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MMOs, dreams, depression, and anxiety
carbonel
Member Posts: 42
I am posting this message in the general forum, and have posted variants in a few key game forums. Apologies to anyone who has seen this message more than once. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at: adelwich@trinity.edu.
Hello,
I am a college professor who teaches a course on virtual worlds at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.
Our class has been playing Everquest II for the past four months, and we are all members of the guild The Vindicators on the Antonia Bayle server.
For the past several months, students in the class have reading up on game design, game criticism and virtual worlds. As you can see from the syllabus, there is a fairly hefty reading list.
During the next month, students will conduct a series of interviews with gamers in EQ II and other virtual worlds. Each student is exploring a different research topic. These interviews could take place via e-mail, in-game, or over an anonymous instant messaging connection. They might even take place over the telephone. We assure confidentiality and anonymity to all participants.
We understand that the gaming community is bombarded with survey requests that never lead anywhere. This request is different. Our class is committed to sharing its research findings. At the end of the semester, all student papers and presentations will be linked to the course web site and made available to anyone with an Internet connection.
For last year’s research papers, see:
http://www.trinity.edu/adelwich/mmo/students.html.
To avoid spamming the forums with multiple recruitment messages, we are consolidating multiple research topics into a single message. Please note that all participants should be over the age of 18.
Grady hopes to speak with people about generational conflict and cooperation within Everquest II and other virtual worlds. We’ve all heard complaints about the WoW-kiddies, but many successful guilds span generations. If you are interested in talking about these issues, you can reach Grady at oldyounggamer@yahoo.com. If you think that your MMO-playing children might also be interested in chatting with Grady (with your consent), he would be very interested in hearing their perspective.
Amy has been studying the ways that people use massively multiplayer games to confront depression, anxiety and social phobias. If you have useful feedback about these psychological dimensions of gaming, please contact her at: gaming884@hotmail.com.
Jason is interested in chatting with people who have had dreams related to Everquest II or other virtual worlds. If you have ever dreamed that you were in the game, or dreamed that parts of the game were in your real life, he would love to chat with you. You can reach Jason at: eqearlgrey@yahoo.com
Manny is excited about the educational potential of virtual worlds and is thinking about ways that they might be used to help high school students understand physics and sociology. He is particularly interested in speaking with educators of all ages who also play these games. Manny can be reached at super_manu22@hotmail.com
Katherine is fascinated by role-playing in virtual worlds and the ways that players evaluate the avatars of other players. If you have thoughts on these issues, you can reach her at ammicko@hotmail.com.
Cameron is looking at knowledge-gathering strategies that players use to establish proficiency in virtual worlds. You can reach him at adelwich@trinity.edu.
Other research topics include:
- Megan is looking at the potential use of virtual worlds to relieve the suffering of children with cancer (Contact: megsproject@hotmail.com)
- Andrew is focused on the “newbie experience” in virtual worlds (Contact: Andrew@boogaloogames.net)
- Chris is exploring the social rewards of guild membership (Contact: guildstudy@hotmail.com)
- Kathryn would love to learn more about player reactions to the role of violence in virtual worlds (Contact: kathryn.c.tu@hotmail.com)
- Travis wants to know how players feel about GM governance in virtual worlds (Contact: mmogms@yahoo.com)
- Sarah is intrigued by motivations for playing “evil” characters in virtual worlds (Contact: elentari270@hotmail.com)
For more details about our course and the research project, visit:
http://www.trinity.edu/adelwich/worlds/faq.html
Thanks in advance for your time.
Dr. Aaron Delwiche
Assistant Professor (Department of Communication)
Trinity University
Comments
"Before this battle is over all the world will know that few...stood against many." - King Leonidas
No longer visiting MMORPG.com.
you shuld try asking ppl while in the game / u might get different responses
^_^
you shuld try asking ppl while in the game / u might get different responses
Yes, its true that such insight and knowledge can be attained by talking to people in-game, however, how many people do you really think would sit down and talk about these issues? People are to occupied with questing, buffing, guildtalks, crafting etc.
Secondly, you have to consider the very real possibility that people might not be entirely truthful when they are in MMOs. Of course, they are somewhat anonymous in the game, but they are mentally geared to play and might not be productive in generating constructive thoughts if they're thinking about that +3 sword they need to craft or the quest they want to participate in. When those people log out and write an email instead of chatting in-game they change their mindset ( hopefully ) and they probably compose more effective and useful responses that the students can actually implement in their paper.
Just my 2cents
PS: I wrote them as well
edit: lol, wtf happened to my post?....it's mutated,heh
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starting a new journey may not be so hard,
or maybe it has already begun.
There are many worlds,
but they share the same sky --- one sky, one destiny.
http://mmorpg.qj.net/category/World-of-Warcraft/cid/325