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PhD Survey - Participants requested for Study about Griefing in MMORPGs


killerbree

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Thesis Title:

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

 

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

 

Hello,

 

My name is Leigh Achterbosch and I am a candidate for PhD 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/limesurvey/index.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 analyzed 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 endeavor. 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 @)

Edited by killerbree
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Why threads EXACTLY like this appear in every popular MMO thread, I don't know.

 

It's a really easy sociological study where you can compare meat-space to cyber-space interactions as part of the final product. Penny Arcade did a good summary for why generally anti-social behaviour exists - it's pretty much what you've already said (I won't link it - I can't remember off the top of my head whether the swearing was implied or present. Also I'm lazy and most everyone has seen the strip in question.)

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Ah, so you're doing this study because you're lazy.

 

That too, could be a reason you find so much anti-social behaviour online.

 

They're too lazy to go outside and travel the 10 yards to their neighbour's house to grief him/her face-to-face.

 

:D

Edited by CaptRavenous
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Ah, so you're doing this study because you're lazy.

 

Wouldn't say being a PhD candidate is lazy, that takes a lot of work, but yes the dissertation itself doesn't exactly seem like groundbreaking research. What is he going to find out that we don't already know? That underneath all that crude, cowardly behaviour is someone who wasn't hugged enough as a child? I doubt it somehow.

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If you want to know about griefing check out EVE online, that game is full of griefers ( including me). Once you play that game, over mmos seem simple compared to it ( I play both games, this one and EVE.) . The death mechanic in swtor is simple, you die, you rez, your ok. In EVE you die, you lose your stuff permmenently including your ship and you have to grind to get it back again. So I would recommend checking that mmo for your phd study.
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If you want to know about griefing check out EVE online, that game is full of griefers ( including me). Once you play that game, over mmos seem simple compared to it ( I play both games, this one and EVE.) . The death mechanic in swtor is simple, you die, you rez, your ok. In EVE you die, you lose your stuff permmenently including your ship and you have to grind to get it back again. So I would recommend checking that mmo for your phd study.

 

EVE also has about a tenth of the players SW:TOR has.

 

The game is dominated by the player-run empires on the outer rim of the EVE galaxy, and the PvE space is dominated by griefers.

 

There's not many people out there willing to pay money to be griefer-bait, which is why EVE has such a small player-base. Who the hell wants to pay money to grind endlessly for months, just to have all your work taken away by another player?

 

I have played EVE, tried playing it for a year. EVE is fail. Yes, its been around a long time, but its player base has never grown. Its dominated by well-established players, who pretty much run the game hand-in-hand with the devs thru their joke of a player-parliment.

 

I would only recommend EVE if you like frustration on a daily basis, or like being someone's (insert alternate name for female dog).

 

Don't get me wrong, its a beautifully graphic game, with a well thought-out game engine.

 

Too bad their PvE and PvP wasn't as well thought out. (Well, actually it is, if you are one of the big-boys that been playing there forever).

 

EVE isn't worth any monetary investment. They only put out ads to attract more griefer-bait to their servers to please their longtime players.

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EVE also has about a tenth of the players SW:TOR has.

 

The game is dominated by the player-run empires on the outer rim of the EVE galaxy, and the PvE space is dominated by griefers.

 

There's not many people out there willing to pay money to be griefer-bait, which is why EVE has such a small player-base. Who the hell wants to pay money to grind endlessly for months, just to have all your work taken away by another player?

 

I have played EVE, tried playing it for a year. EVE is fail. Yes, its been around a long time, but its player base has never grown. Its dominated by well-established players, who pretty much run the game hand-in-hand with the devs thru their joke of a player-parliment.

 

I would only recommend EVE if you like frustration on a daily basis, or like being someone's (insert alternate name for female dog).

 

Don't get me wrong, its a beautifully graphic game, with a well thought-out game engine.

 

Too bad their PvE and PvP wasn't as well thought out. (Well, actually it is, if you are one of the big-boys that been playing there forever).

 

EVE isn't worth any monetary investment. They only put out ads to attract more griefer-bait to their servers to please their longtime players.

 

Unfortunately your reply to me has nothing to do with the point of my original post. I was recommending EVE online for his phd study, BECAUSE it full of griefers. I was also explaining that greifing in EVE online is more fun because of the death mechanic. And to reply to your assertion that EVE online fails, that is your opinion. Im sorry you had a bad experience with the game, but don't ruin it for others. :)

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It's a really easy sociological study where you can compare meat-space to cyber-space interactions as part of the final product. Penny Arcade did a good summary for why generally anti-social behaviour exists - it's pretty much what you've already said (I won't link it - I can't remember off the top of my head whether the swearing was implied or present. Also I'm lazy and most everyone has seen the strip in question.)

 

Or you could work in a retail outlet for a few weeks (especially around the Christmas holiday time), and get all the information about society that you could ever hope for (and weep for all eternity).

 

BJ

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Causes? Really? You expect to be able to explain causal relationships? With a survey? at best you will only be able to summarize a bunch of peoples perceptions about griefing. Vast difference between that and a true casual analysis.
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And I do intend to summarize, etc. The main point of the survey is to get a over-arching point-of-view from 3 perspectives, griefer, victim and witness. A followup interview will help identify things in a more personal manner.
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Unfortunately your reply to me has nothing to do with the point of my original post. I was recommending EVE online for his phd study, BECAUSE it full of griefers. I was also explaining that greifing in EVE online is more fun because of the death mechanic. And to reply to your assertion that EVE online fails, that is your opinion. Im sorry you had a bad experience with the game, but don't ruin it for others. :)

 

My point was, he'd do better in an MMO with a larger player-base than EVE. In fact, World of Warcraft would be a far better choice than SW:TOR for such a study.

 

And no, didn't have a bad experience, just a really boring one.

I played for about 2 years, my brother-in-law joined me for a year.

I didn't die there in two years of gaming, never had to use a clone.

The grind is way too long, and boring. EVE online is a dinosaur back from when people thought that a person needed to work in a game for YEARS for any real payoff. With EVE, that years of work can be wiped away in an instant. EVE gave the same nod to PvE that Bioware gave to PvP and Space Combat, very little. EVE could attract a much bigger audience, if only they would develop the PvE more, but EVE is for PvPers and the devs don't seem to care much about developing PvE. Their choice.

 

It just doesn't scream fun. Its work. I play games for fun. I have a job to work. Not vice-versa.

While it is the best space MMO out currently, that's really not saying much.

For those that have worked for years there, built corporations, and gotten somewhere, that's great.

 

Unfortunately, because of the griefing and mistrustful atmosphere created by the fact that death has dire consequences, the game itself keeps a lot of new players away, added to the fact that most players these days are being lured towards MMOs where years of work is not necessary to see any benefits, its just a game unable to draw a fresh audience. Its a niche game for a niche audience.

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