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Survey of RPG use? Free sample for your help!

fireinthedust

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Hi, I'm Elias Scorsone, the publisher, author, illustrator, production/layout guy, editor, etc., for Fireinthedust Productions. I'm an independent publisher of RPG adventures and game aides, and I only just got my first product up onto DrivethruRPG.com recently. Mostly it's because I've been doing this business plan course, and while I learn "how to business", I'm trying to do a survey of customers: who are the people who buy these products?

I did this here a couple months back, but cannot find the original thread; I have the names of people who responded, and most of their PMs still exist (and I'd like to get in touch with the others, fyi). I've just finished sending the sample products to the people who sent them to me, which is great: two spreads of tables for random searching GMs can use when heroes are fumbling through crates or people's larders. I intended to print them out so, when I run Demo games, I can give those out for free PLUS sell some books. I got in a fair number of surveys, but my coach is insisting I try to get 50(!) done for the course I'm taking. So...

I've got a survey for a business plan-generating course I'm in. I need to sample potential customers, learn WHO the people who would buy my products are, and HOW they buy games, if that makes sense.

I do NOT want your personal information, just the general answers (ie: I don't need your kids' names, but if you game with your kids or not, a "yes/no" is fine; I don't need your income, but a general idea of the "job area you work in (ie: Student, Lawyer, Publisher, Homemaker, Millionaire, Inventor, Philanthropist, etc.) would be helpful.

IF you are kind enough to send me a copy of the survey, all I need is your email address to send you the sample product. If you want to copy the questions into an email, answer them, and send them to: elias@fireinthedust.com

Or you could PM them here, so we've still got the anonymity of the forum, if that makes sense.
 

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Here's the answers I need, with the idea of learning who my AVERAGE customer is.

DEMOGRAPHIC
Gender:
Age Range:
Profession:
Education Level:
Income Level: (don't answer this if you're not comfortable)
Marital status:
Children:
Geographical location:

PSYCHOGRAPHIC
Hobbies:
Activities:
Primary Leasure:
Favourite sources of information:
Entertainment preferences:
Social Media Sites used:

OTHER
Important criteria: What is a factor to whether or not you'll buy an RPG product? Be as general as you can be.
Usage Habits of Product/Service: (once a week? Never?)
Influencers: (are there artists you follow? franchises you prefer? Family? FLAGS groups?)


And that's it! :D

Again, nothing specific, but it'll help me understand how you/we like to g
 


QUESTION: has anyone ever tried this sort of thing before? I've got more experience creating than marketing, so I'm always up for learning about surveys, running businesses, and especially industry talk. Any advice you could offer would be appreciated!
 

Call me old fashioned, but I think the best way to find out this sort of thing is to make stuff and see what sells and what doesn't. Besides different product types, different price ranges, different themes.

I don't think you are going to get any meaningful sort of sample size like this, and people don't always answer honestly. Oh they think they do, but usually they answer to make themselves look better.
 

QUESTION: has anyone ever tried this sort of thing before? I've got more experience creating than marketing, so I'm always up for learning about surveys, running businesses, and especially industry talk. Any advice you could offer would be appreciated!

Sadly, I've not ever really been good with giving or interpreting surveys. It's sooo hard to get a representative sample in a lot of ways. Even then, it's hard to interpret the data in a way that'd really heavily impact what you would do.

Honestly, if your strengths are creating stuff, I would think you should go with your strengths. People who make awesome stuff tend to get attention after a while.
 

That's very considerate of you. Statistics aside, I'm doing this mostly for a project for a course, which doesn't expect me to get a scientifically accurate record. That said, so far it's done a bang-up job of telling me who I'm designing for, and giving me a reason to keep going: the support from people has been great. On top of that SOMEONE ACTUALLY USED A PRODUCT I MADE!!! That a complete stranger could find something I did useful, and had a good time with their group, really affirms that I'm doing something worthwhile (or at least momentarily useful).

If you're still interested, I'm still looking for surveys. I've just sent off the samples to the people who've emailed me, and gotten feedback on them (which informs the next stuff I'll do, and creates dialogue, etc, which is kind of fun). :D
 

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