Need help with research project

[Scylla Rhiadra]

23 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

I must be doing something wrong right as this never happens to me there.  😥😪

Fixed it for you!

We digress, but my "luck" there has varied. Some nights, not a peep, but I've had as many as four IMs from men going at once there.

I once decided to experiment, and went four different nights wearing four different kinds of outfit. My results were inconclusive. Clearly, I should have created an online survey on the subject and posted it here!

[kali Wylder]

53 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

I must be doing something wrong as this never happens to me there.  😥😪

It only happens when you don't want it to.

[Arielle Popstar]

1 hour ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

I once decided to experiment, and went four different nights wearing four different kinds of outfit. My results were inconclusive. Clearly, I should have created an online survey on the subject and posted it here!

I think maybe that is what the OP is getting at in what is it one considers when choosing outfits or looks to accomplish a particular identity. From the page he linked:

What is this study about?
We want to know more about how players construct their identity through their online videogame characters. We are trying to identify the different ways in which players create their virtual characters and which traits are more related to certain kinds of virtual identities. https://ubpsychology.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cSlw8tHptYaxoIl

That is something that will differ for each and what is considered a success will also factor into it. I constantly look at what others are wearing and often see styles that i feel are really nice and attractive though I myself wouldn't have chosen the individual components that the avatar has used to create the whole. It would be interesting in some ways to know and understand what others use as a criteria for their selections to create their virtual looks and identity (singular or plural).

Edited March 15, 2022 by Arielle Popstar

[Madelaine McMasters]

2 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

A PhD candidate is not the same as an undergraduate student, or even an MA student. They have (or should have) received sufficient training to be able to negotiate the ins and outs of their project.

Yet, the OP said...

8 hours ago, Valvahl said:

As someone who has dabbled in both the gaming and research worlds,

I hope this is like me saying I've dabbled in circuit design. I'm not sure I'd lead with that in an introduction.

2 hours ago, Rolig Loon said:

I directed quite a number of doctoral projects over the years. Yes, I've seen a small number of candidates who seem to have been admitted by mistake. At the opposite end of the spectrum, I've met a handful of truly inspired scholars. On average, though, people who make it through the filter into a doctoral program are pretty solid thinkers. Apprentices, to be sure, but definitely not morons.

I've worked with physicians, PhD level engineers, physicists and mathematicians. They've been pretty solid thinkers on average. I imagine the doctoral projects you directed involved hard scientific research, possibly into chemistry, physics, thermodynamics, etc. You likely also watched students falter in the design of experiments in an effort to ensure statistically meaningful results. It ain't easy.

It gets even harder when the science is soft, or barely science. Endothermic reactions (second my favorite kind, after oscillating) don't interpret your questions based on their life experience, possibly with other neophyte researchers. They don't look at your questions and decide they are not the endothermic reaction (voice users) you are looking for, or that they'll hide their true exothermic nature to get your attention.

I spent several years helping entrepreneurs navigate IRBs, NIH grant proposals, and venture capitalists, and helping venture capitalists navigate IRBs, NIH grant proposals and entrepreneurs. You couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting a PhD, or a rookie error in navigating research involving people. This is why IRBs (good ones) contain people with such expertise.

3 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

I do often feel very bad for the poor undergrads who are sent here by profs who have clearly done nothing to prepare them, either for SL or for the forums in particular. It feels as though they've cheerily been directed to walk straight into the helicopter blades.

Me too, but it's better they hit the blades now than when there's big risk on the line. I've been sent off into helicopter blades a few times. "Sure you can ride your bike off the pier" is one of my earliest recollections.

[Silent Mistwalker]

Haven't read the thread. Not going to.

Took a look at the link posted in the OP and first thing that jumped out at me was this:

Quote

 we assure you that your personal data will remain completely confidential.

Personal data? Oh hell no. 

[Coffee Pancake]

1 hour ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

Personal data? Oh hell no. 

