neils clark

Most of the people who know me well know that I love the Weekly World News, harbingers of pivotal cultural phrases, like “Experts say.” E.g., “Experts discover radioactive alleycats inhabiting Martian dumpsters.”

It’s a cool magazine and I just had to get that out of the way.

While I’ll assault those around me with the latest and greatest from the WWN, I’ve kind of been out of sight this last month while I pre-tested and collected data for a long exploratory study. Many of the factors tested were based off of literature review conducted after the M.A. thesis, in the process of writing a book on gaming addictions. The survey covered videogame immersion, socialization, game structures and factors which could influence addiction. Or so-called addiction. In some ways that remains to be seen. The respondents were either current or former World of Warcraft players.

Though most players know that gaming can be a major problem with some people, the link between their problems and addiction is still, in many ways, tenuous. My website has always used the word addiction, but my reasons for that are probably as complicated as the word itself. I overthink things to a degree that would probably give most people the illusion of being trapped in the ball pit.

So the factors being analyzed dealt less with the way we’ve been looking at excess gaming and more about factors like going “between worlds” or encouragement to play gotten by other players. Some of these were potentially pathologic, though most were not.

But before I talk more about it, the free open-source survey app I used: limesurvey, must be hailed as easy to use, dependable and, of course, amazing. I would recommend it without hesitation and nobody’s paying me to say it.

Back on topic, there is a lot of data. Enough to warrant writing “there is a lot of data” rather than using the contraction “there’s a lot of data.” You’d still have the italics, but it would be a completely different feel.

I is drowning in data.

So far it’s been relatively easy to eyeball the statistics. Key factors appear to be (for starters, anyway) the meaning that players attach to in-game relationships, raiding and raid-related communication and the applicability of Internet Addiction Disorder criteria. The most fulfilling and vexing, so far, have been the relationships that seemingly came out of nowhere. So right now I’m working on regressions for some blog bullet-points, the first set of those will be what this data says about our current way of measuring addiction. The plan is to fully analyze those before moving on to a game’s structure and culture, then finally “addiction factors.”

Finally, one last time I’d like to say that no online survey can diagnose addiction. The person who built mine (that would be me) isn’t qualified to diagnose addiction either. Addiction is complicated. The people who diagnose it in individuals pull that insight from more than just quick and quippy questions. If you took the survey and have questions, then emailing through this blog is a great way to get a hold of me. That said, my sincere thanks to any and all who participated. And anyone whose been interested enough to keep reading.

Neils Clark :: Jun.30.2008 :: Game Addiction, Games, General, Media Experience, Neils' Gaming Journal, Real Men Write Poetry. True Story., Research :: No Comments »

Don’t let the epic flying mount fool you, I have a life.

But since I wanted to see about defending MMO games using some Richard Bartle quotes, I decided to go back to what he said at the [State of Play V]. I transcribed most of his talk at the Building Virtual Worlds panel, and I wanted to make that available for people who might want the near-exact text. The full .doc file is available [here]. The video is available [here] via a time capsule.

He discusses the knowledge needed to build the first virtual world, what he’s excited about for the future, and his worries about that future.

And if you know what the hell he was talking about with and gates and or gates, then tell me. I put those in parentheses, given that for all I know he could have said play’n gates and roar gates (thanks robustyoungsoul of Soul Kerfuffle for clarifying these as AND OR and NOT gates - terms from electrical engineering). The rest of it is pretty solid. Really, it is.

Thanks also to Bartle, who clarified [here]. The text below has been updated. Focus group testing showed it to be 2x as convoluted, so good times there.

Click the continue reading thing if you want to read it on html, and not the .doc linked above.

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Neils Clark :: Oct.10.2007 :: Games, Research :: 3 Comments »

Sampling is the time-honored art of getting the right people to talk to you. If you can ask questions of a group of people that accurately represent the group you’re looking to understand, then their answers are said to be representative of the whole. Let’s just say that if you had twenty people who, by some act of magic, accurately represented all of America, then you could make a lot of money.

