PREFACE: Do not answer any of these questions. This thread is about brainstorming interesting poll questions, not answering them. (That'll happen in the Off-Topic forum.)
The purpose of the poll-to-come is to discover whether there are any correlations between our non-game-related circumstances, and our attitudes about D&D. Here are a few demographic questions I've thought up:
How often do you play D&D?
Are you mostly a DM or a player?
Which edition was your introduction to D&D?
Do you consider yourself liberal, moderate, or conservative overall? And what country do you call home? The second question is important because politics are relative. For example, most of the U.S. political spectrum can comfortably fit within Europe's moderate to moderate-conservative range of views.
Are you most comfortable in urban environments? Suburban? Or rural?
Are you strongly religious/spiritual? Casually? Or not at all?
Aside from geekdom, how many minority groups are you a member of? (LGBT, female, racial/ethnic, disabled, religious)
How old are you?
And here are a few hot-button topics I've thought up -- I'm sure there are more:
Do you value game balance? (Yes, no, or somewhat.)
Do you value game realism? (Yes, no, or somewhat.)
Before "DM may I…?", what range of source books do you prefer the DM to allow? (Core only, core + short list, everything official, or EVERYTHING?)
Do you prefer individual XP, so that the DM can reward good behavior/play? Or do you prefer group/no XP so that it's easier to maintain parity/fun?
(If you answer 3 to the next question, don't answer this one.) Ideally, is alignment prescriptive ("Your character is of this alignment, so s/he must do that"), or descriptive ("Judging by your character's past actions, s/he is alignment X")?
Ideally, is alignment 1) carefully handled, 2) not taken too seriously, or 3) best forgotten?
Paladins: Galahad-clones only, or any alignment like clerics?
For both categories of poll questions, what good ones am I forgetting?
I honestly think the poll you're making would fit fine in the Gamer Talk subforum, but I could be wrong.
You may need to reword the political question - The Liberal government in Australia is a Rightwing Christain Conservative government - the only thing they are into liberalising is Trade.
@ Kobold Cleaver: I agree, but I think the mods would object.
@ 8th Dwarf: For real? Maybe right wing vs. left wing would be better? (Although for all I know there's a place where right wing means progressive social values and left wing means radical reactionism. *sigh*)
I just mean that I think I've seen similar-themed polls on this subforum, so it might be fine.
Oh, and it sounds like right-wing vs. left-wing is causing confusion. Just change it to red and blue, that will 100% clear things up. ;D
Yep - Big L and little l liberal are two very different things in Australia... The are at least 2 Liberals that are also liberals. (We see them as right in Australia but they are = to the right faction in your Democrats). The Labor party would scare the bejebus out of most Americans being the right end of a very socialist pro union party.
Red = Communist and Blue can be Liberal or Socialist Labor (who used to be red but changed to blue).
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During my classes I spendt some time learning about polls/stzatistics, and even if this one is 'only' for personal entertainment, I think you would get better results by 'hiding' the purpose of some questions by making the blocks of questions and answers. That way you avoid having people trying to give the 'right' answer or trying to work the system of the poll.
You can probably find 'blocks' of multiple choice questions identifying the political stance by agreeing or disagreeing to certain opinions and if you use them you can also avoid the problem of the relativism of politics by country.
For Religion I think you should just create a block of multiple choice answers, including as many religious groups as possible, 'others', 'none' followed by one or two questions regarding the importance of said religion. For a poll I worked on (used to get statistical data on believes and on integration on german schools) that was more or less the only way to avouid discussions while presenting the questions.
Questions on non-hard coded elements (realism, balance) are better handled with a number of on-topic questions evaluating the opinion on those topics.
You will also want to avoid evaluative-questions (Galahad clones, XPless=easier to maintain fun).
Oh, and you might want to avoid calling 'females' a minority group...
You may need to reword the political question - The Liberal government in Australia is a Rightwing Christain Conservative government - the only thing they are into liberalising is Trade.
That's indeed a tricky question to have in your poll. I'm in Canada, less than 100 km away from the Sates and what I consider conservative is very liberal by American standards.
In other words, conservative-liberal is not an objective scale outside the USA (or any country). I'd be willing to bet that left-wing/right-wing, religious/secular, industrial/green, capitalist/socialist etc, have significant difference depending on where you are in the world...
Okay, so more specific questions then. Any specific suggestions...?
I know that as soon as I open the actual poll, we'll get seven posts within the first page with "Why didn't you include X in your poll?!"
I know that as soon as I open the actual poll, we'll get seven posts within the first page with "Why didn't you include X in your poll?!"
off course!
;)