Abstract Trouble in River City: The Social Life of video games by
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Discussion of Validity TestThere were two surprising results in the course of the analysis. The first was that racial, class and religious interactions behave differently online than offline. This suggests that people think of racial, class and religious interactions as functioning somewhere between the horizon-broadening function attributed to bridging and the strong support of bonding in the everyday offline world. This in itself is not particularly surprising. But online, people think of racial, class and religious interactions as bridging only. This indicates that people don’t think the Internet is a valid place for strong ties with those groups, but do think of it as a place to meet and mix with them: Yes, I think the Internet is a place for meeting a wide variety of people, but no, I don’t expect anything solid from them. The second was that measures of out-group antagonism were found to sharply diverge from the bonding scales. This finding is also quizzical at first, given that so much theory predicts a relationship between insular closeness and outward antagonism. However, there may be an explanation that fits the results if the closeness online is relatively less intense. Galston’s approach to virtual communities is based on the concepts of entry and exit costs (Galston, 1999). Drawing on Hirschman’s writings (1970), Galston predicted that in any community where entry costs are low—especially virtual ones—we should expect to see people make connections and linkages where they might not otherwise. This ease of entry is particularly relevant when considering the Internet, where joining communities can often be a matter of simply filling out a questionnaire. Galston also noted, though, that it is the cost of exit that keeps communities together. When leaving the group represents a true loss of social, psychological or practical benefits, a group member will exert effort to stay and contribute. Online this is probably less often the case than offline. These suppositions cannot be taken too seriously by themselves. What is necessary for stronger statements is a test of the batteries on a population, and a comparison of the presence of bridging and bonding social capital online and off. This is provided in Chapter 7. Appendix B: Intercoder Reliability Scores
Appendix C: Subject Correspondence Solicitation Posting (Variations & info on where it was posted) Version A—General Game Sites and Girl Gamer Sites Subject line: Interested in trying an online role playing game? Participate in a study and we may send you a free copy! Have you heard of online games like Everquest, Asheron’s Call or Dark Ages of Camelot and been curious to try one? The University of Michigan is running the first-ever comprehensive study of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMRPG’s), and we will give free copies of the new game “Asheron’s Call 2” to people willing to play. 400 of the first 1,000 people who fill out the study’s survey will get a free game sent to them in the mail. Who we’re looking for: We are most interested in people who have never played an MMRPG, or who have played very little, but everyone is welcome. We are also very interested to get both men and women to participate in the study. Your computer must be able to run the game, and so must be at least 733 MhZ, with a 2 GB hard drive, sound card and a 32MB 3D video card. What do you have to do? You have to be willing to fill out one survey, play the game at least twice a week for one month, and then fill out a second survey at the end. That’s it. We’ll mail you the game, and the cost of the first month of play is included with the copy. Spread the word: Do you know someone who hasn’t played one of these games before, but might be interested in trying one out for free? Please send them this information! Please go to: http://www.umich.edu/~rpgstudy to learn more about the study and see if you meet the requirements.
Subject line: Do you have a friend you want to get to try AC2? Read this. The University of Michigan is running a study on online games, and we’re looking for people who haven’t played them before. We will be mailing a free copy of Asheron’s Call 2 to about half of the people who fill out an online survey and are willing to try the game out for one month. REST IS THE SAME AS VERSION A Initial Letter (on UM Comm letterhead) Name line Street Address City, Postal Zip A warm welcome to the game study! Thank you for agreeing to participate in the 2003 online game study, and congratulations on being accepted. The study is the first of its kind, and by taking part you are helping important research. In your envelope, you’ll find a new copy of the game Asheron’s Call 2, complete with installation disks, instructions, reference guide, and a license key that will let you play for free for one month. What do you need to do? 1. You have agreed to play this game for one month, for at least twice a week. Your entire first month of play is covered, so it doesn’t matter if you play 20 hours or 200 hours. After the month ends you can continue to play, but you will have to pay the monthly fee on your own. 2. Please start playing right away! This is very important, so please start with the game as soon as possible. If you can’t start within the next few days, please send the copy back. 3. In one month, we will email you the link to the second survey. You will be asked to fill it out within two days. If you haven’t and we can’t reach you by email, we may call to remind you. What else? • Keep this letter, and this ID#: IDNO. • One of the things we’re going to ask you a month from now is how much you’ve played, so please keep track by filling this out with a running tally of hours every time you play: Start date End date Hours played that weekFirst week: (Please write the dates here) _________-_________ _____________________ Second week: _________-_________ _____________________ Third Week: _________-_________ _____________________ Fourth Week: _________-_________ _____________________ Problems? If you can’t play the game or are unwilling to, please do not register the copy. Instead, we ask that you send it back so that we can use it elsewhere (each copy costs $50!). If you have problems with the game itself, please do not contact us for technical support. We are not the game company, and can’t help. But if you have questions or problems with the study, send an email to rpgstudy@umich.edu First email for experimental group Welcome to the online game study! You have been selected to participate in the study and to receive a free game. Your copy of Asheron's Call 2 is being mailed to you via first class mail. You should receive it in the next few days. As a participant, you have agreed to play the game twice a week for the next month, and to complete a second survey