1
Research in Minecraft - Help is needed
nomad_moogle
Hello,
My name is Panos (or nomad_moogle, as my user name suggests) and I am a PhD student. My research is focused on games with user-generated content elements in them and, obviously, Minecraft is one of the games that I am investigating.
Some of you may be familiar with traditional science experiments that involve controlled environments, creepy researchers asking participants to do silly stuff and boring them with time consuming and uninteresting tasks (I once fell asleep while participating in an experiment).
Well my research is not of that sort. My studies are going be observational, which means that I just need to play the game and watch others playing it. In short, my aim is to develop an understanding of the Minecraft community and of what it consists of.
The thing is… I need people who would be willing to help me. As you may understand, this includes nothing more than just playing the game with me present. The only requirement is that my participants are at least 18 years old (University rules apply here unfortunately, if it was up to me, I would go for a broader sample).
If you are interested, please send me a pm. I can fill you in with what is involved in the process. Of course, feel free to post anything here, in case you have any questions about my research .
Cheers,
Panos
My name is Panos (or nomad_moogle, as my user name suggests) and I am a PhD student. My research is focused on games with user-generated content elements in them and, obviously, Minecraft is one of the games that I am investigating.
Some of you may be familiar with traditional science experiments that involve controlled environments, creepy researchers asking participants to do silly stuff and boring them with time consuming and uninteresting tasks (I once fell asleep while participating in an experiment).
Well my research is not of that sort. My studies are going be observational, which means that I just need to play the game and watch others playing it. In short, my aim is to develop an understanding of the Minecraft community and of what it consists of.
The thing is… I need people who would be willing to help me. As you may understand, this includes nothing more than just playing the game with me present. The only requirement is that my participants are at least 18 years old (University rules apply here unfortunately, if it was up to me, I would go for a broader sample).
If you are interested, please send me a pm. I can fill you in with what is involved in the process. Of course, feel free to post anything here, in case you have any questions about my research .
Cheers,
Panos
Create an account or sign in to comment.
3
1
Thanks guys for the replies. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to do that, as it would not be scientifically valid (let's say) to just go there and observe. It would bypass the University rules, as I need consent from the people that are taking part in it.
User-generated content is a broad term that includes everything that someone creates - even the in-game content that is the essence of Minecraft. Mods is another category of user-generated content that is not of so much importance to my research (for various reasons) - at least for now.
EsvDefcon I would really much like to join your server, but we would need to discuss a few matters before doing that. I would really appreciate any help . We could also arrange for a play session if you would be up for that.
If anyone else is interested, please do let me know. I promise not to obstruct your gaming .
Cheers.
User-generated content is a broad term that includes everything that someone creates - even the in-game content that is the essence of Minecraft. Mods is another category of user-generated content that is not of so much importance to my research (for various reasons) - at least for now.
EsvDefcon I would really much like to join your server, but we would need to discuss a few matters before doing that. I would really appreciate any help . We could also arrange for a play session if you would be up for that.
If anyone else is interested, please do let me know. I promise not to obstruct your gaming .
Cheers.
1
Like EsvDefcon replied, try to join an active community and study as they grow and play. I reccomend a survival server not an aggressive PvP server to start with. Aight enjoy.
1
Your best bet would probably to join a server. If you'd like, I can send you an invite to a realms server I run, but there are plenty of server out there for you to try. If you need to learn about the Minecraft community, does that include all aspects of it? Just that you mentioned user-generated content, I was thinking that you should probably try out mods (take a look a my profile if you want to see some examples). You should also give texture packs a try to see some more user-generated content (again, just click my name to see some, or search in the texture packs section on Planet Minecraft). And good luck!
