Experiment Proposal [first draft]

MMORPG Experiment Proposal (first draft)
Thanks to Danielle for her hard work on this!

We propose to perform a full-immersion experiment on the nature of online computer gaming and gamer interaction through the medium of the newly released massively multiplayer game WarhammerÆ Online: Age of Reckoning. The experiment will involve the participation of approximately ten to fifteen volunteers who will commit to certain long-term community goals and smaller experimentations within the online gaming world itself. Some of these in-game experiments may include: formation of the guild Tiltfactor, aka [TiLt], through which to coordinate group activities, organized attempts to alter in-game economies, holding demonstrations, offering in-game gaming addiction counseling, interviewing professional gold farmers, team-building and group competitive trials, alteration of the game world, and attempting to gain the attention and support of the game's administrators or publishers.Ideally we would like to document the entire process through the combination of video/audio recordings and individual and group posts and discussions on our blogspot. By doing this we hope to gain an understanding of the way people experience video games, both on an individual basis and in a group setting. These are some of our long-term goals as a group.
In order to implement these plans we will need access to a lab with enough PCs capable of running WarhammerÆ for several members of our group to play at the same time on a fairly regular basis. We will also need enough copies of the game software to create an account for each member of the group to play, as a large component of the experimental process hinges on the individual interaction and involvement with the video game world and their specific avatars. Purchasing the game and subscriptions for all the members of the group may cost up to $800 if done conventionally, though we are currently attempting to circumvent this limitation. Letters have been sent to both individual Dartmouth professors and to the publishers of WarhammerÆ Online about the nature of the experiment in an effort to gain some support and possibly garner some publicity for this experiment.