Come join a study of the social aspects of SL

Why does everyone see WoW and SL as synonymous worlds? How can you, or anyone else, equate SL with WoW?

I'm highly incensed that EverQuest was excluded.

"The survey asks questions about your MMOG use, social aspects of your life both in-game and offline, and general demographic information including your age, gender, nationality, level of education, and income."

Before I fill out the survey, does it allow "prefer not to answer" for the last two?

It does not.
Hence I am represented there now as a 12-year old with an income of $90,000+

FYI .. this might give you a similar idea of the type of user you are dealing with here in the forums http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWYhih-ve7M (nsfw)

While a virtual environment may hold the same addictive qualities as a game, so do so many other hobbies, fascinations and pastimes. The social activities and perceptions between SL and on line games differ dramatically (unless you are a griefer or con-artist, I suppose).

Hey - We are nowhere near like that.

Just wanted to mention that in my group Virtual Ability, we often host grad students, people doing thesis, doctoral and ph.d candidates, from various unis around the country and out of the USA too. I recently did an interview for a grad student in the UK, about being deaf in SL. When my groups learned of it, lots of them wanted to be interviewed too. In our case, mostly they want to know about virtual worlds and the disabled. These people come inworld, they learn how it works, they hang out with us. They come to our parties, they get to know us, they ask if they can interview us (once we get to know them and feel comfortable)

The Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology (MSPP) is running a study on Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs). We are looking for residents of Second Life to fill out a survey – it takes about 10-13 minutes. The survey looks at the social aspects of people's lives in both Second Life and offline, and compares them to potential signs of problematic Second Life use. The study is also recruiting players of World of Warcraft to fill out the same survey.

These are the criteria to take this study:

* You must be a current resident of Second Life, or a current player of World of Warcraft. Current use is defined as spending 30 minutes in the past week in either Second Life or World of Warcraft. If you currently participate in both you can take the survey, but you will be asked to identify with which of the two MMOGs are you more involved at the current time.
* You must be 18 years of age or older to take the survey.


If you’re interested in learning more about the survey, click on the link below. You’ll be presented with an informed consent form to give you some more information about the study, so you can decide if you wish to take it. If you’re not interested, but might know someone who might be and who meets the criteria, feel free to forward this email to them. The survey will be open until January 5th, 2010.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/mmog_study_at_mspp

If you have any questions or comments about the study, you can contact Carmine DiChiara, the Principal Investigator, at the email address below.

Thanks for looking,
Carmine DiChiara
carmine_dichiara[at]mspp[dot]edu
Doctoral Student, Clinical Psychology
Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology

ps. If you ask about the study on this forum topic, I'll try to respond here - but I can only discuss so much while the study is going on. I also plan to post a summary of the study results on this forum topic when it's done.

I know, everyone is sick to death of surveys. But he asked nicely, is an accredited researcher on a legitimate project, and truthfully, don't we all want there to be serious examinations of virtual worlds (as opposed to yet another sensationalistic "news" article"?

I know, everyone is sick to death of surveys. But he asked nicely, is an accredited researcher on a legitimate project, and truthfully, don't we all want there to be serious examinations of virtual worlds (as opposed to yet another sensationalistic "news" article"?

The survey looks at the social aspects of people's lives in both Second Life and offline, and compares them to potential signs of problematic Second Life use.

What I want to know is who defined the "potential signs of problematic use"? Can anyone, other than myself and my family, decide if my SL usage is having any negative impacts on my RL?

I know, everyone is sick to death of surveys. But he asked nicely, is an accredited researcher on a legitimate project, and truthfully, don't we all want there to be serious examinations of virtual worlds (as opposed to yet another sensationalistic "news" article"?

This looks to be a legitimately-designed study from an accredited graduate program. Not only that, but when I took a quick look this morning I found that work has been done on quantifying selection bias in on-line surveys, which should at least help the OP interpret the results. Of course, everyone given to self-serious tantruming and laughable claims about "faux-science" can and should continue to carry on having fun regardless; it's just part of the social game that is SL.

Isn't there supposed to be an incentive for doing surveys? Even in my first year psychology class at university, our incentive is either $25 for a half-hour survey, or some bonus marks for the course. O_o

I think this thread title should be "the antisocial aspects of SL".