If they don't need to publish the personal data as part of the study, why collect it in the first place.

[Persephone Emerald]

30 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

If they don't need to publish the personal data as part of the study, why collect it in the first place.

To make associations with that data such as "Do people who identify as male treat their avatar identity different than people who identify as female?" or "Do people who play multiple video games carry over their avatar traits into multiple platforms?"

[Luna Bliss]

15 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

I am always amused at the idea that academics aren't in the "real" world -- as though a university environment, where one connects on all sorts of levels with perhaps hundreds of students and researchers a year, all from different walks of life, is any less "real," or more "insulated," than a factory floor, or dentist's office, or a flower shop.

I know, I never felt I was apprehending the 'real' more than when I was attending college, learning about so many subjects in depth, and having conversations with others about them. For me it's more like the 'typical world' outside of college tends to be not 'real', as so many stay on the surface without probing deeper.

[Arielle Popstar]

16 hours ago, Rolig Loon said:

 While you're at it,  be careful about defining which parts of the world are "real" and about assuming that the parts don't overlap.

15 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

I am always amused at the idea that academics aren't in the "real" world -- as though a university environment, where one connects on all sorts of levels with perhaps hundreds of students and researchers a year, all from different walks of life, is any less "real," or more "insulated," than a factory floor, or dentist's office, or a flower shop.

Academics, Engineers, Doctors etc are more focused on the abstract, theoretical and design components of their disciplines rather than their practical application. In the Universities they are surrounded by others with a similar mindset and focus. The factory floor, doctor and dentist offices however include others who take those abstract and theoretical ideas and translate them to real world practicalities, taking into account cost, feasibility, manufacturing processes, practical design elements and a host of other considerations that the intellectuals are not trained to consider when formulating designs for their respective disciplines. In school, the engineer might considered inspired and a genius whereas on the factory floor, he could and often is considered an idiot and moron if he actually thinks his idea has any practical merit and can be manufactured without major quality control issues and cost.

Quite a few other disciplines suffer from the same in that their focus is on the potential successes while downplaying the negative consequences of their ideas whereas those who are on the practical and receiving end, experience those consequences and as a result, don't think too highly of the ones who thought up the ideas in the first place. 😏

 

 

[Paul Hexem]

21 minutes ago, Arielle Popstar said:

Academics, Engineers, Doctors etc are more focused on the abstract, theoretical and design components of their disciplines rather than their practical application. In the Universities they are surrounded by others with a similar mindset and focus. The factory floor, doctor and dentist offices however include others who take those abstract and theoretical ideas and translate them to real world practicalities, taking into account cost, feasibility, manufacturing processes, practical design elements and a host of other considerations that the intellectuals are not trained to consider when formulating designs for their respective disciplines. In school, the engineer might considered inspired and a genius whereas on the factory floor, he could and often is considered an idiot and moron if he actually thinks his idea has any practical merit and can be manufactured without major quality control issues and cost.

Quite a few other disciplines suffer from the same in that their focus is on the potential successes while downplaying the negative consequences of their ideas whereas those who are on the practical and receiving end, experience those consequences and as a result, don't think too highly of the ones who thought up the ideas in the first place. 😏

In other words, how many times do you see workers in a working environment say "What idiot came up with this?"

[Arielle Popstar]

19 minutes ago, Paul Hexem said:

In other words, how many times do you see workers in a working environment say "What idiot came up with this?"

Seeing that said more and more in the last couple years of medical "experts".

[Luna Bliss]

29 minutes ago, Paul Hexem said:

In other words, how many times do you see workers in a working environment say "What idiot came up with this?"

lol well I can agree with you regarding the construction of vacuum cleaners. I swear, the engineer who created a few I've purchased never vacuumed a day in their life.

However ideally the two poles we're discussing here work in tandem and feed off each other (the academic or 'idea person' and the out in the field person working with practical application of the ideas).  In fact, much research is based on practical information gleamed from those out in the field and via experiments.

There's much success...so much accomplishment in varying fields...but many mistakes as well. Neither end is totally wrong or right though -- both are needed. This isn't the binary issue you're making it out to be -- it's not black and white with one side being the 'bad' one.

[Dyna Mole]

Before this conversation drifts further off topic, please remember that the OP's starting post was about participation in a research project about  identity exploration and online videogames. 

[Luna Bliss]

And so, it's not helpful or correct to discredit our OP simply on the basis of being an academic, as academics do have a valuable function in society.  Rather, as some have attempted to accomplish earlier, we need to point to ways in which he might not be setting up his survey optimally to receive accurate results.

[Madelaine McMasters]

17 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

I am always amused at the idea that academics aren't in the "real" world -- as though a university environment, where one connects on all sorts of levels with perhaps hundreds of students and researchers a year, all from different walks of life, is any less "real," or more "insulated," than a factory floor, or dentist's office, or a flower shop.

The entire real world is larger than any of us can grasp, so it's inevitable that we'll all live in subsets of it. Anyone who ventures out of their subset risks looking like a noob when walking into someone else's. This was so very evident during my brief foray into the world of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.

I saw:

• Science academics who were clueless about business
• Wealthy old-line businessmen who were clueless about technology (some seemed clueless about everything)
• Technologists who were clueless about marketing
• Entrepreneurs and marketers who were clueless about basic science

Still, the only group routinely called out for not living in the real world seems to be the academics. The market forces at work in academia just don't seem like those in the business world. Tenure is an often cited example. In defense of academia, there is benefit to society in decoupling some people from traditional market forces to allow the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Let's never forget this. Pretty please?

I once ejected an an MIT educated engineering professor from my product design team when it became clear he couldn't grasp enough dimensions of the product design problem. He'd been brought into the company for his tremendous expertise in a certain area. When that expertise was no longer needed elsewhere, they gave him to me. Though his expertise was necessary, it was not sufficient. When it became clear I could obtain the sliver of expertise I needed faster than he could obtain the breadth of expertise he needed, we parted company. This was not a case of him not living in the real world, it was a case of him not living in the right world. I was eventually shown the door myself when the company was acquired by GE and my expansive view of things clashed with their desire to have "good little soldiers" and I was deemed "high maintenance". The world had changed.

[Madelaine McMasters]

38 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

And so, it's not helpful or correct to discredit our OP simply on the basis of being an academic, as academics do have a valuable function in society.  Rather, as some have attempted to accomplish earlier, we need to point to ways in which he might not be setting up his survey optimally to receive accurate results.

If the OP has left the room, does continuation of this thread become an academic exercise?

Edited March 15, 2022 by Madelaine McMasters
I'm clearly not an English academician.

[Marigold Devin]

3 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

If the OP has left the room, does continuation of this tread become an academic exercise?

It becomes a temptation ...

... go set it on fire Maddie !  

[Luna Bliss]

1 minute ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

If the OP has left the room, does continuation of this tread become an academic exercise?

lol well...I'm imagining he's still off in the wings...trembling and biting his lip....having encountered us miscreants populating the SL forum.   😉

But yes, if he's gone I'd say it constituted an academic exercise, but perhaps a useful one...

[Lindal Kidd]

10 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

when the company was acquired by GE

GE, huh? Did you by any chance know Jack Poundstone? He was one of their engineering managers, and I worked with him for a while on a project. His daughter is the very successful stand up comic, Paula Poundstone. Jack was not as funny as his daughter.

[Madelaine McMasters]

Just now, Lindal Kidd said:

GE, huh? Did you by any chance know Jack Poundstone? He was one of their engineering managers, and I worked with him for a while on a project. His daughter is the very successful stand up comic, Paula Poundstone. Jack was not as funny as his daughter.

I enjoy Paula frequently on "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me", but I've not heard of Jack.

I did know Jeff Immelt.