virtual properties for real money. However, this does not mean that the relationship between virtual economy and real economy is weak. Reports show that gold farmers are mostly not gamers but farming studios. It should draw some attention that people are very likely to trade in games. This means that virtual economy does not only rely on the real economy, but also the trading actions that occur inside games.

Attitudes toward Virtual Properties
Although most respondents spent money on gaming, they did not consider their virtual property valuable. As we mentioned in our introduction, the size of the virtual economy today is huge, however, people’s attitude towards it is not serious enough. Such a lack of precaution causes problems and crimes. What is more, people have not noticed the effect that virtual economy is having upon the real world.