Research

[jimmypong]

I am working as the research assistant of Dr. Richard Joiner at the Psychology Department in the University of Bath. I am responsible in carrying out a research project which is about Internet Addiction and Massive Multi-player Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG).

I am required to do literature reviews on the subject area; and then create or use an already existing an online questionnaire and put it online for MMORPG players to complete. I will gather these data and analyze them in order to find out more about Internet Addiction and online gaming.

Below is the link to the questionnaire, which is based on one of the most popular MMORPGs, World of Warcraft. I would appreciate it if anyone has played or is still playing this game to fill in the questionnaire for me. All information will be kept confidential and you may choose to abort the questionnaire if you feel uncomfortable at any point. Thank you very much.

http://staff.bath.ac.uk/pssrj/TSH/WOWMain.htm

[MaliceDR]

Very interesting.

This is a relatively short survey. I don't see any reason not to take it.

[Ardani]

Gone ahead and filled it out, although from me I think it was mostly a long list of Strongly Disagrees. :grin: I'm probably a lot more of a casual gamer than the target audience.

[Cychwyn]

The moderators generally appreciate being asked before surveys/questionnaires get posted. If you've already received their blessing, or if I'm more off my trolley than usual, my apologies. :grin:

[snowieken]

Please ask permission to the admins first before posting a link to a survey. It's a policy we are trying to implement. I am closing this for now, try to send a message to Elly (mailto:elly@worldofwar.net) or Rushster (mailto:rush@worldofwar.net) via PM or via the e-mail addresses provided. Thanks for understanding.

And on a side note... we had quite a lot of surveys on this forum before, and no offence, but are you lot capable of making any other surveys than about game addiction? :wink:

[plastic paddy]

Define addiction ffs. i had plenty, but my main ones are food and air...

i didn't play Wow for 2 years coz i didn't want to deal with other people for some reason. Figured it would cramp my playing style.

i also suffer from Clinical Depression, so people make demands and i don't do demands...

However, the game has been a revelation and i made lots friends and have the most fun when i get a "Hey, wot u doin?" call from a guildie.

Do something original in your psychology departments for once, look at the therapeutic aspects of these games.

/rant

[jimmypong]

thx guys for the response...I am sorry for not asking a moderator first but I forgot :tongue: (as you guys can see i put this thing up around 5am in the morning :tongue: ) I will definitely get in touch with them and ask!

plastic paddy: hi, yes, there is a therapuetic aspect of the game. There are papers about it. But this research is focused on addiction. Therefore i think the category of people that attributes the game as therapuetic aid can still do the questionnaire, but with many "disagree"s as they will not be categorized as addicted to World of Warcraft (or MMORPG gaming in general).

Anyway, thx all! (hmmm....now where is(are) the moderator(s).....:tongue: )

snowieken

I just sent an email to elly, hope i would be given permission to continue.
As for you suggestion, yes there are many other surveys dealing with different aspects of gaming (believe me...i had to do a literature review on the subject and related before starting, that was hell :P) But my primary focus is on addiction. I first got an interest to do this study as from where I come from (my home's in Hong Kong). There are quite a lot of cases of people playing MMORPG nonstop for days and dying of fatigue; and also of people committing suicide coz they have some items/weapons stolen from them.

Sad but true, something that should be enjoyed by all became something that could affect life (to a certain extent).

I play WoW too...and I must say it is a VERY great game though! :P

[Cychwyn]

Oh yes, there are cases of people dying from it. I imagine the chance of slipping in your bath and killing yourself that way is bigger, though.

I think you will put a lot of people off by having yet another paper on addiction and WoW. I know I can't be bothered filling another one in, especially with almost all the questions so keen on the addiction side and so few considering me as a person.

[Piemaster]

Not another research project on WoW. Surely the market must be saturated by now.

[jimmypong]

sorry if that puts u off guys...but work is work :tongue:

I play WoW too, so it's much easier to do my research on it :wink2:

Anyway, this is only the beginning of a sting of researches, the beginning looks at addiction, to see if it exists or not.

