PhD survey

Thank you for taking the time to participate. Your contribution is greatly appreciated and will help advance our understanding of how psychological factors, such as frustration tolerance, passion and perseverance, emotion regulation, and basic psychological need satisfaction, shape video game engagement. Your honest responses are essential for gaining meaningful insights into these topics.

This survey consists of several questionnaires and will take approximately 20 minutes to complete. You will be asked about your gaming habits and preferences, as well as how you typically handle challenging or frustrating situations in games.

In this study, collecting objective gameplay data is essential.

The core aim of this PhD research is to examine how psychological constructs relate to actual in-game behavior. For this reason, providing screenshots of your playtime and achievement/trophy completion is a mandatory requirement. These screenshots must clearly display your hours played and achievement progress in the relevant games or genre. Without this information, the study cannot use your data.
If you are not willing to provide these screenshots, please do not proceed, as we will not be able to include your responses.

As a thank-you for the time and effort required to submit this objective data, I will personally be giving away five €25 Steam gift cards from my own funds. Participation in this giveaway is optional and does not affect your involvement in the study.

Your participation is entirely voluntary and anonymous. All information collected will be used exclusively for scientific purposes and as part of my PhD thesis. There are no known risks or negative consequences associated with this study, and you may withdraw at any time without penalty.

All data will be stored securely using encryption and protected servers to ensure that only authorized researchers can access it. Data will be retained in a secure format for the period required by research standards to enable follow-up analyses. Your data will also contribute to open-science initiatives supporting transparency and collaboration. 

By selecting “Yes” below, you acknowledge that you understand the information provided and agree to participate in this study. You also confirm that you are at least 15 years old, as individuals younger than 15 are not eligible to participate.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at sajinovic.nemanja@gmail.com

Thank you for contributing to the advancement of science and to a deeper understanding of the psychological traits that shape gaming behavior. It’s finally time to explore whether the countless hours spent “getting gud” translate into real-life skills worth listing on a CV.

We understand that you may play a variety of different genres and games. However, for this question, please select the game genre that you consider your main one, the genre you’ve spent the most time playing over your lifetime.

To help us accurately measure your engagement with Souls-like games, please upload screenshots that show:

1. Your total hours played
2. Your achievement/trophy completion

for every Souls-like game you’ve played, on any platform (Steam, PlayStation, Xbox).

If you played on more than one platform, just upload screenshots for each one.
If the playtime and achievements appear on different screens, feel free to upload multiple screenshots.

Souls-like games include: Dark Souls 1–3, Demon’s Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Elden Ring, Nioh 1–2, Lords of the Fallen, The Surge 1–2, Mortal Shell, Code Vein, Lies of P, Wo Long, Remnant 1–2, Thymesia, Khazan, and any game that has the “Souls-like” tag in the top three tags on Steam.

Screenshots must clearly show the game name, hours, and achievement/trophy %.

Thank you for taking the time to contribute, your participation directly helps advance this research.

To help us accurately measure your engagement with MMORPGs, please upload screenshots that show:

1. Your total hours played
2. Your achievement/trophy completion

If you played on more than one platform, simply upload screenshots for each one.
If hours and achievements/progression appear on different screens, feel free to upload multiple screenshots.

MMORPGs include:
Final Fantasy XIV Online, Guild Wars 2, Black Desert Online, The Elder Scrolls Online, Star Wars: The Old Republic, RuneScape, New World, and any other game that has the “MMORPG” tag among the first three tags on Steam.

Screenshots must clearly show the game name, hours played, and achievement/trophy/progression % (whichever the platform provides).

Thank you for taking the time to contribute, your participation directly helps advance this research.

To help us accurately measure your engagement with Life Simulation games, please upload screenshots that show:

1. Your total hours played
2. Your achievement/trophy completion

If you played on more than one platform, simply upload screenshots for each one.
If your hours and achievements appear on separate screens, you may upload multiple screenshots.

Life Simulation games include:
The Sims series, Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing, and any other game that has the “Life Sim” or “Life Simulation” tag among the first three tags on Steam.

Screenshots must clearly show the game name, hours played, and achievement/trophy/progression %.

Thank you for taking the time to contribute, your participation directly helps advance this research.

Please read each statement and indicate how much it describes you. There are no right or wrong answers, just answer honestly. This section usually takes about 30 seconds to complete.

Meaning of the numbers:
1 = Not like me at all
2 = Mostly not like me
3 = Somewhat like me
4 = Mostly like me
5 = Very much like me

Below are statements about feelings and thoughts you may have in frustrating situations. Please indicate how true each one is for you. This section takes about one minute.

Meaning of the numbers:
1 = Not at all true
2 = Mostly untrue
3 = Neither true nor untrue
4 = Mostly true
5 = Completely true

Below are statements about feelings and thoughts you may have in frustrating situations. Please indicate how true each one is for you. This section takes about one minute.

Meaning of the numbers:
1 = Not at all true
2 = Mostly untrue
3 = Neither true nor untrue
4 = Mostly true
5 = Completely true

The following statements refer to your experiences while playing the game genre you selected (Souls-like, Life Simulation, or MMORPG). Please indicate how true each statement is for you. This section takes about one minute.

Meaning of the numbers:
1 = Completely untrue
2 = Mostly untrue
3 = Neither true nor untrue
4 = Mostly true
5 = Completely true

While playing video games, players sometimes experience frustrating or challenging situations, such as failing a level, losing to a difficult boss, or not completing an in-game objective. The statements below refer to what you usually think in response to such gaming setbacks. Please read each one and indicate how often you have these thoughts. There are no right or wrong answers, answer honestly. This section takes about one minute per page.

Meaning of the numbers:
1 = Almost never
2 = Sometimes
3 = Regularly
4 = Often
5 = Almost always

While playing video games, players sometimes experience frustrating or challenging situations, such as failing a level, losing to a difficult boss, or not completing an in-game objective. The statements below refer to what you usually think in response to such gaming setbacks. Please read each one and indicate how often you have these thoughts. There are no right or wrong answers, answer honestly. This section takes about one minute per page.

Meaning of the numbers:
1 = Almost never
2 = Sometimes
3 = Regularly
4 = Often
5 = Almost always

While playing video games, players sometimes experience frustrating or challenging situations, such as failing a level, losing to a difficult boss, or not completing an in-game objective. The statements below refer to what you usually think in response to such gaming setbacks. Please read each one and indicate how often you have these thoughts. There are no right or wrong answers, answer honestly. This section takes about one minute per page.

Meaning of the numbers:
1 = Almost never
2 = Sometimes
3 = Regularly
4 = Often
5 = Almost always

Optional Contact Information for Gift Card Lottery

As a thank-you for your time, effort, and contribution to my PhD research, and to the advancement of psychological science more broadly, I will personally be giving away five €25 Steam gift cards from my own funds. Participation in this giveaway is entirely optional.

If you would like to enter the lottery, please provide any contact information ((burner) e-mail, Discord, Steam or another method of communication) that will allow me to reach you only in the event that you are selected as a winner. This information will be used exclusively for contacting the winners, will not be linked to your survey responses, will not be used for data analysis, and will not be included in any open-science materials or shared datasets.