Audience Research

In conducting my audience research I distributed my survey through 3 primary methods:

1. Manual Distribution to friends within Sixth Form (and further spreading to their friends who also play Dungeons and Dragons)
2. Sharing in the Sub-Reddit /r/DnD
3. Sharing in the Facebook group ‘Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition’

Because of this, I was able to collect a high number of responses which showed a huge contrast within their answers. This was also effective as it asked the target market directly about their opinions and thoughts.

Contrary to what would usually be expected in a piece of AS Media Coursework, my responses were not dominated by my personal age demographic (only 70 responses were from this age group). The survey was aimed at a general audience who would be dedicated enough to join a sub-Reddit or Facebook group relating to the game. This audience would most definitely be the same as the one that would be interested in reading my magazine. It is also promising that the demographic for my magazine resides within their 20s (or early 30s/late teens). This demographic would be the ones who could be accepting of radical change/alterations to the general format of a Dungeons and Dragons Magazine – as the rest of my research shows.

As the magazine was aimed and distributed within the Dungeons and Dragons community, this result was expected. Neyman’s law of probability also tells us that a probability of at least 95% is enough to cast away other results as outcasts or irregularities. It could be wondered why I would not aim the survey at everybody rather than just within the community – but this was due to my magazine being aimed at the younger part of the inclusive community rather than people who have never played the game before.

As this graph shows, the majority of the community play the game on a fairly regular basis. Because of this, many of them would be highly interested in content relating to how they play the game and how they can make their quests more exciting. This regular presence in their lives would also mean that cultural examinations of the game would be of interest to the players – the game is enough of a constant in their life that subversion and analysis of how it operates could be interesting. If the magazine was to come out monthly, this would be useful for the weekly players as they could try out the new ideas and concepts over a number of games.

Whilst the modal response for this question was 7/10, the average response was 7.52/10 due to the high number of 8/10s and 10/10s. This figure would be impressively high for a wide-spreading genre; but this was to be expected due to the tight, inclusive nature of the Dungeons and Dragons community. However, it is still promising to see that there would be high interest in the magazine if it were to be published.

Listing the features in order of popularity, we have:

1. Campaign Ideas
2. Game-play Advice
3. News
4. Comics
5. Community Art
6. Featured Characters from the community
7. Message from the creators
8. Previews
9. Features on the community

The clear winner in terms of features is ‘Campaign Ideas’, which is a clear sign that many of the readers will fit into the ‘Explorers’ psycho-graphic. However, it could lead to a stronger unification of the standard story types within the Dungeons and Dragons game; which itself could be said to appeal to a mainstream psycho-graphic. The ‘Aspirers’ psycho-graphic is satisfied from the community art section, whilst the game-play advice has widespread appeal due to the complex nature of the game. The least popular feature of the selection was ‘Features on the community’, which seems to go against the initial premise for my magazine. However, it is understandable that this feature would not have immediate appeal for the audience as it is an unconventional for a typical Dungeons and Dragons magazine. I have been able to reinforce my initial concept through the final question.

This graph is a clear indication of the demographic split within the community. The younger audiences would be the ones that would want the magazine to use the aesthetics of a modern gaming magazine, whilst the older audiences would want the magazine to be reminiscent of the magazines they used to read on the game such as Dragon magazine. However, the magazine is supposed to appeal to these new fans of the game who do not carry the baggage of the last 30 years of the game.

I find this question to be the most interesting out of the survey – especially as I plan on my double-page spread to be a piece on how Dungeons and Dragons is viewed in the popular culture. I am particularly interested in the fact that 163 people said that they may be interested in it. This could allow for the piece to be genuinely enlightening and interesting for the readers – especially those who have never considered how Dungeons and Dragons is viewed by the popular culture. However, it is inevitable that 57 participants would not be interested in the prospect of a greater cultural retrospective, as many people are simply not interested in this side of the community and would not want to consider it.