Later on we'll look at a more broad concept on the seperation, or blurring (whichever the person perceives) of the virtual world and everyday world (e.g. like buying a WoW account with money, acquiring virtual property online, etc.)

again, sorry if it puts anyone off, but like all research you only need to do it if you consent to it. :thumbsup:

Oh yes, there are cases of people dying from it. I imagine the chance of slipping in your bath and killing yourself that way is bigger, though.

I think you will put a lot of people off by having yet another paper on addiction and WoW. I know I can't be bothered filling another one in, especially with almost all the questions so keen on the addiction side and so few considering me as a person.

hi cychwyn:
dying from gaming and slipping into the bath....well it depends on where you live. Where I come from (Hong Kong) and nearby regions (Taiwan, Korea, Japan). People have a higher chance of dying from that than bathing :laugh:

Not sure where you come from, so pardon my ignorance if i am making myself a jerk. But in those Asian regions we have places where people just walk in, pay a fee and can just play until they stop (food and drinks can be bought there too). So they really dun have to leave until they have enough....and people sometimes just dunno when enough is :cry:

In Hong Kong, we call these places Internet Cafe. But strangely when I first came to the UK, i found the internet cafes here are totally different. Much smaller, and no gaming, just checking emails :tongue:

[sqchram]

Hi jimmy, I'm interested to see how your research develops.

One thing I would like to bring light on is the point you made on the Internet Cafes. At first I thought that they should not be significantly different from myself in my condo where I can play all day, or for days straight. I have food available there and can always order food to be delivered. Bathroom / shower etc. All of the essential ammenities.

You would think that it would be an even greater opportunity to play for days on end without rest.

However on further ponderings I came to a sort of realization that, yes I do need to leave home to go to work. With a work schedule I need regular sleep. With this regular schedule, even on days off and holidays, I follow an acceptable sleep/rest schedule.

Now lets consider a home/apartment schedule where one does not have to work. There are two scenarios that I can think of offhand. One is where a gamer is under the care and support of another. That however would mean that they are in contact or supervision of someone who will watch out for their well-being. The second is someone who is independantly wealthy. Again, I suspect someone without financial worries would likely not play WoW for several days straight to the point of a cardiac arrest. They would have many other financial opportunities and interests.

My first impression, discrediting the 24 hour gaming cafes you describe, upon further consideration, points me right back to them.

Snowly was in fact in a gaming cafe when she succumbed to a cardiac arrest.

Other rare cases including a young child believing he could fly (per an in-game item) and jumped out of a multi-story window. This is as likely statistically as someone watching Superman or something similar.

Is there liability on the 24 hour gaming cafe? No. Should they only provide continuous service on a limited basis such as 16 hours with 8 hours off, as well as coordinate with other local cafes to enforce? Yes.

There will be a small percentage, and I believe that its a combination of peer pressure and simply self-determination, to see how long they can go before involuntarily expiring to sleep. I would further suspect that several things may be used by some of these individuals to keep them awake such as caffeine, nicotine, amphetamines, and narcotics.

[Cychwyn]

hi cychwyn:
dying from gaming and slipping into the bath....well it depends on where you live. Where I come from (Hong Kong) and nearby regions (Taiwan, Korea, Japan). People have a higher chance of dying from that than bathing :laugh:
...


My point was that a handful of people have died because they did not know how to stop, or because they we're mentally wobby enough to do stupid things. A handful, out of however many billion play... Hardly something to write home about - compare with traffic-accident mutilation or death.


Internet cafés... well that is a problem with internet cafés and the obsessive people who visit them. Probably also not a huge precentage of the whole of the café public. Would it not make sense to do the research about gamers in general, not just WoW? Would also be nice to have a comparison of the percentage of the population (probably per country) that die/lose their jobs/ignore RL. If .4% of the gamers lose touch with reality, but 2% of the general populace does, that would be a useful thing to know.

[jimmypong]

thx for the tips guys.

The thing with the cafes is that there are so many of them...I actually spent quite alot of time in a couple back in Hong Kong when i was young (haha :laugh: ) . The environment aren't very good for health, dim lighting, loud sound level, a maybe a couple triad members to add to mix (hehehe)...plus concentrating on the monitor for as long as you want (as long as you pay)....there is a reason why people are dying in those places @_@.

