Academic research on virtual worlds
Posted May 1st 2008 3:00PM by Amanda Dean
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Events, Fan stuff, Virtual selves
It has been fascinating to see how the world and video games have changed in recent years. Video games have been a source of social and scientific research, some of which will be presented in an online conference next weekend. Some of the topics that will be covered in the three sessions include the economy, messages about the environment and future developments in the virtual world.
A young lady from Yeditepe University in asked for help in collecting data for her thesis on the WoW Europe forums. The researcher, Tugce Tosya seeks to find out learn more about presence in computer games, and has chosen World of Warcraft as her population of choice. You can find her brief questionnaire online. I found it took about five minutes to complete and checks out against possible keyloggers or spyware. Any questions you have about the survey can be directed to her academic supervisor or the Information Systems & Technologies department.
Good luck on your thesis Tugce, let me know if you need any help with analysis. We'd love to hear about other WoW-based projects.
Tags: Convergence, Research, Survey, Virtual-world, virtual-worlds, virtual-worlds-confe...
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-01-2008 @ 3:09PM
Jamis said...
Nick Yee has been doing mmorpg research for the better part of a decade. You can find out more at his webiste at:
http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/
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5-01-2008 @ 3:22PM
Jeni said...
Nick Yee's research is a big part of my own. I'm working on my master thesis...an ethnography of a casual guild in Warcraft. When I get to the point where I need a focus group, I let you all know! There's got to be something said for getting a master's degree by participant observation in a game you already like to play.
5-01-2008 @ 3:28PM
Shumina said...
Questionnaires like this one always leave me feeling like they're missing the true point. Is bacon important in a complete breakfast? 1) unimportant...5)ZOMG! BACON!!!
Options 2-4 are WORTHLESS. Such is the case here. It's an all or nothing deal and the results will reflect that in just as skewed a manner as the questions asked.
Still, I did my duty and filled it out.
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5-01-2008 @ 6:05PM
Rational said...
This was a badly designed questionaire. The questions don't offer any alternatives, no differing interpretation of what the best kind of MMO would be like. You could literally just go down the right side marking everything "Very important" and it would be just as true as if you actually put thought and consideration into your answers.
Also, several of the questions were too broad to adequately address their subject, such as "The influence of player actions upon the world" -> Does she mean individual player actions, or collective player actions? There's two very different answers to that depending on what it means.
Another ambiguous question: "Game modding opportunities" -> Does she mean such as writing Addons like in WoW for the interface, or actual mods like in Half-Life 2 where you can create entirely new games? Again, two very different answers depending on how you take the question.
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