Hello World of Minecraft!

tl;dr answer study, help science, maybe win games

I’m conducting a scientific research project on video game streaming. The goal is to investigate what motivates people to watch streams. The main focus of this survey is the Twitch service. Completing the survey takes approximately 15-20 minutes (so not your basic 10 question quick survey). This is a non-commercial study (no outside corporate funding). This research is conducted at the Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland.

The data gathered by the survey will be handled strictly by the members of the research team. Individual respondents are treated as anonymous and cannot be identified from the published results. The only contact information we ask for is your e-mail if you wish to take part in the raffle. We will raffle 6x$50 worth of games from Steam among valid responses to the survey.

But why post this on a Minecraft forum? Well, I feel that Minecraft players and viewers represent a very different demographic than people that watch primarily competitive gaming (like LoL or CS:GO). I would really like to get the input of people who enjoy watching non-competitive and sandbox games, and I feel that Minecraft fits perfectly. Additionally, Minecraft seems to always be among the top 5 games watched on Twitch.

My hope with this study is that by making streaming a more relevant and researched subject in the scientific world, we can also increase the overall profile and acceptance of streaming as an activity/hobby/livelihood. I’m an avid gamer and fan of streams myself, and spend a lot of time on Twitch. I will try to make the results available to people interested as soon as I am done, so sometime this spring/summer.

You can find the survey at: https://www.webropolsurveys.com/S/01E7C7D610E52EF7.par (sorry for a somewhat long and ugly URL)

As there has been a lot of feedback regarding this, a quick disclaimer. If you fill out the survey you will notice several questions that seem somewhat similar to each other. This is an important methodological step in this type of research, so try not to get too distracted or annoyed by this. Just answer each question honestly and as you see fit.

All responses to the survey are greatly appreciated, as is sharing of this outside of this forum! If you wish to share this survey, you can also use our short url (http://bit.ly/streamingsurvey).

I will try to answer any comments and critiques that you may have regarding the survey.

mods: If this topic is inappropriate for this subforum, could you please move it to a more appropriate forum. If any part of this post is against the forum rules, please let me know and I will edit it appropriately.