Have a few seconds? Fill out the 'New Gaymer Survey'

Three years ago, Jason Rockwood, a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign student, set out to "quantify the existence of an invisible minority" with the first-of-its-kind "Gaymer Survey."

Well, it seems someone finally decided to follow in Rockwood's well-worn footsteps. Earlier this week, Paul Nowak, a Full Sail student, unveiled the "New Gaymer Survey," which focuses on "questions of content: such as plot, genre, customization and other in-game experiences."

Nowak recently talked to the folks over at Joystiq.com about the survey. Here's what he had to say about what he hopes to learn from it:

"I want to learn what exactly it is that gaymers want from their games and how that differs from their heterosexual counterparts. I'll take that information to develop guidelines the industry can use when trying to make gaymer-inclusive games that don't become offensive or insulting to any gamer regardless of sexual orientation.

"If someone had done the same kind of research when the industry was trying to reach out to female gamers, girls wouldn't have had to suffer through the wildly unsuccessful attempts of games like Mary Kate & Ashley's Winner's Circle pony racing. I'm hoping to help the industry avoid the same mistakes as it reaches out to gay gamers."

I've already completed the survey and I think anyone who stumbles upon this post should do the same. It won't take you more than a few minutes--a drop in the proverbial bucket when you consider that your responses may result in the release of more gaymer-inclusive games.

BTW, mixvio over at GayGamer.net has written a wonderful article about the response this survey has received on some gaming sites (such as Joystoq and Kotaku) and I suggest you read it--either before or after you complete the survey itself :)