Byte Sized Brainz

Although our dataset is incredibly informative about video game player behavior across cultures and in respect to the COVID-19 and environmental concerns, it cannot capture all perspectives. As mentioned previously, this survey was conducted from May 15th-30th, which gives respondents a relatively short time frame to complete the survey. Depending on how this survey was advertised to certain groups, some groups may be overrepresented in the results. For example, if the survey was advertised frequently to a specific group of players on Discord, they were more likely to have all filled it out by the deadline, as opposed to another group in which the survey was only advertised to once. Furthermore, this dataset is limited to Animal Crossing New Horizons players on Discord, Reddit, and Facebook platforms. Despite Animal Crossing skyrocketing in popularity over the pandemic, these results cannot be generalized to all video game players, as Animal Crossing most likely draws in a very specific type of video game player. 

The survey also targets a group that is not representative of the general population, as there is a very specific requirement to be able to fill out this survey: you have to have access to a video game, specifically Animal Crossing. Playing Animal Crossing, or any video game, is an incredibly privileged hobby to have, as they require a stable connection and expensive pieces of equipment. This already heavily narrows down the people eligible to be represented in this dataset. Even when studying a population as broad as all video game players, this is already a group that is likely to have high socioeconomic status, or SES, meaning they are socially and financially privileged. This predetermined difference brings a whole new set of biases and perspectives into the data that can often go unnoticed. Especially when studying topics like COVID-19 or environmental concern, higher SES could greatly impact how much these participants are concerned or informed about COVID-19 and environmental impact. These are important differences to consider when making generalized statements about what our dataset may imply, as the people studied are likely a very privileged population.
The survey questionnaire was divided into several distinct sections, each focusing on a different aspect of the respondents, including their socio-demographic profiles, environmental perceptions, game-playing habits/feelings, concerns related to COVID-19, and in-game behavior. Section A asks respondents about their nationality, region, biological sex, highest educational level, age, ethnicity, pet ownership, marital status, and employment status. Section B targets COVID-19 concerns, asking respondents about their level of worry about the pandemic outbreak, including their social distancing status and the duration and status of their self-isolation. Section C explores the environmental perceptions of respondents, inquiring about their beliefs about human interaction with each other and nature, specifically about the impact of human activities on nature and its innate balance. Section D focuses on respondent’s habits during gameplay, including their preferred video game genres, the duration of video game playing, the average daily time spent playing games in the previous two weeks, and the frequency of respondents’ playing computer/video games. Section E, on the other hand, delves into actual in-game behavior, examining the game-specific activities of fishing, catching bugs, planting trees/flowers, participating in Mystery Island Tours, terraforming, and collecting/planting different species within the game. Lastly, Section F of the survey focuses on the feelings of respondents while they play the game. Many of the statements they are asked to rank reflect their emotional experiences, including if respondents feel content, skillful, interested in the game story, frustrated, and/or immersed in the experience of “Animal Crossing.” Despite how organized and thorough our dataset is, it also is limited in providing enough detail to find direct correlations between external life and internal game decisions and experiences due to the relativity of the data collected. If this were our only data set, I think we would be missing these contextual factors, as well as qualitative data and insights. 

Unfortunately, our data leaves out a significant amount of context. From the data alone, we cannot glean direct connections between action and opinion due to a lack of supporting evidence. This type of inference would involve analyzing resources beyond our given dataset and codebook that add more psychological nuance to our data discoveries. Additionally, this survey data was published in a way that advertises such a connection being made between gameplay action and sentiment, while this may not be valid at all. Cognitive dissonance exists and it is also human nature to not necessarily say or act as we think. Considering this notion, one may form an argument that those who collected the data are effectively lying about its power via the implication of such connections, despite their positive intentions. With this inherent bias in mind, our group will be forced to support or reject the data presentation’s underlying argument with additional sources, likely from popular academic journals or studies.

Furthermore, the survey data includes majority female responders, which although is just a result of who filled out the survey, is not representative of all video game players. The ratio of women to men is so drastically different that it may also be a falsehood to claim a generalization of global socio-environmental stances. The chosen game, Animal Crossing, is more frequently played by women and the ratio reflects this (Nichols, 2023). However, our data is missing a comparable male perspective. We will have to test and see if the sample sizes of men and women are large enough to be reflective of the general population.

Finally, our data’s survey questions about the pandemic may not be specific enough to truly capture and measure player sentiments and concerns about the pandemic. Only three survey questions target the pandemic and they are broad ranging compared to other question designs. Previous statements made about the data suggest insights drawn about COVID were somewhat substantial, but some might disagree. The question design is too broad to tie into the rest of the survey about the environment, lifestyle, and gameplay. The data lacks proof that the testing method accurately tests for the objective chosen by its creators, in this case, relating environmental political platforms to gameplay behaviors.

Considering why the creators made this dataset, the creation and organization of the data tells us a story and is very intentional. First, simply choosing these specific variables about player environmental and COVID-19 concerns to measure already tells us a lot about what connections the creators aimed to make by collecting this data. Capturing player environmental and COVID-19 concerns, their in-game behavior, and feelings while playing ACNH already alludes toward making connections between player demographics, real-world values and concerns, gameplay behavior, as well as the sense of comfort and escapism that ANCH brought players during the pandemic. Furthermore, the order the dataset had their sections in appeared to be intentional. It introduces player demographics and their thoughts about real world topics first and then transitions into their corresponding gameplay. By ordering the sections of questions this way, the data suggests to the audience that differences in the players’ demographics and values can translate to their in-game behavior and sentiments of the game. Ultimately, our dataset’s specific variables measured and the order of the sections in the dataset suggested connections between player demographics, environmental sentiments, and their gameplay behavior.