Free MMORPG Forums

worldplay955 · 11-17-2009, 04:58 PM

Hello,

I am a college student in the "Games for the Web" course at Trinity University. My classmates and I are very interested in the phenomenon of transnational play. This class attempts to study and analyze transnational interactions amongst gamers from around the globe. We have created our own website to collect our information as well as share our findings with those who stumble across it.

Please check out the Project Overview at http://www.trinity.edu/adelwich/tran.../students.html
Here you can learn more about our project, read our blogs, and take our survey.

Thank you for your time and voluntary participation! If you have any questions, fee free to e-mail us at worldplayresearch@gmail.com and someone will respond promptly.

We are, as a class, committed to conducting our studies in a responsible, ethical and respectful manner. Our findings will be published publicly on our site in hope of providing useful, collaborative research for our class and anyone else that might be interested in the topic of transnational play.

This course is being taught by Professor Aaron Delwiche in the Deparment of Communication. If you have any questions or concerns about this class, please feel free to contact hi via e-mail (adelwich@trinity.edu) or telephone (210/999-8153).

Sincerely,
Bruce G

Paladuck · 11-17-2009, 06:57 PM

Very interesting.

Maybe when you publish something come back to the site and let us know?

Xenonight2 · 11-17-2009, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paladuck

Very interesting.

Maybe when you publish something come back to the site and let us know?

Students come to OnRPG all the time with surveys. Not a single one has posted the finished project. Usually they contact the participants by email once the study is over.

The only way to find out is to be a Guinea Mouse yourself.

SnOwBunZz · 11-17-2009, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paladuck

Maybe when you publish something come back to the site and let us know?

I can only remember one doing this.

Ronin · 11-17-2009, 07:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SnOwBunZz

I can only remember one doing this.

That's why I usually don't bother with this stupid kind of spam.

If it takes me 30 mins and it's not really any form of prolonged bizz relation my rate for one interview on my opinion is 50€ absolute minimum and that's because I like to waste my time, if it's at least a real person I am conversing with.

Now typing this and bumping the thread was already more effort than it's worth.

I wonder if emailing them would do any good; It's actually a shame, that any educational facility lowers itself to encourage such a thing as this.
The ground-rule for web 3.0 advertising is to never, under any circumstances, pull people anonymously, from random platforms, into a service that they did not explicitly go there for.

Now establishing that never comes for free and hardly anyone is interested in this kind of crap, right?
Though game.

worldplay · 11-19-2009, 12:58 AM

I teach the games course at Trinity University, and am part of the Worldplay research team.

Several people have mentioned that they are tired of hit and run surveys in which students never follow up. We completely understand this frustration and fatigue, but we can also demonstrate a track record of sharing our findings with the community. I hope you will take a few minutes to confirm that we do stand by these commitments.

For example, you can read these sixteen papers that were published by students in the World of Warcraft variant of this course back in 2005. You can also read these fifteen papers that were published by students in the Everquest II version of this course in 2006.

At the bottom of this message, I am appending an explanation of our research approach in this project as well as an explanation of what we will give back to the community.

Ronin, we agree that you should not be asked to share your time without receiving anything in return. Instead of paying money, we will share all of the raw data (excluding personally identifiable information) that emerges from this study.

SnowBunzz and Xenonight2, please let me know if the above links answer your concerns about our follow-through.

Please let me know if this answers your concerns.

Aaron Delwiche
Associate Professor
Department of Communication
Trinity University

---

Explanation of Our Research Methods

What is the purpose of this research project?

This project explores issues associated with cross-cultural interactions in virtual worlds. Our goal is to identify creative ways that players, game developers, and industry professionals can nurture and extend transnational cooperation in virtual worlds.

During the past five years, dozens of researchers have scrutinized virtual worlds. How is this project any different?

Great question. For the most part, existing research on virtual worlds falls into one of a few categories. On the one hand, there are deep ethnographic studies in which researchers immerse themselves in subcultures associated with a particular virtual world (e.g. Taylor, 2006; Boellstorf, 2008; Malaby, 2009). While we appreciate and value the textured analysis emerging from such studies, our project does not use ethnographic methods.

There are also many helpful studies that combine traditional survey methods with the analysis of server-side data logs. The most recent studies (e.g. Williams, Consalvo, Caplan & Yee, 2009; Williams, Yee & Caplan, 2008; Bell, Castranova & Wagner, 2009) have leveraged random sampling methods and vendor-relationships to deepen our understanding of gamer demographics and motivations. We are intrigued by these studies, but this project does not use random sampling methods and we do not analyze server logs. We are not attempting to make statistically valid generalizations about the broader gaming universe.

OK. So the Worldplay project does not use ethnographic methods and it does not use quantitative methods for analyzing large data sets. What exactly are you doing?

