SL Survey

Hey SL'ers

For grad school project, I'm conducting a research project on MMORPG gamers. Its a pretty short survey, just 10-15 mins. For the project, I'm looking at second life and WoW players and how they perceive their experiences online (i.e. how you make sense of and understand online relationships). I would really appreciate it, if you could take a few minutes out and fill out the survey for me.

Here is the link to the survey. Thanks again.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=KS65ihurdp2zTHpdsthzOw_3d_3d

Why?

Doing a survey of your own?

Why??

Because I'm a grad student in Communication Studies focusing on computer mediated comm, player of WoW, SL not to mention way to many other games on Xbox Live.

You ask why study this, I ask why not study it. You never find answers unless you ask questions. I cant divulge too many details in the thread, becuase it might skew what people would say, but if you want to know the details, send me a pm and ill gladly tell you more about it.

Actually, I wasn't asking you..

We get survey threads about once a week from people with a post counts of 1 who have just joined SL. I wish you well in your efforts but this one's pretty generic and the more effort you put into your request for help, the better response you'll get.

If the OP hadn't crossposted this is various other forums here, if the request would have been a bit more friendly and less pushy and if there would have been a bit more visible effort in reaching out to the people who are supposed to help in this endeavour, I might have considered answering.

Normally I'm trying to be helpful, but a newbie jumping in with "Hey, answer this! Don't bother why." cuts no ice here, I'm afraid. Compared with the survey issued a few days ago by the Australian National University folks, this one does not look well thought out.

"awesomely appreciate"?

--
Aes

Can't wait to see how my answers skewed the survey. For a College survey, one would think the grammar used in the questions would be important.

ummph! I'm usually pretty willing to do surveys... but when I got to the second page, there is a huge grid to fill out, and... sorry... not enough energy for it!

Thanks for all your comments. This is my first time doing a survey outside of school, i.e. that doesn't involve using undergraduate students as my sample population.

I didn't realize my post came across pushy and demanding. Usually with undergrads, you have to be frank to get the point across. I'm going to make some changes to the original post and I hope you folks will accept my apology and consider filling out the survey.

You kids have it rough these days. I did my post-doctorate research on eating ice cream and sleeping 'til noon.



Hey, cool, there's another buzzword for your resume.

Apology accepted

"How old are you" ... last category is "over 35". Should I feel decrepit now?

haha yeah, i figured the over 35 one too late, so I cant change it now. I should have realized im almost 29 have been playing games a while. Soon a lot of us are gonna be in that over range, us original gamers at least.

Lesson definitely noted for next time.

The last guy offered L$150 per person to take his survey. What do YOU think my time is worth?

you're time is prob worth a lot more than I can afford to pay.

"Are your experiences in Second Life more real, just as equally real, or less real than your everyday experiences? Please explain."
Open-ended enough?

Hate to break it to you, but the 'original games' are way past that... if you search the forums, you will find many up into their 80's. I know I for one have been playing games on computers longer than you have been alive..

Those Mayans had some kick but systems I tell you!

We constantly get asked to participate in surveys.

Anybody seen an avatar of a lab rat available?

I think I smell cheese.

Umm I was blasting aliens and asteroids long before you were filling your diapers.
So if you aint pulled on an Atari joy stick before 1980, you might want to reconsider
that “us” original gamers.

surveys don't work
you never get true information

especially here cause everyone is so sick of being surveyed

real gamers drink their coffee by IV
real gamers keep a bucket by the chair

I used to know a bunch of those from joking around on vent (WoW) but can't remember them now cause I'm an original gamer and therefore my memory has started to fade

Please read these books and think about the questions you asked in your survey again:

True Names by Vernor Vinge.
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge.
http://mindstalk.net/vinge/vinge-sing.html

Permutation City by Greg Egan.
Diaspora by Greg Egan.
Schild's Ladder by Greg Egan.

Accelerando by Charlie Stross.

Those are all fine reads, I haven't read your complete list yet though. They all bring up good questions, albeit different questions than the ones I care about in this project.

Some of that stuff is pretty trippy to think about.

Unfortunately, I can't reveal the exact scope of my research without skewing answers, so that answer will have to do for now.

Well, the thing is, SL is not real like the real world. It's real like the world of Accelerando, balanced on the cusp of the singularity. So it just seems strange that you'd ask about whether SL was "real".

Real is only as real as the user says it is. If someone says it is real, to them, who are you (or I) to argue that SL is not real. I'm interested in levels of realness, not whether SL is 100% just like real life.