Social Interaction in Multiuser Virtual Environments

[Mandlakathixo]

I am a Master's student, and I am conducting research on social interaction values in online multi-user virtual environments.

We want to find out what people value in multiuser online games and virtual environments. This information will be used to suggest improvements to these systems that enhance how people socially interact with each other.

This survey is entirely anonymous, and we will not ask for any personal information. We realise how precious your time is. That is why we made sure this survey will only take less than 10 minutes.

Additionally, we are conducting interviews with multiuser online gamers and virtual environments users, and it would be great if you could have time to participate. Please let me know if you would like to and I will send you more information. Free free to contact me.

Thank you for your time and for agreeing to help us with this study, we really appreciate it.

Edited July 11, 2020 by Mandlakathixo

[KanryDrago]

39 minutes ago, Mandlakathixo said:

 

 

well as make the products more ethical.

.

Your ethical, my ethical and the next person's ethical will rarely correspond. This statement raises red flags to me even besides the fact this is yet another ill defined study which no doubt has a hugely flawed questionaire attached

[Maryanne Solo]

-> Us? <- 🤔
You are receiving renumeration to undertake this research?

[LittleMe Jewell]

1 hour ago, Mandlakathixo said:

This information will be used to suggest improvements to these systems that enhance how people socially interact with each other.

Good luck with that.

[Mandlakathixo]

38 minutes ago, Maryanne Solo said:

-> Us? <- 🤔
You are receiving renumeration to undertake this research?

Nope, it's research for a school paper.

[Love Zhaoying]

No thank you, I am not interested.

[Amina Sopwith]

2 hours ago, Mandlakathixo said:

We want to find out what people value in multiuser online games and virtual environments. 

AFK sex and breedable chickens.

[Mandlakathixo]

1 hour ago, KanryDrago said:

Your ethical, my ethical and the next person's ethical will rarely correspond. This statement raises red flags to me even besides the fact this is yet another ill defined study which no doubt has a hugely flawed questionaire attached

I completely agree with you about personal or individual ethics not corresponding in any population, but I was speaking about Ethical Design which is about business ethics. So, I edited it out as it's causing some confusion. It was NOT individual/personal ethics.   

[Marigold Devin]

I actually genuinely wonder who completes any of these surveys that come along from time to time.  I personally find them potentially spoiling of the immersive nature of my own Second Life and would prefer people completing courses/thesis/whatever to actually properly do research from a first hand point of view; ie make an avatar and spend a good chunk of time properly exploring Second Life.

But then I want a lot of things I cannot have.

Sighs and exits stage left.

 

[KanryDrago]

28 minutes ago, Mandlakathixo said:

I completely agree with you about personal or individual ethics not corresponding in any population, but I was speaking about Ethical Design which is about business ethics. So, I edited it out as it's causing some confusion. It was NOT individual/personal ethics.   

I looked you up out of curiousity and that raised even more red flags. According to the university of Cyprus you are a masters student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering. Now call me cynical if you like but that doesn't seem a department concerned with games design. The cynic in me suggests you may have blagged a students name at random to give your survey credibility. However I have made an enquiry to the university as to whether this is legitimate research they have sanctioned

 

[Ajay McDowwll]

2 hours ago, KanryDrago said:

Your ethical, my ethical and the next person's ethical will rarely correspond. This statement raises red flags to me even besides the fact this is yet another ill defined study which no doubt has a hugely flawed questionaire attached

The questionnaire is definitely hugely flawed.  I started it, but gave up.

[Extrude Ragu]

 

These are radio buttons, but shouldn't they be checkboxes? I mean it's perfectly possible that all 3 of the first 4 answers can apply to one person.

[Silent Mistwalker]

4 hours ago, Mandlakathixo said:

I am a Master's student, and I am conducting research on social interaction values in online multi-user virtual environments.

We want to find out what people value in multiuser online games and virtual environments. This information will be used to suggest improvements to these systems that enhance how people socially interact with each other.