We are fanning out across virtual worlds and casting as broad a net as possible to increase our understanding of transnational player interactions. In an open-ended survey, we are asking people to share their thoughts about their on-line interactions with gamers from other countries. We ask people to describe both positive and negative experiences, and encourage them to share suggestions about ways that gamers, developers and scholars can foster transnational interaction in virtual worlds.

But isn't this rather slap-dash? If you cannot generalize your results to a broader population of gamers, what's the point?

We firmly believe that every voice -- including statistical outliers -- deserves to be heard. Our goal is to identify a wide range of opinions, experiences and recommendations related to the phenomenon of transnational play. In synthesizing and publicly sharing our findings, we hope to provide suggestive data points that can be used by developers, gamers, and researchers who are interested in promoting cross-cultural interaction in virtual worlds.

In many ways, our approach is analogous to the guerilla usability testing methods recommended by Jakob Nielsen in the early 1990s. Rather than developing generalized claims about a large group of users, we seek to collect as many data points as possible. Rather than using our research as the basis for theory building, we are interested in ways our findings can be applied to the gritty realities of game development and guild management.

Some advocates of transnational gaming have bashed industry practices that inhibit cross-cultural interaction in virtual worlds. Is this your intent?

Definitely not. We are sensitive to the many demands placed on developers. Although we are saddened by the practice of region locking, we understand the legitimate business reasons that inhibit transnational interaction.

We have no desire to scapegoat our colleagues in the gaming industry. After all, without game developers, none of us would be here in the first place. Players, scholars and government policymakers can also play a crucial role in nurturing cross-cultural collaboration in virtual worlds.

This sounds very idealistic. Is it really possible to make these types of changes?

Two decades ago, the concept of an enormous, user-generated encyclopedia would have sounded very idealistic, but we now have Wikipedia. In the 1980s, the idea of a free, collaboratively developed operating system would have sounded very idealistic, but we now have Linux, Free BSD, and dozens of related open source projects. Our ambitions in this project are far more modest.

The Worldplay Survey itself is an example of how globally distributed individuals can cooperate with one another. Within one day of launching, volunteers offered to translate our survey into Chinese, German, Spanish and Japanese.

What sorts of recommendations do you plan to make?

We hope to identify simple steps that can help create momentum. For example, consider the game Free Realms. Launched several months ago by Sony, the world already boasts 3 million subscribers from around the world. The game's player base is extremely international, and players use the general chat channels to communicate in multiple languages. But there is one glaring problem: cut and paste functions are disabled in Free Realms.

Without the ability to cut and paste, it's very difficult for players to communicate across language barriers. If cut and paste were enabled, players could switch into another browser window and use automatic translation tools to understand what other players are saying. This would be an important step forward.

This sounds great. What can I do to help?

If you are over the age of 18 and interested in participating in our research, take the survey! You can also take a look around this site, leave a comment on our forum, or explore (and comment on) the researcher's blogs. We are also eager to translate our survey into more languages, and could use help translating survey responses back into English.

Will you share findings with the public?

Definitely. After filtering out personally identifiable information, we will make raw data sets available to the public via the project site.

11-17-2009, 04:58 PM	#1 (permalink)
worldplay955 Marios's Mustache Wax Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 1 Reputation: 10	Worldplay Research Initiative Hello, I am a college student in the "Games for the Web" course at Trinity University. My classmates and I are very interested in the phenomenon of transnational play. This class attempts to study and analyze transnational interactions amongst gamers from around the globe. We have created our own website to collect our information as well as share our findings with those who stumble across it. Please check out the Project Overview at http://www.trinity.edu/adelwich/tran.../students.html Here you can learn more about our project, read our blogs, and take our survey. Thank you for your time and voluntary participation! If you have any questions, fee free to e-mail us at worldplayresearch@gmail.com and someone will respond promptly. We are, as a class, committed to conducting our studies in a responsible, ethical and respectful manner. Our findings will be published publicly on our site in hope of providing useful, collaborative research for our class and anyone else that might be interested in the topic of transnational play. This course is being taught by Professor Aaron Delwiche in the Deparment of Communication. If you have any questions or concerns about this class, please feel free to contact hi via e-mail (adelwich@trinity.edu) or telephone (210/999-8153). Sincerely, Bruce G Last edited by worldplay955; 11-17-2009 at 07:28 PM.

11-17-2009, 06:57 PM	#2 (permalink)
Paladuck Roon's Rogue Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: The Pond Posts: 4,213 Reputation: 256	Very interesting. Maybe when you publish something come back to the site and let us know? __________________

