An Exciting Survey Where YOU Are The Respondent!

[sleepyscholar]

I work at a university in Japan, and every now and again I wake up from my classroom-induced torpor and remember that I am supposed to be doing some research. As it happens, my research field is 'fan studies', a sort of multidisciplinary smorgasbord of academia which has been overwhelmingly dominated by scholars of media fandom (with a leavening of researchers on sports fans, whom the media fan scholars like to think of as just a different flavour of media fan).

The work I have done in the field has mainly been aimed at demonstrating that there are many other types of fans to which the media theories don't always apply. Furries, for example, don't fit neatly into the 'media fan' slot. And nor, for that matter, do role-playing game fans, amongst whose number I once counted myself.

Anyway, Fighting Fantasy is ripe for exploration because it's a sort of hybrid of gaming with the 'media text' so beloved of the media fan scholars. Partly because my department is concerned with practical use of English in tourism, business etc, I'm looking at how fan activity fits into peoples' lives: for example how it influences decisions about things like travel.
I have prepared a preliminary survey, the main idea of which is to check on a couple of hypotheses and provide seeds for further research. I would be enormously grateful if you, as the officially recognised Best FF Fans on The Internet™, would help me by completing it. It's completely anonymous, and the only data collected is your answers.

Those of you who are on other Fighting Fantasy forums (Facebook, for example), are very welcome to pass the link on there. I would only ask that you don't pass on the link where people are not interested in FF (as it's pointless).

Incidentally I will be attending FFF4 on the 3rd September, and would be very interested in hearing opinions on this directly, if anyone's interested in talking about it.

Paul Mason
Department of Global English
Aichi Gakuin University

[terrysalt]

I have now contributed to your OnlyFans! Wait, I think I got that wrong.

[sleepyscholar]

Aug 15, 2022 11:16:14 GMT terrysalt said:

I have now contributed to your OnlyFans! Wait, I think I got that wrong.

Shh! Shh! It's supposed to be anonymous!

And it'll show up on your credit card statement as ONEHANDCLAPPING LTD

[sleepyscholar]

I wasn't kidding when I wrote 'Best FF Fans on The Internet™' was I? 54 responses already. Thanks everyone!

[hallucination]

I realise it’s a preliminary questionnaire but will you mind reporting in with preliminary findings? I’d be interested!

[misomiso]

Yes some cool indications on what the survey says would be interesting.

[sleepyscholar]

I'll do my best, but my research goes at a glacial pace. Most likely I'll put some of the rawish data results up here. I can tell you already that as of today there are 100 respondents, which will make calculating percentages on the easy side...

As I mentioned, I was really just trying to get an idea of certain demographics of online FF fandom. You may have noticed I didn't ask about gender, only age. This was deliberate. At this stage I felt getting in to the question how many women there are reading FF would be a distraction from my main focus. I was mainly interested in the age distribution along with some measure of what's called 'affect' (which seems to a term often used to define 'fan') and see if this seems to stay consistent with age or if there is any variation.

Several respondents mentioned the Facebook page. This may introduce some difficulties for me, as I have always avoided Facebook, and intended to continue doing so. It did remind me of the interesting point (that is irrelevant to my present research), of the differences in atmosphere and attitudes between here and Facebook (and the old mailing list that I frequented).

[bloodbeasthandler]

Aug 20, 2022 8:23:37 GMT sleepyscholar said:

As I mentioned, I was really just trying to get an idea of certain demographics of online FF fandom.

Will you be taking advantage of your presence at FFF-4 to further your research?
Bringing along some questionnaires or whatnot, people entering the venue to pick one up and fill it in by a certain time and return it?

Perhaps the prize for filling in the questionnaire could be a signed copy of Magehunter (mint condition) going to one lucky respondent, name drawn from a hat? 

[sleepyscholar]

Aug 20, 2022 9:24:53 GMT bloodbeasthandler said:

Aug 20, 2022 8:23:37 GMT sleepyscholar said:

As I mentioned, I was really just trying to get an idea of certain demographics of online FF fandom.

Will you be taking advantage of your presence at FFF-4 to further your research?
Bringing along some questionnaires or whatnot, people entering the venue to pick one up and fill it in by a certain time and return it?

Perhaps the prize for filling in the questionnaire could be a signed copy of Magehunter (mint condition) going to one lucky respondent, name drawn from a hat? 

I don't have any spare copies of Magehunter, and anyone who is foolish enough to want one signed is welcome to come and see me and Marco at 2pm.

Any research I do at FFF4 will be talking to people rather than questionnaires (though I'll mention the survey in the hope of maybe picking up a couple more respondents).