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How You Can Help:
- Post a message on your community forum or message board about the findings.
- Create a link to "The Daedalus Project": http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/
- Add a link to The Daedalus Project in your forum signature.
As usual, your comments and feedback are most welcome. Any questions should be directed to contact@nickyee.com
The Daedalus Project began about 4 years ago while I was still working in Chicago and just about to transition to grad school at Stanford. Now, 4 years later, I'm about 3 months away from finishing my dissertation. I'd like to thank those of you who have participated in this study. The Daedalus Project would not be possible without you.
How You Can Help:
- Post a message on your community forum or message board about the findings.
- Create a link to "The Daedalus Project": http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/
- Add a link to The Daedalus Project in your forum signature.
As usual, your comments and feedback are most welcome. Any questions should be directed to contact@nickyee.com
Thanks to all of you who help spread the word of this site and those who continue to participate in the surveys. I really do appreciate it. As always, feel free to drop me a note here or email at contact@nickyee.com
How You Can Help:
- Post a message on your community forum or message board about the findings.
- Create a link to "The Daedalus Project": http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/
- Add a link to The Daedalus Project in your forum signature.
As usual, your comments and feedback are most welcome. Any questions should be directed to contact@nickyee.com
I've just completed my area exam, which is the last bureaucratic hurdle before the dissertation proposal meeting (yet another bureaucratic hurdle). I've been so busy I've hardly been able to log into WoW, but have spent some time in the BGs since the new cross-realm patch. I also picked up a Nintendo DS recently (semi-impulse buy) and have been playing Fire Emblem (GBA version) a lot. Old-school turn-based strategy can be so satisfying ...
Thanks to all of you who help spread the word of this site and those who continue to participate in the surveys. I really do appreciate it. As always, feel free to drop me a note here or email at contact@nickyee.com
How You Can Help:
- Post a message on your community forum or message board about the findings.
- Create a link to "The Daedalus Project": http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/
- Add a link to The Daedalus Project in your forum signature.
As usual, your comments and feedback are most welcome. Any questions should be directed to contact@nickyee.com
Thanks to all of you who help spread the word of this site and those who continue to participate in the surveys. I really do appreciate it. As always, feel free to drop me a note here or email at contact@nickyee.com
How You Can Help:
- Post a message on your community forum or message board about the findings.
- Create a link to "The Daedalus Project": http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/
- Add a link to The Daedalus Project in your forum signature.
As usual, your comments and feedback are most welcome. Any questions should be directed to contact@nickyee.com
I thought I would have been able to get this issue out sooner, but I picked up a copy of Civ 4. If you think WoW is dangerous, Civ 4 is lethal. The "just one more turn" hook is amazing and they revamped some very important game mechanics and got them right this time. So this issue came out a little later because of that just in time for the 3 year mark.
As always, feel free to drop me a note here or email at contact@nickyee.com
How You Can Help:
- Post a message on your community forum or message board about the findings.
- Create a link to "The Daedalus Project": http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/
- Add a link to The Daedalus Project in your forum signature.
As usual, your comments and feedback are most welcome. Any questions should be directed to contact@nickyee.com
I'm glad I finally got around to reskinning the site. I hope you all like the new look. There's a lot of content in this issue - both quantitative and qualitative - and also some interactive pieces. It struck me particularly in this issue how it's fun to make research interactive - to provide ways for readers to engage with the data. I hope you find the motivations profile browser interesting.
As always, I really do appreciate those of you who participate in these surveys as well as those who help spread word of this project. Feel free to drop me a note here or email at contact@nickyee.com
How You Can Help:
- Post a message on your community forum or message board about the findings.
- Create a link to "The Daedalus Project": http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/
As usual, your comments and feedback are most welcome. Any questions should be directed to contact@nickyee.com
Took a 2 week vacation in Hong Kong (where I grew up) over the holidays. One thing that surprised me was that they sold MMORPGs at the 7-Elevens there. These are local MMORPGs + RO + Lineage 2. The local MMORPGs appeared to be much more simplistic than the ones we're used to (imagine Ragnarok Online but even simpler), but there were at least 7-8 of them on one shelf dedicated to MMORPG boxes + the game cards.
School just started again last week, and I'm TAing for the first time this quarter - a class on human representation in virtual reality. Wish me luck :)
As always, I really do appreciate those of you who participate in these surveys as well as those who help spread word of this project. Feel free to drop me a note here or email at contact@nickyee.com
How You Can Help:
- Post a message on your community forum or message board about the findings.
- Create a link to "The Daedalus Project": http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/
As usual, your comments and feedback are most welcome. Any questions should be directed to contact@nickyee.com
Just started second year of grad school two weeks ago. Research and everything else is picking up pace and is just a little bit crazy, but in a good way ... I think.
But I'm delighted you're all still interested in this ongoing study that began as a seminar project in the Fall of 1999. As always, your continued participation is greatly appreciated.
