PhD Survey - Participants requested for Study about Griefing in MMORPGs

[thelute]

Thesis Title:
Causes, Magnitude and Implications of Griefing in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games

http://medusa.ballarat.edu.au/limesu....php?sid=44463

Hello,

My name is Leigh Achterbosch and I am a candidate for the Doctorate of Philosophy at the University of Ballarat, Australia. I am inviting you to participate in a study about the act of griefing and its implications in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs). This is one of many invitations posted on various MMORPG and online game forums. This research will explore the following questions; what are the causes and implications of griefing in MMORPGs, and what magnitude of griefing exists in this genre? The intention is to contribute new research and knowledge about griefing and its sociological impact.

The study will involve an online survey for participants of the ages 16 and above. This survey will cover your experiences as someone that has performed griefing, been subjected to griefing, or as a witness to the acts of griefing.

You are invited to participate by following the link http://medusa.ballarat.edu.au/limesu....php?sid=44463 and completing the questionnaire that will take approximately 20 minutes of your time (You can save and reload unfinished surveys should you require). You will remain anonymous by completing this survey. The online survey will remain open until an appropriate sample size is collected. I will repost here when the survey has closed. At some point in the future when data has been collated and analysed I will repost with some preliminary results in this forum thread.

I would like to thank you up front for any time you allocate towards this research endeavour. Feel free to spread this survey link around!

Yours sincerely,
Leigh Achterbosch
PhD Candidate
University of Ballarat, Australia
lacherbosch [AT] ballarat.edu.au (please replace AT with @)

[anveena]

Filled it out. Hope you get the info you're looking for.

[thelute]

Appreciate it, and anyone else who does so.

[MLX]

Filled one out lol, though you may not like the fact that I spoke my mind, hope it doesnt screw up your study.

[Ginger Ale]

Appreciate it, and anyone else who does so.

*The following have all been identified as forms of griefing in the past by academics

Really? What academics have done so. Please cite the reference.

Secondly, you need to expand your survey as there a lot of people including myself that don't believe in the construct of "greifing".


The term "griefing" is nothing more than a vague description that could encompasse anything someone who felt "victimized" in a MMO to feel.

How many times have people made "OMGZ I WAS GRIEFED" when their example was someone killing a rare pet they wanted to tame, or when someone rolled on an item that they wanted, or killed them while they leveled, or they got kicked out of a guild?

Yes, there is harassment in the game in the form of whispers, or chat using vulgarities or repeated unwanted contact, yes there is "scamming" in the game, but outside of those few examples there really isn't any "griefing" ever occurring. Just overly emotional unbalanced players who cry "griefing" every step of the way with a victimization attitude.

[vindicatorx]

Filled it out also, don't really see the significance of this study in regards to Philosophy. I agree with ginger I don't like the term griefing. Instead of making up a word just call it what is is harassment. It's part of the game, if you take that much offense to it I imagine it is the least of your problems.

[icedwarrior]

Filled it out, hope it helps.

I just want to say that while I understand your desire to encompass anything and everything you can think of in the subject (or so it seems), you would get more responses if you made it shorter. I'm not going to lie -- at the end, my desire to finish it was minimal.

[thelute]

[/COLOR]

*The following have all been identified as forms of griefing in the past by academics

Really? What academics have done so. Please cite the reference.

This academic http://www.chekyang.com/research/ has done some interesting studies on griefing, plus many more that usually focus on the griefer / bully / harasser and not the subject of their actions.

[karydas]

What if i grief your griefing study?? Griefception :O
I answered all the questions, waiting for the resaults of your research!

[Palmatum]

Doing it now, all the best.

[George]

Done! Good luck with your study and I am waiting for the results.

[MLX]

What if i grief your griefing study?? Griefception :O
I answered all the questions, waiting for the resaults of your research!

I'd like to offer a rounded definition of what you're calling "griefing."

Griefing is an effect initiated emotionally by the recipient, of yet to be defined action, resulting in overt, acted out emotional response on the part of said recipient. The recipient finds itself unable to successfully adapt to a situation in a gaming context. To blame the supposed antagonist in this scenario is to absolve the "recipient" of all responsibility, which is obviously in error. The recipient in this case is placing more value on what it perceives as intent, rather than action.

[Deleted]

I played a lot from 2007 to a week before cata (dec 2010) so my answers are what I did during that time (when the option that states do isn't present).

[thelute]

What if i grief your griefing study?? Griefception :O
I answered all the questions, waiting for the resaults of your research!

haha, I fully expect some griefing of this topic!

[Runeforged]

Haven't played in a while, hope that's alright.

[S Blieft]

Filled it out. Best of luck to you!

[kosuko]

"If you do not agree with any statements do not select any. If you agree with just one or two, please just select those statements."

When selecting less than 3 statements we get a "this question is mandatory" warning.

Also, what is the main structure of your PhD research? Is it focused on grieving/bullying or more on online behavior?

[Deleted]

It takes so freaking long to fill it in, I hardly have the will to do it... you should really consider making them a bit shorter next time.

[lonerwolfkin]

posted. i hope it helps ^^ also i would love to see the final results of the research

[Syfy]

A really really long but interesting survey, filled.