This survey is entirely anonymous, and we will not ask for any personal information. We realise how precious your time is. That is why we made sure this survey will only take less than 10 minutes.

https://forms.gle/WsDpUHBB35NcrMuk6

Additionally, we are conducting interviews with multiuser online gamers and virtual environments users, and it would be great if you could have time to participate. Please let me know if you would like to and I will send you more information. Free free to contact me.

Thank you for your time and for agreeing to help us with this study, we really appreciate it.

I made it as far as the last question on the first page. If I select only one option you aren't getting the full picture since I have been in SL over 16 years and also have played MMOs like Star Trek Online, Neverwinter Nights and other MMOs that were not listed. That question needs to have the option to select more than one.

One questionnaire incomplete.

 

ETA: Extrude posted an image of the question I am referring to.

Edited July 10, 2020 by Silent Mistwalker

[Mandlakathixo]

Thank you for the feedback, it's because that is the only way to separate Second Life players from others MUVE players or non-gamers. I will look into how I can make it work with checkboxes.  

Edited July 10, 2020 by Mandlakathixo

[Mandlakathixo]

10 minutes ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

I made it as far as the last question on the first page. If I select only one option you aren't getting the full picture since I have been in SL over 16 years and also have played MMOs like Star Trek Online, Neverwinter Nights and other MMOs that were not listed. That question needs to have the option to select more than one.

One questionnaire incomplete.

 

ETA: Extrude posted an image of the question I am referring to.

 

11 minutes ago, Extrude Ragu said:

 

These are radio buttons, but shouldn't they be checkboxes? I mean it's perfectly possible that all 3 of the first 4 answers can apply to one person.

Thank you for the feedback, it's because that is the only way to separate Second Life players from other MUVE players or non-gamers. I will look into how I can make it work with checkboxes.  

[Lancewae Barrowstone]

You throw up a roadblock on the first page of your survey.  Research should not roadblock respondents, it only adds an inadvertent bias.  Your roadblock is the requirement that one must hold hands with the largest spy ring on the planet to proceed further down your garden path.  Most all of my associates banned Google from their online existence a decade ago. 

[Silent Mistwalker]

9 minutes ago, Mandlakathixo said:

 

Thank you for the feedback, it's because that is the only way to separate Second Life players from other MUVE players or non-gamers. I will look into how I can make it work with checkboxes.  

I noticed you included Active Worlds. AW is not a game either. It is Second Life's predecessor. Yes, I was a citizen there for many years and hosted my own worlds and object paths. 

Oooookaaaayyy, I admit it. I've been active on virtual world platforms for well over 20 years. Probably closer to 25. Of them all, SL still comes out on top, the sex stuff aside. You're going to find sex of one kind or another in every virtual world that comes into existence. Everywhere you go, someone, somehow, will find a way because, well, humans.  As for MMO games, when I can afford one, I look mainly for the ones that can be played offline/single/co-op, and there isn't a lot of "blood, gore and guts". These days that seems to mean survival games like Planet Nomads, Empyrion, Subnautica, etc.

[Mandlakathixo]

3 minutes ago, Lancewae Barrowstone said:

You throw up a roadblock on the first page of your survey.  Research should not roadblock respondents, it only adds an inadvertent bias.  Your roadblock is the requirement that one must hold hands with the largest spy ring on the planet to proceed further down your garden path.  Most all of my associates banned Google from their online existence a decade ago. 

I understand, I will try see if I can get an alternative for people who don't use Google.

[Lancewae Barrowstone]

1 minute ago, Mandlakathixo said:

I understand, I will try see if I can get an alternative for people who don't use Google.

You should actually make it an alternative that excludes the aforementioned site entirely. 

[Mandlakathixo]

3 minutes ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

I noticed you included Active Worlds. AW is not a game either. It is Second Life's predecessor. Yes, I was a citizen there for many years and hosted my own worlds and object paths. 