How You Can Help:
- Post a message on your community forum or message board about the findings.
- Create a link to "The Daedalus Project": http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/
As usual, your comments and feedback are most welcome. Any questions should be directed to contact@nickyee.com
I've included some essays in this issue reflecting on some of the broader issues in MMORPGs and video gaming in general. I would really enjoy hearing your comments on them and your reactions to them.
This first year of grad school is going well. It's really nice to feel your brain going into higher gears and being engaged.
It feels great to be back in school again after working for almost 2 years. Being in a seminar with a good prof is so satisfying. I’m also finally in the right place and context to write up some of my data for submission to journals. The task of crystallizing the most important findings from 3 years of online surveys will be challenging and rewarding.
And for all those of you who participate in these surveys, those who discuss the findings on other message boards, or those of you who help publicize the surveys, I just want to express my appreciation for your help because the support from the community is so important in these studies.
This issue focuses more on how different game elements or genres appeal to different people – focusing on gender and age differences. The combined big picture is quite interesting.
Now that I'm at Stanford, I need IRB approval for research on human subjects even with the minimal risks involved with online surveys, but it's a required formality. So I have a protocol proposal pending for the surveys, and as soon as that is approved, I'll start doing the surveys again - hopefully at the beginning of December.
How You Can Help:
- Post a message on your community forum or message board about the findings.
- Create a link to "The Daedalus Project": http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/
- Create a link to "the HUB": http://www.nickyee.com/hub/
As usual, your comments and feedback are most welcome. Any questions should be directed to contact@nickyee.com
Great snippet from a forum:
avery: You know how when you're in a fight, and you die, and you don't think you should have, and you get really pissed and yell obscenities at the computer?
darrien: Yeah?
avery: I like making other people do that
darrien: You need help.
Ah - the sixth issue and only another 19 days to day to go before grad school starts. Shortly after the last issue was released, I went to pick up a copy of Star Wars Galaxies to try out. That contributed to why this issue came out later than usual :)
In any case, I'm a Wookie pharmaceutical manufacturer with enough combat skills to display the "Battlemaster" tag from the Swordsman line. There are still some bugs in the game, but overall I think they did a lot of innovative things. I really like the flexible skill system, and I like the viability of the non-combat professions. Grinding crafting is still a lot of grinding, but crafting is much more complex and involved (in a good way I think).
One thing that is impressive to see working to some extent is the closed player economy. NPC merchants neither sell nor buy any weapons, armor or base resources. It's all player supplied. I feel my server is going through chaotic inflation right now, but the economy is working better than any other game I've tried, and I think there will be high-level money sinks soon.
(And for all the cynical readers out there - No, Sony did not pay me to say this)
How You Can Help:
- Participate in the current survey: http://www.nickyee.com/mmorpg/ques.phase10.html
- Post a message on your community forum or message board about the findings and survey.
- Create a link to "The Daedalus Project": http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/
- Create a link to "the HUB": http://www.nickyee.com/hub/
As usual, your comments and feedback are most welcome. Any questions should be directed to contact@nickyee.com
So I'm finally in the Bay Area in California, getting all settled in before grad school starts in the Fall. A friend and I drove my Toyota Corolla from Chicago to Palo Alto. It took us 33 hours to do the entire trip, including all the stops we made. I don't think I ever appreciated my more thrill-seeking and high energy friends until I realized how handy they are when you have to do long drives like these. But it was so jarring to leave Chicago at 4am on Friday and then get to Palo Alto the next morning at 11am. It felt like the drive took so much longer than that.
In terms of the MMORPG research, I've become slightly more interested in the qualitative narratives because they are so rich and players seem so willing to share their experiences. I think I go through quantitative and qualitative phases as my past presentations can attest to. So the bulk of this issue consists of player narratives and 2 essays on envisioning what MMORPGs might become in the near future.
How You Can Help:
- Participate in the current survey: http://www.nickyee.com/mmorpg/ques.phase10.html
- Post a message on your community forum or message board about the findings and survey.
- Create a link to "The Daedalus Project": http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/
- Create a link to "the HUB": http://www.nickyee.com/hub/
As usual, your comments and feedback are most welcome. Any questions should be directed to contact@nickyee.com
Support the MMORPG Study
I'm not sure whether I could have foreseen how far I have come in doing these online surveys when I started this during my sophomore year in college. I've learned a lot about MMORPGs as well as how to carry out user surveys online. And a lot has changed over the past 3 years - I've since graduated, moved to Chicago, worked for a Tech R&D group, got into grad school, and am now preparing to move to Palo Alto to begin my new life as a grad student.
Ever since I began reporting my findings online, I've never found any comparable publicly available source of information on the demographics, behavior or psychology of MMORPG players. A lot of time and effort has gone into collecting, analyzing and providing these publicly available resources. Almost all of the research presented within these pages was performed independently - outside of any academic or commercial setting. While this was feasible to do on the side while working full-time, the financial realities of being a grad student is a different story.