But it usually doesn’t work like that.

I represent all puppies everywhere. Trust me.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks to studies of “game addiction” has been sampling. The investigators ask groups of college freshmen what they think about videogames, and not every gamer is a college freshman. The ESA believes that the average and mean ages for gamers are wandering around 25 and 30. While it’d be interesting to see how they sampled for that, and the questions that they asked, not every gamer is going to college. It’s also not always ethical to ask every gamer, since there are strict rules for polling minors.

Nick Yee (now with the snazzy Ph.D., gratz) has been getting a lot of impressive data over the years, most especially during the times of EverQuest, DAoC, SWG and the like, and has polled tens of thousands of gamers. The data that he got was crucial to painting our first picture of who plays, and because Dr. Yee’s Daedalus project is still our best connection to changing populations, should probably be explicitly funded so as to keep going. His project has gone on for many years, and again, it nearly single-handedly painted the statistical pictures that we do have. The gamers who frequent his surveys really ought to be lauded, and encouraged to keep visiting.

At the same time, some types of gamers don’t seek out websites on player motivations. Ted Castronova has been calling on game companies to open up statistical data for research use. While his focus is Economics, and I’m guessing that he’s probably most interested in seeing how some of the economical systems work, this would be an integral slice to the understanding pie. The PARC Play On Center, in a project also headed by Yee, actually used World of Warcraft’s UI to gather data, like how players name their characters. There’s no doubt that we can use this kind of data, and use it to paint some pictures of how much people play, but there are some limitations.

This data is server-side, and it only tells us so much about what happens on the other side of the screen. In going through some of my old neuroscience notes (and sorry I haven’t been posting lately, it’s been crazy insane writing time), I stumbled across some of my notes from sampling inside of games. See, when I did my Master’s thesis I actually wanted to test a method for going into games and getting a representative sample. Rather than rely on people finding websites, or only server-side data, I wanted to create a method whereby you could create generalizeable results. That is, get numbers which actually represented all gamers, everywhere.

It’s hard. Especially when you’re doing it on your own with no budget and an overloaded schedule of graduate courses. There were serious technical, but also ethical constraints. And those could fill a few volumes. I discuss it a little bit in my thesis, though it’s something I’m planning on developing better during or before I head back to school for a Ph.D. This is all really just a long introduction for some fun quotes that illustrate two points that I’m getting at:

I have a lot of notes on scientific sampling inside of MMO games. I also ran into a lot of basic stumbling blocks, and not all of them are in my thesis. But I’ve got to get back to my real work, so without further adieu, just a few of the quotes that I got permission to reproduce. These come from a range of MMO games, from DAoC and WoW, to SWG and EQ2.

Some people were very interested in addiction and player motivations, even had informed opinions on why academics needed a better understanding of gamer psychology, but they had no desire to participate.

“sorry I play so much and am so in the game that never do something else and dont have time with this survey”

“I am aware of my fixation on videogames and wish you luck in your survey but am uninterested in participating in your study. Thank you for asking and good luck.”

“Videogame research?” Yeah, I’ll bet.

There’s an inherent fear of viruses, defamation and effort:

“if its a virus or something ill bonk you ! not in the british way tho”

“kk” then “nvm (nevermind) I thought u were just going to ask me in game” then “dont go to websites idk (I don’t know)”

Some people frequent outside sites heavily, even (or especially) when not playing.

“I couldn’t stay away even if I wasn’t playing…checked the forums a couple of times each week”

One player was initially infuriated, and very intent on having my account permanently banned. After earnestly apologizing, he opened up.

