Hi, my name is Vincent Longa and I have a question.

What is it that we remember about our gaming experience? Specifically, do we remember the ludic elements (the mechanics of the game) or the narrative elements (the story components of a game)? I’ve been a gamer for as long as I can remember (about 30 years), and as I was playing through Mass Effect 2, I noticed that the game had a profound effect on my emotions. After I finished my first play through, I started wondering what made the game so emotionally charged for me. Then I started wondering if it was the ludic or the narrative elements, and that’s when I decided to conduct this study. I want to give you, fellow Mass Effect 2 players, a chance to have your voice heard. I want to figure out exactly which pieces of Mass Effect 2 linger with us.

Here’s where your part comes in :)

I am an undergrad Sociology student, and this question is my senior thesis, and I’ve decided to implement an online survey as my measurement instrument. The link provided below will take you to an online survey, which should take no more than 10 minutes of your time. While it is not likely, during the survey some people may encounter a question that is offensive or makes you feel uncomfortable; if so you may stop taking the survey and contact either myself (Vincent Longa) at vincentlonga@mail.weber.edu or Dr. Robert Reynolds at rreynolds@weber.edu. The responses you provide are very valuable to us, and will be kept confidential. Your responses will only be reported in aggregate (represented as statistics). This ensures that no one response can be traced to a respondent. Your identity will also be kept anonymous. Your participation in this study is completely voluntary, and you may stop taking the survey at any time. If you have any questions, please contact myself at VincentLonga@mail.weber.edu or Dr. Robert Reynolds at rreynolds@weber.edu.

I have obtained permission from this forum’s administrator/moderator to post this study here. If you are interested in helping us answer our questions, please follow the link below and take the survey. Thank you for your time 

Here’s the link to the survey:

http://vplsurveys.limequery.com/81271/lang-en

Take the survey, and if you’d like to take it a step further, pass the link around on Twitter and Facebook. Thank you! :)

You have a beard. I have no choice but to comply.

You look like that dude from Mega64. I must comply.

I knew my beard would come in handy :) Thank you so much for your time! Also, spread the word to people you know, if you like. The more diversity of people who take the survey, the more rich the data will be. 
 
Also, I'll be sure to keep the community up to date on my findings. Data analysis should be done by mid April.

Things are getting ludological up in this. I'll comply.

This is like the forth thesis survey I've participated in on the Giant Bomb forums. Your welcome. ;)

Some questions I couldn't quite remember, but as a psych undergrad (working on my own thesis) I totally understand how important doing these surveys can be.  Good luck!

Someone used a big word on these forums, it's like positive encouragement I have to comply. 
 
Also the beard compels all...

Done and done.
But dude, you forgot to add Insanity to the inquiry about difficulty.
 
Another question, will you publish the whole thesis when you are done?

Done.
 
Love the way you wrote it!

Completed. This is the kind of survey I don't mind. Hell, most of it was like a quiz.
 

Do you have unlimited ammo? Yes / No / No Answer. 
 
Technically yes, mechanically no. You load in heat-sinks to reduce the machine's heat--not actual ammunition.

" Do you have unlimited ammo? Yes / No / No Answer.  Technically yes, mechanically no. You load in heat-sinks to reduce the machine's heat--not actual ammunition. "

Now I want to plat ME2 again

" Do you have unlimited ammo? Yes / No / No Answer.  Technically yes, mechanically no. You load in heat-sinks to reduce the machine's heat--not actual ammunition. "

Done, I hope you get what you need and good luck with the study. 
I'm sure the Giantbomb response group will get most of those right, we are after all gaming freaks.

Thank you all for giving your time, and for the feedback on the questions. The ammo has come up several times, and all I can say right now is that the question is intentionally worded as is. After the survey closes out, I'll explain what I was getting at, but for now I don't want to skew the answers one way or another. 
 
As for the difficulty, that was an error. 
 
Again, thank you everyone and I'll be posting preliminary results here soon, then final results in 3-4 weeks. In the mean time, you can check out pieces of my literature review for the study on my blog page here at GB. I'll be posting the second piece Monday, and the third piece Wednesday.

Thank you to everyone that has filled out the survey so far. I'm about 50 respondents away from my goal; a little publicity would go a long way  If you have the time, please tweet or post on Facebook. The link for the survey is http://vplsurveys.limequery.com/81271/lang-en Or, if yo'd like a shortened url you can use http://bit.ly/h6465l

Thank you all again 

Did you post it on social.bioware.com?

"Do you have unlimited ammunition?" 
 
Technically, yes thanks to the block of metal that shaves off each round inside of the weapon. With heat-sinks, you are permitted x number of shots before needing to discharge the heat-sink and replace it. 
 
WHAT DO I ANSWER

There's no such thing as unlimited ammo.  
That metal block will run out of mass sometime.  
 
Problem solved! 
 
:edit:  
 
Crap, now I don't know what to answer out of risk that i'm breaking your survey. Combined with the fact that I have a tendency to try and figure out how those surveys work and combined with the fact that I wanna answer the questions correctly and not on "feel" makes me think it might not be the best idea for me to fill out this survey. :/. 
 
...I'm really not survey material -_-".