Online Study Opportunity

[vt.gamer.lab]

Hello Everyone,

My name is Frank Waddell. I am currently a graduate student in the Department of Communication at Virginia Tech. Growing up most of my life with console-based and online games, I am very interested in investigating how MMOs are different from the experience of traditional video games. As part of my graduate research, I would like to invite you to participate in a study of MMO players and their use of avatars. Players of role-playing (e.g. WoW, DDO, etc.) and social MMOs (e.g. SL) are both invited to participate. You will be asked to e-mail a screenshot of your main character and to complete a 10-15 minute online survey. Your participation is highly appreciated and could assist in improving our understanding of game players and their use of virtual environments.

If you would like to participate in this study, please e-mail a detailed screenshot of your main avatar to mmostudy@gamerlab.org. Please take this screenshot with the inventory open, showing your character’s name, level, items, and other attributes. Please also adjust the camera angle to show your character from the front. Once you have submitted this screenshot, use the following link to complete the online survey: https://survey.vt.edu/survey/entry.jsp?id=1300237671851

For any questions regarding this study, feel free to contact Frank Waddell at waddellt@vt.edu. Thanks for your time!

Frank Waddell
Graduate Student and G.A.M.E.R. Lab Associate, Virginia Tech
http://www.gamerlab.org/

[Krelar]

Hurray message board spam!

[Hambo]

What next... Turbine points from Nigeria from a long-lost relative you've never heard of?

[Uska]

dont you mean character sheet open not inventory as its the character sheet that shows name stats etc not inventory

as an aside I am a communication minor not that anyone cares but some of those communication classes are a major pain.

[Memnir]

No thanks.

(opinion changed - see below)

[rdasca]

sigh ............

[Quarterling]

Thank you for being the first post I ever -1'ed. I just got enough greenis to have this ability and I thank you for giving me the ability to test it out!

All the best, Quarterling.

[Memnir]

What next... Turbine points from Nigeria from a long-lost relative you've never heard of?

I think this guy is legit... or at least the program at VT and his association with it are. I checked em out via Google, and not the given links.

It's just an odd request, with the inventory open and all, and I'm wondering why that is a required facet of the study and survey. I'm not inclined to take part because it is so odd.



Frank, if you are legit - can I offer one tiny slice of advice? If you want more participation, try to come up with some way to illicit interest in this that does not have you come across like you are phishing for account info. Because right now, Frank, this looks like a scam. It just looks and sounds off, and I won't take part because of that.

If you are legit, good luck to you. But man... you need a better approach. Gamers tend to be a wary bunch, and rightly so. And this post and study of yours rings all the wrong bells.

[Memnir]

I've taken the time to write to Dr. Ivory, the head of the G.A.M.E.R. Lab at Virginia Tech, and I can report that this is indeed a legitimate study - and that this is not a phishing attempt. Dr. Ivory was gracious and kind enough to take the time to talk to me several times today about the study and it's goals. I'm very intrigued.


He has also allowed me to share some snippets of our conversations with everyone. The quoted sections are from Dr. Ivory's emails to me today:

At the end of the day, Frank is familiar with the players and content of these
games, and he means no harm to their users. In fact, awareness of the social
importance of these games and their users is why the study is being conducted.

The reason Frank wants
to see a screenshot of characters is to record information about their appearance,
and the reason he wasn't to be able to see their character sheers is because he
wants to be able to look at issues such as whether decisions about character
appearance are consistent across player level, etc. I understand that he wants to
know a lot about the characters, but it's because he wants an in-depth look at the
population that simple in-game observation cannot provide. Again, the university's
Institutional Review Board requires us to provide a number of privacy protections,
so hopefully players can feel at ease (see IRB approval letter attached if you
like).

And yes, I did see the IRB approval letter he sent me. Also legit.

A lot of people have a lot to say about what MMO users are like,
what the games they play are like, and what the social impact of these games is.
Some of those people know nothing about MMOs and don't bother to ask MMO users
anything either. Frank is asking MMO users to help tell him the answers to those
questions, and we are hoping a few of them want to take the opportunity to help him
tell the stories of the communities they are in. MMO users invest a lot of time and
energy into their communities, and Frank wants them to be the ones who tell the
story of these communities.

I'm taking part in the study. I'm convinced, and I frankly find the goals of the project to be nothing short of fascinating. I hope that my research and findings is enough to convince some of the rest of DDO's community to do likewise. We have the best people out of any online game I've played - and this is a **** fine community. It'd be good if we represented on something like this.


*edit*
Also +Reping Frank's OP. No need for him to be gray box'n it.

[Losercrew]

I've taken the time to write to Dr. Ivory, the head of the G.A.M.E.R. Lab at Virginia Tech, and I can report that this is indeed a legitimate study - and that this is not a phishing attempt. Dr. Ivory was gracious and kind enough to take the time to talk to me several times today about the study and it's goals. I'm very intrigued.


He has also allowed me to share some snippets of our conversations with everyone. The quoted sections are from Dr. Ivory's emails to me today:
And yes, I did see the IRB approval letter he sent me. Also legit.


I'm taking part in the study. I'm convinced, and I frankly find the goals of the project to be nothing short of fascinating. I hope that my research and findings is enough to convince some of the rest of DDO's community to do likewise. We have the best people out of any online game I've played - and this is a **** fine community. It'd be good if we represented on something like this.


*edit*
Also +Reping Frank's OP. No need for him to be gray box'n it.

Thanks for checkin it out, also, I +1'd, refresh'd and LOL, but yeah, I guess i'll take part in this too, soon as I decide to log in......

[MsEricka]

There was another study recently posted on the forums, and there was a stink about something that I can't remember and the poster was told to email Turbine and ask permission.

I've checked the study and you do ask for personal information (email address). Yes I realize there are thousands of throwaway email accounts available, but perhaps you should ask Turbine if posting something like this is acceptable or not.

I don't have a problem with it, but from the other post I seem to remember people saying that Turbine would have a problem with it and just want you to make sure your butt is covered.

Additionally, the results may be of interest to Turbine, so it doesn't hurt to contact them either way.

[Sirea]

I still wonder why the emphasis seems to be on looks...what does he hope to find out? Some way to tell who's a powergamer just by their character's looks?

There seems to be a lot of questions based off of roleplaying or trying to find out if people somehow personify their characters or even relate to them. I find this section odd. They are a bunch of pixels, and sure I may feel attached to them in the sense that I've spent a lot of time working on them and maximizing their potentials, and maybe a vague sense of some sort of personality were they actual people, but they're not actual people. I'm capable of understanding that my in-game characters don't have art appreciation or feelings or reactions to certain situations apart from my own personal feelings.

This feels a lot more like a psych evaluation than a survey on gaming habits and communities.

[elujin]

i think memnir is in on the scam
gaining respect and renown sins 2006 just to scam us at this point that some extensif planning

[Memnir]

i think memnir is in on the scam

Well, yeah - obviously.

The only question is which scam?