I'd like to keep these pages free of advertisements, and I'd like to continue carrying out this line of research and presenting the findings back to the community. If you feel that what I am doing and providing here is worthwhile, informative or interesting, please consider contributing in support of this research. Every donation helps.
How You Can Help:
- Participate in the current survey: http://www.nickyee.com/mmorpg/main.html
- Post a message on your community forum or message board about the findings and survey.
- Create a link to "The Daedalus Project": http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/
- Create a link to "the HUB": http://www.nickyee.com/hub/
I finally found out what was causing the erratic page cut-off that some of you may have experienced here. It apparently is caused by an IE6 bug (go figure), and has a very straight-forward quick fix. Another one of life greatest dilemma's has been solved :)
I also integrated the MT-Paginate plug-in, which allows pagination of a long entry over multiple pages. This makes the longer entries look less daunting to read. I think the page-flipping metaphor makes the experience more pleasant by simulating progress, while one long webpage just feels daunting.
I'm also picking up some PHP and MySQL skills (which I think will come in handy) and it'll let me create interactive components here as well as in the surveys themselves.
I’m hoping that the first and second issue form the main hump of getting The Daedalus Project going – the first issue is hard because of having to lay the groundwork, and the second is hard because it shows whether I have enough content to keep the issues going. And I hope that The Daedalus Project is something that you find useful, informative, or entertaining.
I really do appreciate those of you who have given me support and positive comments over the past 3 years. This is truly something I could not have done without the support of the player community and the webmasters of high-profile web portals. Your participation is literally what keeps all this going. And your continued participation is a reflection of the relevance and value of this research.
I have recently been accepted to a PhD program in Communication at Stanford, where I will be able to continue my MMO research. I will be working with people who are both social-science-minded and tech-savvy, which is very difficult to find out there. Traditional psychologists don’t have a vocabulary for talking about computer games (except for violence and aggression it seems), and traditional CS/HCI departments are not grounded enough in social-science to ask the relevant social and psychological questions.
It feels really good to be able to pursue something that began 3 years ago as a small online survey, and it feels really good for all this to come together in the way that it has. My online research in MMORPGs led me to a job opportunity with Accenture Technology Labs 2 years ago, numerous interviews with print and news media, and this forthcoming academic career at Stanford. The Internet truly can empower individuals who tap its potential.
Again, I would like to express my gratitude to all those individuals who have supported my research in the past, those who continue to participate in my surveys, and those who took the time to email me positive comments and constructive feedback. Thank you for being a part of this. And I hope you continue to follow my research as I turn a new and exciting page in my academic career.
How You Can Help:
- Participate in the current survey: http://www.nickyee.com/mmorpg/main.html
- Post a message on your community forum or message board about the findings and survey.
- Create a link to "The Daedalus Project": http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/
- Create a link to "the HUB": http://www.nickyee.com/hub/
Motivation for The Daedalus Project
It's hard to believe that I've been doing these online surveys and presenting the findings for almost 3 years now. Over the course of the past 3 years, I have surveyed over 25,000 MMORPG players, and covered issues ranging from demographics to gender and personality differences, from motivation to addiction, from gender-bending to how these virtual worlds can help people grow.
I see "The Daedalus Project" as a way to present findings in a more direct and accessible format. Instead of a full-length presentation with introduction and discussion, the entries at "The Daedalus Project" are short, concise and to-the-point. "The Daedalus Project" isn't a replacement for the fuller presentations, but instead, it provides a channel for me to publish findings that don’t fit directly into those presentations.
The weblog format allows me to quickly update the information here, and it is all automatically archived, and searchable. Furthermore, readers can make full use of the commenting and trackback features.
I’m also interested in trying to build a more dynamic community around this research, both to facilitate respondent rate when I run surveys, as well as to be tied closer to the player community.
How Do I Subscribe?
The subscription mailing list to "The Daedalus Project" is the same one as the "Online MMORPG Study list", so there is no separate list to subscribe to if you are already on the "Online MMORPG Study" list. I’m hoping that I can put out a new issue every month.
How You Can Help
You can help my research by telling your MMORPG friends and guildmates about this site. If you are part of a message board or forum community, please consider posting a link to either the HUB or The Daedalus Project.
I am interested in your other available presentations on the HUB. But there's so much. Where do I start?
If you are not an MMORPG player, I would recommend starting with Mosaic, which discusses how the virtual lives and identities of players affect their real lives and identities.
If you are interested in demographic information, I would recommend this page at The Norrathian Scrolls which focuses on EQ players, and this page in Codename Blue which includes players from 5 MMORPGs.
If you are interested in learning about addiction, I would recommend the full presentation Ariadne, and these pages at The Norrathian Scrolls (narratives and essay).
If you are interested in learning about the different motivations for why people play, I would recommend the Facets study.
If you are interested in how men and women play the game differently, I would begin with this essay.