Participate in Undergrad Ethnographic Research!!!

Hello,

My name is Kathryn, and I am an undergraduate enrolled in a course on virtual worlds at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. Our class has been playing Everquest II for the past four months, with characters ranging in level from 10 to 27. Our primary characters are members of the guild The Vindicators on the Antonia Bayle server.

As part of an ongoing research project, I would like to speak with people over the age of 18 about their thoughts on violence in MMOs and their preferences in other forms of media. I thought SecondLife would be a great place to recruit participants due to the unique nature of this community.

These interviews could take place via e-mail, in-game, or over an anonymous instant messaging connection. I will preserve the anonymity and confidentiality of all participants.

If you are willing to be interviewed about your thoughts on this topic, please contact me at:

[email]kathryn.c.tu@hotmail.com[/email]

I 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 more details about our course and the research project, visit:

http://www.trinity.edu/adelwich/worlds/faq.html

Thanks in advance for your time!

Kathryn

I think you need to get permission from Linden Lab in order to conduct research inside SL.

Hi Kathryn, please read more about our Research Ethics policy here before embarking on your studies. Thankyou.

Second research request from Trinity... They sure encourage their students to play on the computer. If only I had known!

Robin from Linden Lab has approved our class research. We have agreed not to publish anything that reveals names, even SecondLife names so this is a completely anonymous contribution, if you wish to participate. =)

-Kathryn

Back in my day, we got chastised for playing games in class. Or at the very least, asked to leave.

Kids today...

I would encourage all of you to help Kathryn with her project. Violence in games is very much a hot-button issue and any insight that you can contribute would be appriciated.

The class page has us organized by our research topics. If you're interested in contributing to any of the assignments please follow the links to get in contact with the student. The page can be found at:

http://www.trinity.edu/adelwich/worlds/students.html

Thanks for responding to our threads.

-Nick