Recently, Testpoint conducted 8 focus groups in Rome, on behalf of an important company that develops and produces video games, with regular users of this type of electronic game. The aim of the research was to evaluate all the elements of the video game, from the genre, to the setting, to the graphics, to the colors, to the sounds.
How the test was carried out
The video game market, we know, is constantly evolving and seems to know no crisis. From the distant 70s of the last century, when the first rudimentary games appeared that allowed interaction with a screen, to today, the spread of video games in the world has grown exponentially, managing to impose itself, over time, on all traditional forms of hobby.
Research on new game scenarios, ranging from environmental games to strategy games, from action games to simulation games, cannot ignore direct listening to users, who are increasingly demanding and refined.
The ideal tool for understanding the needs of these particular consumers and studying the processes that guide them in their choices and purchasing decisions are focus groups, particular qualitative research in which a small group of people, appropriately selected, discuss with each other under the guidance of a moderator.
The test we are talking about today took place in Rome and involved 40 people, men and women, passionate about the world of video games. Each group had 5 people at a time.
The participants first had to answer a short online questionnaire on the characteristics of the game in order to explore their impressions “in the dark”, then they played for exactly 10 minutes and again answered some questions online with the aim of verifying whether the game confirmed or modified the initial impressions, and finally they arrived at the discussion with the moderator in which the participants had the opportunity to discuss all the characteristics of the game they had just tried.
The same sequence was repeated three more times in order to evaluate a total of four different games.
