Second Life Personality and Motivation Study

Hello SL residents!

We are researchers from the University of Texas at Austin, and we are conducting a study on the personalities and motivations of people in online communities. We’re interested in your thoughts, motivations, and experiences within the world. We would like you to participate in our study: a short 10-15 minute online survey of your personality and reasons for playing SL. All participants will receive immediate feedback on their personality according to the established Big Five personality scale.

All of your survey data will be kept confidential and we will never ask for your real name or identifying information. All participants will also be entered into a lottery for in game currency. Four prizes of 2000 Linden will be awarded. Four participants will be randomly selected to be awarded this prize.

Those who are interested can follow the link below to participate in the study. If you have any questions about the study you can also e-mail us at the following address:
"WoW-SL-study@gmail.com". Thank you very much for your time and interest!

Survey Link: www.oldsmarfire.com/survey

-Austin Harley
-Lindsay Covington

Too bad SL isn't a game lol.

Well, yes that's true. Virtual world or online virtual community is a better term.

at the way sl is going honestly classifying it as an online community the same as WoW etc its probably not a good thing as there are far to many businesses involved now since its attempting to morph into a 3D version of the internet if you looking at WoW the reasons for playing WoW are going to be a whole lot different then the sets of reasons for playing SL because for more and more new players its less "play" and more work with possibly some recreation time squeezed in there somewhere.

if yourl ooking at games and online communities for those hit up all the sony games and games like ryzom and lineage and tabula rosa etc SL does not compare to WoW and would give odd results if your researching SL for the same reason your reasearching WoW putting both of them in the same class its not gonna work

We have land broker firms here like Coldwell banker, real world layers practicing internet law , h&r block giving tax advice , IBM, Nissan, police forces, univerisities, policians and all there reasons have nothing to do with what motivates people to play a game

its like apples and oranges

I completely agree with you all, for what was said initially it was honestly a copy and paste mistake So kind of a big oops on my part.

But what you bring up is an interesting point, SL isn't really a game. You know this, and I do, but my experience is that there are a great many people who don't. When I talk about SL with others one of the first things that is brought up is "What kind of game is it?". It's at this point I have to try and describe everything SL is, and how it's not a game. How there is no leveling, no over-arching goal, no raiding etc. Usually the point comes across fairly easily when I talk about rock concerts in SL or political campaigns finding a home in the virtual community.


At the core this is what makes SL so interesting to me, it's a massive virtual community that isn't really a game, and that differentiates it from so many things out there. In the end I come back to the same simple yet exciting questions, who and why

Thanks for posting about this, it keeps me thinking.