There are also "quite a handful" of people committing suicide because they have their items/weapons stolen from them. Also some of the more...impulsive youths....actually attempted to stab his dad because he was forced to switch his computer off.

Yes, there is a need to study the general players....but I prefer focusing more on people that are (maybe, just maybe, NOTHING conclusive) addicted, or gaming has more effect on their normal daily functionings.

To adhere to the festive season, Jesus once said he's here to heal the sick (something similar). Not saying what researchers are doing is great for the world or whatever (actually i dun really like academia that much :P). But he has a point: only the sick needs doctors.

What do the general population of gamers that aren't addicted need? MORE GAMES!!! :laugh:

funny....why was the link to the questionnaire "remove for now" ? :shocked:
****************
Anyway, the questionnaire's based on the GPIUS by Scott. E Caplan. We modified it to MMORPG instead of internet addiction.

[Ardani]

The trouble with these studies focused on addiction, I think, is that they can sometimes reflect back a trend that's not actually there. I was browsing around a website a while back which focused on people recovering from gaming addiction or people related to gaming addicts, and although I have the deepest sympathies for anyone who has truly been affected by their own or a loved one's addiction to anything, having a website or a study where the addicts tell their stories and the remainder of the 7 million happy players don't tends to paint World of Warcraft and other MMORPGs as something evil or harmful.

There's calls to have the amount of time you can spend playing restricted by the game companies or the government because of these isolated incidents (despite the fact that addiction to alcohol, food, sex, etc. is more prevalent and there's nothing restricting how many drinks you can have before pubs are required to kick you out, how many meals a day you can legally eat, or how many times a week you're allowed to-- well, you get the picture). Imbalanced studies that focus only on the addicts and not on the healthy players have the potential to contribute to this demonising of something that's completely harmless except in the hands of someone with pre-existing psychological issues.

I'm not saying that this is one such study, but there are so many of them popping up that are all focused around game addiction, perhaps it's something to think about.

funny....why was the link to the questionnaire "remove for now" ? :shocked:

I think it was mentioned earlier in the thread that you didn't ask staff permission to post the link and that you need to contact an admin about it. Go back and check post #5. :smiley:

[jimmypong]

Ardani:

thx man, but no one's trying to paint it good or bad, we've just finding out something. (and i just wanna get by dissertation done :P)

I mailed Elly a couple of days ago...no reply,
i just PM the moderator about 2 hours ago, hope things will work fine.:cry:

[Ardani]

My point was that regardless of what people are trying to do, it doesn't always match up with what they're inadvertently doing by focusing solely on the rare cases of addiction (nor are the surveys generally anywhere near suited to figuring out what psychological problems unrelated to gaming led to the addictions, or any prior history of addiction in that person). I wasn't targeting it directly at your survey, but commenting on the swathe of surveys going around about WoW addiction.

[jimmypong]

that just proves it IS the most popular MMORPG in the market! :wink:
That's why most studies use it as a tool for research, coz it's here we get the majority of the sample population.:thumbsup:

[ChaosSaber]

I seem to recall slanted statistics and isolated incidents similar to those mentioned here leading to the demonization of Dungeons & Dragons a couple decades ago. It severely damaged the reputation of tabeltop gaming. Damage from which it has yet to fully recover.

One must tread carefully lest the mistakes of the past be repeated.

[Cychwyn]

that just proves it IS the most popular MMORPG in the market! :wink:
That's why most studies use it as a tool for research, coz it's here we get the majority of the sample population.:thumbsup:

You get a pathological sample consisting of only (some of) the addicts, with nothing to tell you what the normal population is like.

I'm sorry but your answers to the very good arguments (particularly Ardani's) are just "I need to get my dissertation done" "It's not my fault, I didn't chose this" :shocked: and "It was really bad in the internet cafés where I grew up" (I don't doubt the cafés you describe are bad for people, I do question that you should let this colour your research which is global in scale and concentrates on MMORPG). This does not convince me that there is anything worth while with this "research". It sounds as if it was chosen to get grant money because the sensational (usually bad) sells, rather than impartial and objective science.
Your answers also suggest to me that your mind is already made up and nothing we say will change any of this, so this is the point I give up posting.

[jimmypong]

sorry guys if this upsets any of you.
I really wanna remain neutral to this in case my own judgement will affect the data collected.

