I used Bartle's types and data from the Norrathian Scrolls to come up with a set of statements that covered a large range of possible motivations. Under each Bartle type, I brainstormed all related behaviors and motivations I had noticed in my previous studies, and I also added an additional factor that I felt Bartle had not covered. What I wanted to do was to create hypothetical factors and see whether empirical data would validate them or suggest some other more natural grouping. In other words, just because I have grouped items the way I have below doesn't mean that the data will validate that grouping. Here are the basic factors I brainstormed from:

1) Socialize
    a. Conversation
        i. I find myself having meaningful conversations with others.
        ii. I usually don't chat much with group members.
    b. Relationship Formation
        i. I have made some good friends in the game.
        ii. I find myself soloing a lot.
    c. Humor
        i. I like to say funny things in group/guild chat.
    d. Support
        i. I talk to my friends in the game about personal issues.
        ii. Friends in the game have offered me support when I had a RL problem or crisis.
    e. Leadership
        i. I am an effective group leader.
        ii. I would rather follow than lead.

2) Achieve
    a. Power-Seeking
        i. I like to feel powerful in the game.
        ii. Doing massive amounts of damage is very satisfying.
    b. Goals
        i. I constantly try to set and reach goals.
        ii. I can't stand those people who only care about leveling.
    c. Accumulate
        i. It's very important to me to get the best gear available.
        ii. I try to optimize my XP gain as much as possible.

3) Explore
    a. Mechanics
        i. I'm fascinated by the game mechanics, and love charts and tables.
        ii. I research everything about a class before starting the character.
        iii. Class-balancing or realm-balancing issues do not interest me.
        iv. This game is too complicated.
    b. Cartographer
        i. I like wandering and exploring the world.
        ii. I would make maps if they weren't available.
    c. Self
        i. I have learned things about myself from playing the game.
    d. Group
        i. I understand real-life group dynamics much more after playing the game.

4) Escape
    a. Escape
        i. I like the escapism aspect of the game.
    b. Immersion
        i. I like to be immersed in a fantasy world.
    c. Vent
        i. Playing the game lets me vent and relieve stress from the day.
    d. Withdraw
        i. Playing the game lets me forget some of the real-life problems I have.
    e. Role-Play
        i. I like to try out new roles and personalities with my characters.
        ii. The way I am in the game is the way I am in real life.
        iii. People who role-play extensively bother me.
    f. Story-Teller
        i. I like the feeling of being part of a story.
        ii. I make up stories and histories for my characters.

5) Grief
    a. Manipulate
        i. I like to manipulate other people so they do what I want them to.
    b. Dominate
        i. I like to dominate other characters/players.
        ii. I am uninterested in player-killing.
    c. Deception
        i. I scam other people out of their money or equipment.
    d. Annoyance
        i. I like to taunt or annoy other players.

6) Misc
    a. I beg for money or items in the game.
    b. It's important to me to achieve things with as little help from other people as possible.
    c. It's just a game.

These 40 statements were randomized and constituted the first half of the questionnaire. 30 Big-5 inventory items constituted the second half of the questionnaire. Respondents were also asked to indicate their age, gender and hours played per week.

The questionnaire was publicized at websites related to EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot, Anarchy Online, and Asheron's Call. Data collection began on 3/1/02, and about 6700 valid responses were collected over a period of a week.