Illness and Reflection

As some of you know, I recently struggled with a life-threatening medical condition as I completed my graduate program. The experience has changed me profoundly. For me, documenting the experience was part of the healing process. It was a way for me to understand and try to make sense of what happened. And I share it with others not for pity but because it is important that others know I am no longer the person I used to be.

The Daedalus Project took form the summer before I started at Stanford. Prior to that, reports were presented individually and the findings were becoming disorganized. The blog backend allowed me to manage and index the material as well as allowing for community input. It has been about 4 years since I started the Daedalus Project and I have recently completed my doctoral program. For me, this is a wonderful moment in time for me to reflect on all that has happened.

I look back on the work that has accumulated here over the years, and sometimes I too forget how much I've managed to accumulate. I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to create a line of research that I am passionate about and which many, many of you have also been interested in over the years. The Daedalus Project is the culmination of the thousands and thousands of responses from MMO players who have participated in the surveys over the years. It wasn't something that I could have done alone. This website is the culmination of a vibrant player community that wanted their voices heard without being distorted by researchers who had preconceived agendas. I am grateful to every one of the MMO players who took time out of their schedules to participate in the surveys. I am particularly grateful to those of who helped spread the word about the project especially as the number of MMOs grew over the years.

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