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.