a month from now. You have also stated that your computer is capable of running the game, which means that your computer runs at 733 MhZ, with a 2 GB hard drive, sound card and a 32MB 3D video card with T&L support. See http://microsoftgamesinsider.com/AC2/Articles/articleshardware.htm for details if you aren't sure. If you are not willing to meet these requirements, or your computer cannot run the game, please reply to this email *immediately* so we can send the game to someone else. The game is coming in an envelope from the University of Michigan Department of Communication Studies. In that envelope, you will also find a cover letter with instructions on what to do next. Please read that letter carefully, follow the instructions, and keep the letter. It has an ID # you will need when you fill out the second survey a month from now. Enjoy the game, and we'll be in touch in a month to direct you back to the study site (www.umich.edu/~rpgstudy) to fill out the second survey. Sincerely, Dmitri Williams Study Director First email for control group Subject line: Thank you for filling out the survey. What’s next? Thank you for completing the University of Michigan online game survey. We had a great response and received over 1,000 surveys. As you may recall, we promised to send a copy of a new game out to 400 of the first 1,000 survey takers. Those 400 were chosen randomly, and have all been contacted. Unfortunately, you were not one of those selected. However, the survey you completed was *very* important to us, and is a key part of our research. Next month we will open the last step in our study, and may ask you for your opinion again. If we do, we will enter your name into a raffle for prizes. As a participant, you will also be the first to see the study’s results, which we will share with you in mid-March, long before they are released to the press and public. Once again, thank you very much for filling out the survey. Your time is appreciated and makes a real difference. Sincerely, The 2003 Game Study Staff Interim email Subject line: Study reminder: Don’t be charged when your free month ends Participant ID#: IDNO Dear NAMEFIELD, This is a reminder from the study staff about avoiding a charge to your credit card. Most of you received a game around February 5-10, meaning that the month of free play that you were given will be ending shortly. For each of you, this time line will be slightly different, so consider this a general heads-up announcement. Please check your calendar and make a note of when your month will end. We don’t want you to be charged for playing past this first free month, and so you will need to consider canceling the subscription soon. You can cancel your subscription during the game log-in/start up process. Just after you give your password, you come to the “World List” page. At the bottom of this page is a button labeled “Account Options.” Clicking it will allow you to cancel your subscription. Of course, you are welcome to continue playing after the month ends, but you will start paying the monthly $12.95 fee that regular players pay. The second, and final, survey will open next week, and we will be sending you an email reminder so that you can complete your participation. Thank you again for taking part in the study. Sincerely, The Online Game Study Staff Follow-up email for experimental group Subject Line: The final game study survey. Dear NAMEFIELD, We hope you have been enjoying your time playing Asheron’s Call 2 over the past month. Your game and your playing time have been free in exchange for filling out two surveys. You did the first one a month ago, and now it’s time to fill out the second survey. Please go to: http://www.umich.edu/~rpgstudy and fill the survey out now. If you can’t fill it out now, it is *very important* that you fill it out within the next two days. Your ID # is IDNO. If you still have the letter mailed to you with the game, please have it handy. We thank you in advance for filling out the second survey. Your answers and your opinions are extremely important to us. If you have any problems or questions, you can send email to rpgstudy@umich.edu We’d also like to remind you again your free playing time only lasts for the first month. If you want to keep playing past then, the game company will start charging you. Thank you for being a part of the study! Sincerely, The 2003 MMRPG Study Staff Follow-up email for control group (section suspended due to IRB decision noted by strikethrough) Subject: Game Study Dear NAMEFIELD, Last month you filled out a survey as part of a study of online games run by the University of Michigan. The study is nearly done, but we need your help to make it a good one. What do you get (other than the feeling of helping out a good project)? By filling out this second survey, you will Please help important research by going to: http://www.umich.edu/~rpgstudy and fill the survey out now. You will need this ID number: IDNO If you can’t fill it out now, it is very important to us that you fill it out as soon as possible. The timing is important. We really appreciate your help. Good research takes the help of good people like you. If you have any problems or questions, you can send email to rpgstudy@umich.edu Thank you for being a part of the study! Sincerely, The 2003 MMRPG Study Staff First reminder email for both groups (Sent Saturday, March 8) Dear NAMEFIELD, We depend on people like you to help us do good research. Without you, we just can’t do it. We recently sent you an email about the game study you signed up for last month, asking you to fill out the final survey. Our records indicate that you haven’t filled it out yet. Please take a few minutes to go to the study site: www.umich.edu/~rpgstudy and fill it out as soon as possible. Your ID number is: IDNO It is very important to us to have everyone in the study fill out the survey at about the same time. As time goes by and people haven’t filled it out, the quality of our results suffers greatly. Please take a moment to go and fill the study out now. We really appreciate your help. Thank you, The 2003 Game Study Staff Second reminder email for experimental group (Sent Tuesday, March 11) Dear NAMEFIELD,
Second reminder email for control (Sent Tuesday, March 11) Subject line: We need you, and soon. Dear NAMEFIELD, We need people who did *not* get the game to fill out the second (and final) survey. When you filled out the survey last month, you checked that you would also be willing to fill out the second one, but we haven’t heard from you. We are way behind, and have to close the site soon. Please help us out. Take a moment to go to the study site: www.umich.edu/~rpgstudy and fill out the survey. Your ID number is: IDNO Again, we really appreciate your help. Thank you, The 2003 Game Study Staff Appendix D: Survey Instrument Introductory web page 
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