Perhaps this is timely for the Icrontic community, considering some of us just started playing a very popular MMORPG together. The Daedalus Project is a long-term research project run by Nick Yee, a Stanford graduate who now works for the Palo Alto Research Center. Daedalus conducts various surveys in behaviors, opinions, and attitudes about MMORPGS, and makes this data available for anyone who is interested in it.
Reading the comments on his blog shows that many researchers and students having been using his data for a variety of interesting projects. Of note are some of the comments regarding identification of personality types that are susceptible to addiction, and ways to break that addiction. I’ve often heard the lament “I play WoW for 5-10 hours a week and have never been addicted. I don’t understand how people can let a game ruin their lives.”
Perhaps the answer lies within the numbers.
Articles RSS