And i'm not picking out a pathological sample.
I want everyone to do it. For the general population, or those aren't addicted, you can always choose the answers suitable for you in the questionnaire. One point is....the term addiction itself is not a proven mental symptom...that's why I need more data :embarassed:

I play WoW myself, why would i want to demonize such a great game?

These arguments are great, and I treasure all of these.
Again sorry if this pissed anyone off.

[jimmypong]

pusH~~~~~~~

[Tanitha]

pusH~~~~~~~

Why are you bumping the thread? There's no survey to take (Awaiting approval) But a small part of me is dying inside to see yet another survey on gaming addiction. My personal opinion is that those are just another cardboard cutout study. People decide that games are addictive and then seek an answer that justifies that belief.

There are many other aspects of video games and their evolution, reality replacement and even financial rewards inherent in some games and the real world economic tie-ins which could make much better research topics.

But instead - another survey on addiction. Like we don't see three of those a day.

But that's my opinion only.

[jimmypong]

Why are you bumping the thread? There's no survey to take (Awaiting approval) But a small part of me is dying inside to see yet another survey on gaming addiction. My personal opinion is that those are just another cardboard cutout study. People decide that games are addictive and then seek an answer that justifies that belief.

There are many other aspects of video games and their evolution, reality replacement and even financial rewards inherent in some games and the real world economic tie-ins which could make much better research topics.

But instead - another survey on addiction. Like we don't see three of those a day.

But that's my opinion only.


thx Tanitha but pls read my previous threads, you just said what i just said for future follow-ups! :laugh:
This is the first part of the study, i am expecting 3~4 parts to complete everything for my dissertation. Parts 2~3 (maybe 4) are what you have just said.

As for the addiction part, guys...don't worry about this term. I can tell you with 100% confidence there is NOTHING to prove it exists (or exist yet). Because all the researchers have yet to find a solid, concrete definition (or scale) to measure it. It's not like drug/alchol addiction, where the body has effect where you can test. In fact, many current scales to measure internet/gaming addiction used scales derived from those drug addiction tests. And I don't there will ever be a solid answer in the future. Because up till now many so-called "addicts" seek help themselves (no one label them or anything). Hence we have this term, it's all just provisional and nothing is proven this thing exist. Probably it is something stemmed from a impulse control disorder or a compulsive obessive behavioural problem (refer: DSM IV). Again, nothing is proven.

As for the survey....i know, i mailed the adminstrators, still waiting for reply.

Thanks again for the contributions, feel free to leave your comments and opinions. I read all of them and keep improving my project this way. :thumbsup:

[jimmypong]

seems like the like hasn't been put back up yet.
sorry guys, have to wait a bit more~ (fingers crossed)

[plastic paddy]

Cant find a "stop watching this bloody thread" button...

[Mojorising]

I'm bored, so feel free to PM me a link to the questionnaire. I'm curious and will happily fill it in. Plus you don't seem to be the normal kind of nut job who writes stuff like "ZOMG TEH INTENETZ IS KILLING OUR CHILDREN"

Jimmypong seems to understand the difference between psychological addiction and physical addiction from what Ive read (Imo, via the former you could be "addicted" to annything from video games, porno or even goats cheese, its more about compulsive behaviour than the actual substance itself)

I have faith that you are honestly trying to look at this objectively and not trying to scaremonger so I think we should give this guy a break. There should be more of this kind of research to help wash away all the state sponsored **** which is full of preconceptions that consitutes 'research' nowadays.

[jimmypong]

thx Mojorising, i'll pm u the link to the survey~ :laugh: :thumbsup:

guys, this is only the first part of a series~
the 2~3 parts won't really focus on addiction that much.

The aim of the paper i'm trying to write is not to emphasize on "addiction", this whole project is aimed at finding something related to virtual life and real life. Where does the line differentiate (did i spell it right?) or blur? Because right now it seems that with technology we have, these 2 aspects seemed to merge and integrat so much~

And i just think MMORPG is a great medium to look into it, because as players of WoW, we are all doing something related to it (we pay subscription to the game with real $, and so we can play in the virtual community). Other examples include buying accounts with $, etc.

