market/primary/secondary and audience research and our research

In a group of three  we had to re-skin a game and make a questionnaire to find out what our target audience think of the game.

why the media industries do research:
industries do this research because it helps them make a game that people want to play and buy, because if they didn't do any research then they wouldn't know what there target audience want in a game to make them want to play it more than once and to even buy the game, they also look at secondary research to also help them find out what there target audience like and what kinds of things they are into to help improve and shape there game

Market research:
this is looking at games that are already out there so you can see why they are successful and also so you can make sure you aren't copying another game but this can also be good to get ideas for your own game, market research is also looking at competitors such as game brands or different games.

Primary research:
This kind of research is something that you do yourself e.g. by making and conducting a questionnaire, this is important because if you are making a video game then you need to know what your target audience want to make sure that your idea is a good idea and you won't waste time making it, this kind of research also helps with your audience as when you show them the idea for the game you will be able to find out if they would pay for it, if they would play it more than once etc.

types of primary research:
-survey
-questionnaire
-phone survey
-internet survey
-interviews


Secondary research:
Secondary research is research that has been done by other people and that you could find on:
-the internet
-newspaper
-books

How primary and secondary research compare:
primary research is for finding something specific out whereas secondary research is just research you can find that's already been done so you won't have to ask the same question when you can already find out the answer to it, also primary research could be finding something out about your game in specific or a question about something for your game that hasn't already been asked before.

this type of research can help to find out what kinds of things are popular at the moment for a video game it could be the favorite genre of video game and this could help you decide on what kind of video game you are going to make

Questionnaires:
In a questionnaire there can be different types of questions:
-qualitative questions
-quantitative questions

Quantitative questions are types of questions where you would get a yes or no answer, a type of closed question could be "do you like our game?" and that would be a yes or no answer, a qualitative question is a question where you ask for an opinion on something again an example for a question could be "what improvements would you make to the game?"

quantitative questions:
usually these come in numbers or statistics to the question you have asked, it could also mean getting a yes or a no from a question this type of question is called a closed question.

How qualitative and quantitative compare:
you would be able to find out more information from qualitative questions because these types of questions ask for an opinion or a longer answer whereas quantitative questions ask for a yes no answer or a number/statistic, also you can put quantitative answers in a graph or chart because your only going to get a short answer that other people would answer the same to.

Open and closed questions:
-An open question is  where you would ask for an opinion on something in a questionnaire.
-A closed question is just where you would ask a yes/no question and not going into detail.

Audience research:
If you are going to make something like a video game you need to know what your target audience want, and by using primary research you are able to find out what your target audience are interested in and this will help improve your game and will also help make it more successful.

Our research:
for reskinning the flash game we made and conducted a questionnaire to find out whether they liked the game, we found out how old they were just to show if our target audience liked the idea for our game or not and also about prices and what they would pay to play the game or even if they would play the game at all, we also asked if they owned smart phones e.g. IOS device, android and also if they would download the app of our game, so our research helped us find out if our video game was successful or not, for secondary research it was just looking at what device was used the most to find out what device it would be best to use it on and also what games where most popular on mobile devices such as IOS or android

secondary research:
For secondary research I used the internet to find out things like:

Top free apps (2012):
http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/60-best-free-iphone-apps-2012-663484

Top paid apps(2012):
http://www.148apps.com/top-apps/top-paid-iphone-apps/

Top mobile platforms(2012):
http://www.visionmobile.com/blog/2012/07/mobile-platform-tussles-winners-and-losers-in-2012/