Oooookaaaayyy, I admit it. I've been active on virtual world platforms for well over 20 years. Probably closer to 25. Of them all, SL still comes out on top, the sex stuff aside. You're going to find sex of one kind or another in every virtual world that comes into existence. Everywhere you go, someone, somehow, will find a way because, well, humans.  As for MMO games, when I can afford one, I look mainly for the ones that can be played offline/single/co-op, and there isn't a lot of "blood, gore and guts". These days that seems to mean survival games like Planet Nomads, Empyrion, Subnautica, etc.

Thank you so much for the feedback and information I really appreciate it  I don't have as much virtual world platform experience as you do, but I am really interested in how the design methodologies used to create them and how that can be improved to create a better user experiences.  

[Lancewae Barrowstone]

I think it could somehow be assumed that a giant sandbox, open world, like SL, will house all ranges of human interactions, since regions are privately owned and developed, just as out in the real world.  I'm thinking your thesis idea might, at least on some level, lean toward the concept that perhaps our virtual worlds can be influenced (you use the word "structured" which suggests influence) in order to help teach, guide, mold (my words) to some degrees (larger or smaller) those human interactions, and thus aid, in fact contribute toward creating a better real world outside these virtual worlds by working slightly within them.  I do not take exception to this thought at all.  It's laudable in the broader sense, if indeed I'm not totally off the mark. 

I say, good luck with your work. It's interesting. 

[Silent Mistwalker]

10 minutes ago, Mandlakathixo said:

Thank you so much for the feedback and information I really appreciate it  I don't have as much virtual world platform experience as you do, but I am really interested in how the design methodologies used to create them and how that can be improved to create a better user experiences.  

Rule 1. Listen to your users, don't just hear what they say. You must also exercise caution when attempting to implement userbase wants. Needs don't really enter the picture since no one needs to play games online or create your own 3 dimensional space online.

Rule 2. Will [whatever changes] benefit the majority of your users? 50.001% doesn't count. 75% is a bare minimum. If it doesn't benefit enough of the users/userbase, it's a no go.

The list goes on and on. Doing the right thing for the userbase isn't an easy thing to determine and the balance is even harder to maintain.

[KanryDrago]

5 minutes ago, Lancewae Barrowstone said:

I think it could somehow be assumed that a giant sandbox, open world, like SL, will house all ranges of human interactions, since regions are privately owned and developed, just as out in the real world.  I'm thinking your thesis idea might, at least on some level, lean toward the concept that perhaps our virtual worlds can be influenced (you use the word "structured" which suggests influence) in order to help teach, guide, mold (my words) to some degrees (larger or smaller) those human interactions, and thus aid, in fact contribute toward creating a better real world outside these virtual worlds by working slightly within them.  I do not take exception to this thought at all.  It's laudable in the broader sense, if indeed I'm not totally off the mark. 

I say, good luck with your work. It's interesting. 

I very much take exception to the concept of molding I choose how and when I interact with people I don't need molding by someone who somehow mystically knows better than me whats good for me.

[Silent Mistwalker]

 

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Mandlakathixo]

9 minutes ago, Lancewae Barrowstone said:

I think it could somehow be assumed that a giant sandbox, open world, like SL, will house all ranges of human interactions, since regions are privately owned and developed, just as out in the real world.  I'm thinking your thesis idea might, at least on some level, lean toward the concept that perhaps our virtual worlds can be influenced (you use the word "structured" which suggests influence) in order to help teach, guide, mold (my words) to some degrees (larger or smaller) those human interactions, and thus aid, in fact contribute toward creating a better real world outside these virtual worlds by working slightly within them.  I do not take exception to this thought at all.  It's laudable in the broader sense, if indeed I'm not totally off the mark. 

I say, good luck with your work. It's interesting. 

Thank you  Most of what is in the survey is from other studies and books non had taken this angle; however, I've learnt so much more from actual gamers. I hope this opens up dialogue and research around how certain virtual world features can support or hinder how people interact, and in turn in make these experiences better and more human.