Hope it clears up any misunderstandings~

[jimmypong]

since i'm still trying to get in touch with the adminstrators, maybe whoever is interested in the study and would like to take the questionnaire leave a msg here and I would happily PM the link to you. :smiley:

Or if you would like to know more about the study before doing the questionnaire, feel free to ask anything here :wave:

[Valas Azuviir]

Two things.
A) It's the holiday season. Meaning that folks (yes, even Admins and Mods are people) tend to be busy with family stuff. Doesn't help that Rush is down with the flu either.

B) Reread the forum rules (http://forums.worldofwar.net/rules/).
Bumping is a violation of Commandment 6. Please refrain from doing so again. You're just going to have to be patient.

[jimmypong]

Two things.
A) It's the holiday season. Meaning that folks (yes, even Admins and Mods are people) tend to be busy with family stuff. Doesn't help that Rush is down with the flu either.

B) Reread the forum rules (http://forums.worldofwar.net/rules/).
Bumping is a violation of Commandment 6. Please refrain from doing so again. You're just going to have to be patient.

hi thx, i spoke to Aerath in PM and i was advised to wait too.

sorry about the bumping thing, didn't know of that commandment, sorry~

[Aerath]

After feeling JimmyPong has been waiting long enough for an answer, I decided to put the link back in.

Good luck with the research.

[Tanitha]

This is the first part of the study, i am expecting 3~4 parts to complete everything for my dissertation. Parts 2~3 (maybe 4) are what you have just said.

Despite my misgivings, I went and did it once the survey link was reposted. I felt as if I was filling in a Cosmo questionnaire with that prescient feeling of:

"You're scoring high on the addictometer there! Pick Strongly Agree for an even higher score!"

I'd be interested in seeing the other parts once they become available. Do you have a rough time-frame in mind for when they will be posted?

[jimmypong]

thx moderator Aerath :thumbsup:

Tanitha:
hi, part II and later parts must all be ready before June (that's when i go back home [Hong Kong] for my summer holiday). Afterwards there may be follow-ups in the next academic year (my final year wah-hey!).

Basically the later parts would focus more on the connections of Virtual Vs Real life. From a discussion I had earlier on tonight with someone in another forum, I had some really good insights, such as reputations and consequences. let me draw an example with my own experience:

I've seen people stealing items in some older online games (there was one I used to play in HK called Jin-Rong Online). Those theives didn't care much about consequence and reputation. Obviously they would not steal so "openly" in the real world. (that's something to do with reputation)

So there are developments in the MMORPG world, in later titles developers safe-guard the items of the owners, thus the concept of property rights got included into MMORPG. (that's something to do with the result).

:cloud9:
That's the thing i want to look deeper on. This addiction questionnaire is to see if addiction (as a factor) could affect the variables in what I want to find out.
hope that clears up more, anything you guys want to ask, I'll try my best to answer! (of coz, i can't tell u my whole project...or my ideas may get used by others :tongue: :lipsrsealed: )

cheers guys

[Tanitha]

So there are developments in the MMORPG world, in later titles developers safe-guard the items of the owners, thus the concept of property rights got included into MMORPG. (that's something to do with the result).


http://eve.klaki.net/heist/


That link tells the tale of an absolutely incredible heist in EVE online. (No adds or anything on the site, it's just a news page on a private site) That might put a slightly different spin on the whole property ownership issue as there this is a perfectly legitimate and arguably highly inventive way of playing the game.

One part of me abhors the perpetrators for doing such a dastardly deed - but the gamer in me applauds them for coming up and pulling off such an impressive scheme.

Either way, you might find that interesting reading while you're researching property rights and so on :grin:

[jimmypong]

cheers mate for the link :grin: I think i'll show it to my supervisor tmr, thanks!

I'll probably write something about property rights, but it'll most possibly be used as a way to show the link between how the real world reacts/interact with the virtual community.