“you know soe (Sony Online Entertainment, publishers of the MMO games EverQuest and Star Wars Galaxies) thinks of this as spam and you should be reported” then “you did not offend me but what dose this have to do with star wars” then “to make this short I no longer work and I play this game almost all day every day for over a year now” then “I would be playing table top star wars rp if I did not have this” then “I used to table top 30 hours a week”

Neils Clark :: Oct.07.2007 :: Game Addiction, Research :: 3 Comments »

There’s a lot of talk in the video game research arena about education. Among many other projects, we’ve got people looking at how games intersect with public diplomacy, how MMO games foster learning, and a major program to prove that poker can be an educational tool. Some of it’s spontaneous, and some benefits from 50 million in grant money set aside by large granting agencies, the MacArthur foundation in particular.

The following idea is something that I want to record, mostly just so that I don’t forget it. I’ve been writing a lot, lately, and sometimes that can cause a person to loose these ideas. It starts out with a simple anecdote:

My sister is an amazing ceramic artist and glass-blower. In order to learn these skills, she’s had to study with countless expert ceramic artists and glass makers. She’s also had to perfect her own styles, and like many master craftsman may never be able to preserve (assuming that she would want to) the knowledge of her process. A book can record words, and it can hold ideas, but there’s a strict limitation to how much it can show us about the process of a thing.

One branch of videogame technology could be the preservation of knowledge which might have otherwise died out. Through a dynamic interface and next-gen input devices (think the Wii), we could present audio and visual from great masters, and they could teach skills of enormous historical, cultural, and practical significance.

Imagine being able to watch and perform the art of ancient Japanese swordmaking, as the great masters once practiced. There’s little doubt that they’d be reticent to digitize their craft, many would likely see it as a pursuit only for those willing to give to it a part of themselves. For many other activities and process-based knowledge, and learning, we could use this technology to preserve and teach in ways which have heretofore been impossible.

Thoughts?

Neils Clark :: Sep.30.2007 :: Games, Research :: 1 Comment »

[Slashdot.org] actually had a go at my article on how gamers go between worlds, which finally saw the light of day this Wednesday. This is great, in my view, because it gives us all a wealth of feedback on how people are moving game to game. Or game to gym.

As an aside, the editors named it, [The Academics Speak: Is There Life After World Of Warcraft?] as opposed to All or Nothing Game? Both are good word-plays, but I think that bringing WoW directly into it was a good call. You can trust the fanbois to take it to that whole other level. I’ll talk more on this once I’m off my post-travel blargh.

Neils Clark :: Sep.14.2007 :: Games, Research :: 1 Comment »

This Monday I met with game effects researchers from two key Singaporean universities, Angie Khoo of Nanyang Technological University, and Timothy Sim of the National University of Singapore. From my take on our conversations, it sounds like their team is on the absolute right track. Rather than jump to conclusions, or use some of the faulty reasoning that’s been the backdrop of game studies in the hard sciences, this team is coming to some of the conclusions essential to building a real foundation for good research. It’s a very, very good thing.

But I might have been biased. It was pretty nifty to see a copy of my addiction thesis that I didn’t print out myself. Some kind of weird cross between gratification and surprise, though we did cover a bit of its content.

Overall, it’s kind of exciting to be having, like, power lunches and stuff.

Neils Clark :: Sep.12.2007 :: Game Addiction, Research :: 4 Comments »

So, yeah. I visited some more gaming cafés. It was really only going to be the Cineleisure complex, noted by locals as one of the best – but a string of seemingly unfortunate mishaps had me wandering the streets of Singapore until the sun came up.

One caveat: I don’t think that Part 2 here is as entertaining as Part 1. If I edit stuff up, I may change this caveat - but ye be warned.

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Neils Clark :: Sep.08.2007 :: Games, Research :: 5 Comments »

This morning, Slashdot was linking a wired magazine columnist with an interesting point: these relationships affect people, whether or not we think that they’re “real.”

[Click here for it]

This actually has a number of implications for what we’re calling “addiction.”

The article highlights our need, rooted in (among other things) a fear of the technology, to justify dismissing games. You can call them fake, or an addiction, or anything else, but in the end these games affect us.