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

11-19-2009, 12:58 AM	#6 (permalink)
worldplay Marios's Mustache Wax Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 2 Reputation: 10	I teach the games course at Trinity University, and am part of the Worldplay research team. Several people have mentioned that they are tired of hit and run surveys in which students never follow up. We completely understand this frustration and fatigue, but we can also demonstrate a track record of sharing our findings with the community. I hope you will take a few minutes to confirm that we do stand by these commitments. For example, you can read these sixteen papers that were published by students in the World of Warcraft variant of this course back in 2005. You can also read these fifteen papers that were published by students in the Everquest II version of this course in 2006. At the bottom of this message, I am appending an explanation of our research approach in this project as well as an explanation of what we will give back to the community. Ronin, we agree that you should not be asked to share your time without receiving anything in return. Instead of paying money, we will share all of the raw data (excluding personally identifiable information) that emerges from this study. SnowBunzz and Xenonight2, please let me know if the above links answer your concerns about our follow-through. Please let me know if this answers your concerns. Aaron Delwiche Associate Professor Department of Communication Trinity University --- Explanation of Our Research Methods What is the purpose of this research project? This project explores issues associated with cross-cultural interactions in virtual worlds. Our goal is to identify creative ways that players, game developers, and industry professionals can nurture and extend transnational cooperation in virtual worlds. During the past five years, dozens of researchers have scrutinized virtual worlds. How is this project any different? Great question. For the most part, existing research on virtual worlds falls into one of a few categories. On the one hand, there are deep ethnographic studies in which researchers immerse themselves in subcultures associated with a particular virtual world (e.g. Taylor, 2006; Boellstorf, 2008; Malaby, 2009). While we appreciate and value the textured analysis emerging from such studies, our project does not use ethnographic methods. There are also many helpful studies that combine traditional survey methods with the analysis of server-side data logs. The most recent studies (e.g. Williams, Consalvo, Caplan & Yee, 2009; Williams, Yee & Caplan, 2008; Bell, Castranova & Wagner, 2009) have leveraged random sampling methods and vendor-relationships to deepen our understanding of gamer demographics and motivations. We are intrigued by these studies, but this project does not use random sampling methods and we do not analyze server logs. We are not attempting to make statistically valid generalizations about the broader gaming universe. OK. So the Worldplay project does not use ethnographic methods and it does not use quantitative methods for analyzing large data sets. What exactly are you doing? We are fanning out across virtual worlds and casting as broad a net as possible to increase our understanding of transnational player interactions. In an open-ended survey, we are asking people to share their thoughts about their on-line interactions with gamers from other countries. We ask people to describe both positive and negative experiences, and encourage them to share suggestions about ways that gamers, developers and scholars can foster transnational interaction in virtual worlds. But isn't this rather slap-dash? If you cannot generalize your results to a broader population of gamers, what's the point? We firmly believe that every voice -- including statistical outliers -- deserves to be heard. Our goal is to identify a wide range of opinions, experiences and recommendations related to the phenomenon of transnational play. In synthesizing and publicly sharing our findings, we hope to provide suggestive data points that can be used by developers, gamers, and researchers who are interested in promoting cross-cultural interaction in virtual worlds. In many ways, our approach is analogous to the guerilla usability testing methods recommended by Jakob Nielsen in the early 1990s. Rather than developing generalized claims about a large group of users, we seek to collect as many data points as possible. Rather than using our research as the basis for theory building, we are interested in ways our findings can be applied to the gritty realities of game development and guild management. Some advocates of transnational gaming have bashed industry practices that inhibit cross-cultural interaction in virtual worlds. Is this your intent? Definitely not. We are sensitive to the many demands placed on developers. Although we are saddened by the practice of region locking, we understand the legitimate business reasons that inhibit transnational interaction. We have no desire to scapegoat our colleagues in the gaming industry. After all, without game developers, none of us would be here in the first place. Players, scholars and government policymakers can also play a crucial role in nurturing cross-cultural collaboration in virtual worlds. This sounds very idealistic. Is it really possible to make these types of changes? Two decades ago, the concept of an enormous, user-generated encyclopedia would have sounded very idealistic, but we now have Wikipedia. In the 1980s, the idea of a free, collaboratively developed operating system would have sounded very idealistic, but we now have Linux, Free BSD, and dozens of related open source projects. Our ambitions in this project are far more modest. The Worldplay Survey itself is an example of how globally distributed individuals can cooperate with one another. Within one day of launching, volunteers offered to translate our survey into Chinese, German, Spanish and Japanese. What sorts of recommendations do you plan to make? We hope to identify simple steps that can help create momentum. For example, consider the game Free Realms. Launched several months ago by Sony, the world already boasts 3 million subscribers from around the world. The game's player base is extremely international, and players use the general chat channels to communicate in multiple languages. But there is one glaring problem: cut and paste functions are disabled in Free Realms. Without the ability to cut and paste, it's very difficult for players to communicate across language barriers. If cut and paste were enabled, players could switch into another browser window and use automatic translation tools to understand what other players are saying. This would be an important step forward. This sounds great. What can I do to help? If you are over the age of 18 and interested in participating in our research, take the survey! You can also take a look around this site, leave a comment on our forum, or explore (and comment on) the researcher's blogs. We are also eager to translate our survey into more languages, and could use help translating survey responses back into English. Will you share findings with the public? Definitely. After filtering out personally identifiable information, we will make raw data sets available to the public via the project site.