I read a journal article that focused on stealing and property rights in online gaming (and other forms of cheating). It's a very good read, but a bit too long :azn:

Also there are some info I have with me now, which i found in the Hong Kong Central Library last summer about property rights online. Apparently there is something like a law protecting the rights of the owner of computer data, the argument is whether items/weapons in online games are considered as "computer data" or not...(i skipped multiple pages from then, coz the rest is law stuff :P). Anyway it was probably a reaction from the government after several teenagers committed suicide after they got their weapons stolen. :sad:

well anyways bed time, need to look fresh for the meeting tmr morning :P

[Tanitha]

(Thanks for putting the link back mods)

Where was it that I read about the possibilities of using these crossover economies for money laundering? My mind's blank right now. Anyway. I'll step away. Too interesting a subject Jimmy and you're making me long for my student years again!

[jimmypong]

yes i read about a 3D-avatar chat room that can buy virtual property with real money. There was a lady that became very rich for selling virtual houses in that site. She was on newspaper.

But i can't remember which website that was, and who the lady is...so i couldn't search for it :cry:

[Tanitha]

You're not thinking of Anshe Chung? She's the (supposedly) first millionaire who made all her money online. (Virtual real estate in Second Life)

[jimmypong]

SPOT ON MY FRIEND!!!!! :thumbsup:
thank you so much!
you've helped me heaps tonight just by your ideas alone, hahaha

right, bed time!

cheers and gdnite!

[jimmypong]

hi guys, saw my supervisor today...
so far we got around 80 people...I have a favour to ask to all of you...please help spread this around. Because we need around 400 to run a stats test on it successfully. PLease~~~ :P

Also, after a long discussion with my supervisor, we have decided to steer the focus even further away from where we started. We now decide to look even more for the benefits from MMORPG (kinda like looking at the model from another way, most literature look from it in the addiction perspective, we try to look at the opposite direction of the model). Of course, the main aim of the study has not changed (the real/virtual life interaction)(thx Tanitha and others on this forum in giving good opinions~).

But since we started to gather data with this questionnaire, we may as well try to run a complete stats test on it first...so please, give it to your mates and buddies to do, thanks

[cyradis2003]

Also there are some info I have with me now, which i found in the Hong Kong Central Library last summer about property rights online. Apparently there is something like a law protecting the rights of the owner of computer data, the argument is whether items/weapons in online games are considered as "computer data" or not...(i skipped multiple pages from then, coz the rest is law stuff :P).


In WoW terms only Blizzard would be protected in this case as they clearly state that all items, characters, information in the game belongs solely to them. All players are required to agree to this prior to making their first toon and again at every change (patch) to the game. You can find the terms of service on the worldofwarcraft.com site.

That said I and a good number of my friends regularly receive in game mails offering to purchase gold for real life cash. This is totally against the WoW user agreement but they don't seem to be able to stop it.

[Aerath]

Jimmy, kindly stop bumping and requesting more people to use it.

You've gotten the link up, don't push your luck.

[jimmypong]

Sorry Aerath

Other than the questionnaire, I would like anyone will to share talk about what they perceive as benefits from playing WoW (or other MMORPG); Also, please share any situations when elements in the real world interacts with the virtual world (like earning real cash from gaming).

What cyradis2003 said actually appeared in a journal article. Farmers in rural China were hired to mine gold in WoW. They actually earned more than farming their plots of land.

So anyone that has anything to share about these:
i) benefits of WoW (social, affective, cognitive)
ii) merging of real/virtual world.

*ps, your comments may be used in the research, credits will be given, but if you dun want your comments to be used just tell me.
_____________________

sorry Aerath, hope this isn't considered a bump

[worldoffatcraft]

I am working as the research assistant of Dr. Richard Joiner at the Psychology Department in the University of Bath. I am responsible in carrying out a research project which is about Internet Addiction and Massive Multi-player Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG).

I am required to do literature reviews on the subject area; and then create or use an already existing an online questionnaire and put it online for MMORPG players to complete. I will gather these data and analyze them in order to find out more about Internet Addiction and online gaming.

Below is the link to the questionnaire, which is based on one of the most popular MMORPGs, World of Warcraft. I would appreciate it if anyone has played or is still playing this game to fill in the questionnaire for me. All information will be kept confidential and you may choose to abort the questionnaire if you feel uncomfortable at any point. Thank you very much.

http://staff.bath.ac.uk/pssrj/TSH/WOWMain.htm

Do you think that schools are only interested about online gaming since that guy died:ponder:
just a thought don't kill me 4 it:grin: