Data collection [the interviewing process] is going incredibly well: I should be done before the end of the month. I would like to offer everybody who participated or who was interested my thanks. Afterall, this project would not have been possible without you.

If you would like to contact me regarding the project, please email me at richard.schott618(at)myci.csuci.edu. Leaving comments, while nice for generating conversation, will likely reveal your Google or Blogger account unless they are done anonymously. This will help to protect your anonymity if you wish to communicate outside World of Warcraft. Moreover, leaving other details such as your character's name, server, etc. is not recommended. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

The project's new title is "WoW, what am I thinking? A Phenomenological Exploration of Player Beliefs and Goals in World of Warcraft".

The abstract: a summary submitted for the 7th Annual SAGE Student Research Conference

Enclosed is the abstract I submitted for a poster at the 7th Annual SAGE Student Research Conference on 9 May, 2015 at California State University, Channel Islands. I will attend and discuss research (i.e. findings, future directions, etc.) to attendees.

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This anthropological study focuses on how belief and authentic experience characterize user perceptions and beliefs in World of Warcraft (WoW). Qualitative methods were employed through semi-structured interviews to explore beliefs and feelings of WoW players in early 2015. Results were analyzed phenomenologically in order to construct a totality of experience and immersion within WoW. Virtual worlds and massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) are presented as places where meaningful opportunities for self-expression and introspection occur. Explicating WoW in terms of idealized conceptions of self, belief in their abilities, and personal reflection help further understand how players develop their identities and self-belief. A goal of this presentation is to explicate MMOGs by humanizing play: gameplay is characterized as an ongoing reflexive practice because players have confidence and feelings attached to their experiences. Future work will need to make further connections between human motivation, agency, and lived experiences in MMOGs. Applying such knowledge helps to understand why millions of players invest themselves in titles such as WoW.

Welcome to my blog, the external resource for my senior thesis project, "Authenticity and Desire in Virtual Worlds: User Perceptions, Goals, and Beliefs in World of Warcraft". Upcoming entries will offer prospective subjects, current informants, the scholarly community, and the general public access to my research. The project itself is in partial fulfillment of my B.A. in Anthropology at California State University, Channel Islands for a course entitled "Capstone Project" (Anth 499). It is the culmination of years conducting reviews about learning, motivation, social implications of gaming and the Internet, with an emphasis on how these develop an authentic experience and culture within World of Warcraft (WoW). 

Purpose: "Authenticity and Desire" will focus on how learning, motivation, personhood, and commonality of experience create situations in which players develop meaningful experiences in WoW. 

Methods or "How will this be done?": Because I am conducting interviews within WoW, data collection will not be done via email, voice chat (e.g. Skype, Ventrilo), The reason for this is due to legal and professional restrictions on the type of research I am conducting, which is focusing on immersion within WoW. Participant selection will be accomplished through fieldwork, not unlike that of traditional anthropologists, and engaging with participants.

Goals: "Authenticity and Desire" will conduct interviews (via private messaging or "whispers") in order to discern common themes from players' responses. Specifically, participants will be asked about their idealizations of self, in-game goals, how these goals were overcome, and how beliefs lead players to continue logging into World of Warcraft. The end result will be a presentation at the Sage Student Research Conference in May 2015, at California State University, Channel Islands, and a completed paper. The paper will be disseminated through this particular blog upon completion. Future graduate or professional work might use the information collected during the study.

A "Thank You" and Contact Information: I would like to thank you for your interest in this project. Moreover, I would like to offer my thanks if you choose to participate. If you choose to participate or would like to contact me, I may be reached at richard.schott618 (at) myci.csuci.edu. 

A Disclaimer about Participation

By virtue of participation, informants maintain they are over eighteen (18) years of age, that participation is voluntary, understand their anonymity will be protected, and are aware that they (informants/participants) may withdraw from the study or decline to volunteer information at any time. Due to federal restrictions, members of vulnerable populations like minors, pregnant women, people with mental and developmental disabilities, and individuals with limited civil freedoms (e.g., the incarcerated and parolees) cannot participate in the study.