And while the effects could be profoundly good or bad, dismissing games altogether keeps us from being able to take action. It keeps us from being able to see what exactly is bad. The best example of this is research into whether games make us obese. Essentially, some of it looks at two things. 1) are you obese? (yes/no). 2) do you play games? (yes/no). This is going to be a lot less helpful than looking at the underlying factors which actually have an influence on gamer nutrition. And the things influencing this stuff can cause a gamer to fatten up, but also to become dangerously underweight. In our rush to dismiss, in this case, we’re moving backwards on two fronts: ignoring the factors which could help us to understand and improve how people play, but also popularizing lazy, oversimplified, negligent research.

And yeah, this problem is happening in addiction research - with potentially devestating impacts.

These games, coming soon, will affect everyone. We’ll want them to, because they’re going to give us something we’ve never had before.

But I’m on vacation, so I’ll finish this thought later. After I write up last night’s adventures in gaming cafes.

Neils Clark :: Sep.08.2007 :: Games, Research :: No Comments »

Tonight I’m lucky enough to be staying in a guest house with a serious Malaysian gamer, Evan. He’s got the perfect job for it – he mans the night shift and has constant access to a computer. While we’re in the middle of Malaysia’s capitol, KL (Kuala Lumpur), and not one of the residential areas where you’d find serious gaming cafes, Evan was really cool about answering a bunch of my questions about how games are played throughout the country.

Gaming Skill and Fistfights

If you start playing with gamers you’ve never met, and you’re not in your home café, then people are going to expect you to be good. He said, “We use the term noob.” Unlike some of the other places I’ve gamed, noob has serious derogatory connotations. As with Flo Chee’s work on Wang-tta, the Korean concept for the “weakest link” on a gaming team, there are serious consequences for playing out of your league.

Games like Starcraft and Counter-Strike are popular, but reserved for the truly elite players. “If you’re on a team with somebody that you’ve never played with before, and you screw it up, then expect somebody to walk up to you and scream in your face.” Said Evan. “That’s when the fistfight will start.” Sometimes it won’t be so brutal, and poor players, or less than sporting players will simply be removed from the game.

Game Localization and Micro-transactions

There’s also a serious MMO/online gaming scene. As with a number of Asian games, rather than charge a monthly fee, they operate on micro-transactions. Players will spend smaller amounts of money on powerful items or weapons. “People all want to be in that elite upper group.” Said Evan. “I’ve spent 13,000 Ringit ($3,713) on my character.” He then noted that most people won’t want to leave after that. They’ve spent too much time and money to switch games. It also seems to make sense that with the intense emphasis on performance, that starting from scratch with a new game may not appeal to very many people who are already accomplished

His game of choice, “Risk Your Life,” was originally from South Korea - where it went bankrupt. A Taiwanese company then purchased it, and a Malaysian company then started to run a server of the game. Maybe I’m the only one fascinated by this. Maybe.

Thailand as an Aside

Some other backpackers who’d recently been to Bangkok mentioned the intensity of playing in the city itself. This reminded me of the ethnographies done by my friend Dr. Aaron Delwiche, who spent a month each in Chiang Mai and Bangkok. According to the backpackers, some cafes fill up entire levels in shopping malls, providing hundreds of computers for gaming, and a number of sectioned-off rooms with televisions and couches, made for groups of people to relax with friends. One backpacker noted that these massive cafes were, “Absolutely full of boys having fun.”

Cool. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to see some Malay and Singaporean cafes firsthand.

Neils Clark :: Sep.01.2007 :: Games, Research :: No Comments »

I was grabbing some extra info on the SoP when I stumbled upon Nic Suzor’s blog. He has some great thoughts on the panels, and on some of what was happening behind the scenes. If you’re interested in getting more on the academic conversations at SoP, then check his blog [here].

Neils Clark :: Aug.26.2007 :: General, Research :: 3 Comments »