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Academic Survey for Cash
Dr. Paul Dholakia writes "Drs. Richard Bagozzi, Paul Dholakia, and Rene Algesheimer are management and psychology faculty at Rice University and the University of Zurich. We are conducting an academic survey of online gamers and MUD players. This survey is specifically about interactions among friends who play online games and/or MUD together, and for this reason must be completed by groups of three friends. The survey takes approximately twenty minutes to complete, and the survey is available here. We are paying $10 to each participant provided they and two of their friends each complete the survey individually. We will pay participants the money upon completion of the survey by the group, either through Paypal, or by mailing them a personal check."
Whyyy?
I want my $10.
Now.
that's just cruel
since the link seems to be broken I quickly googled the topic...
apparently OMGN has a small blurb on the topic and it says to email Dr. Dholakia if you are interested.
DEAD DEAD DEAD DELETE ME
I don't have any friends, you insensitive clod!?!
posted anonymously as this joke is overdone.
Two friends?
Somehow I don't think it matters that the link is broken...
Found in page source
Clicky
http://www.topwebgames.com/articles/view.asp?id=33 8
-S
Hmm... I lost all my friends when I started playing Star Wars Galaxies. Would someone from my guild count towards the $10?
I could probably get them to do it in exchange for a set of composite armor or some krayt tissues
Uhm... This is going to sound really stupid (and I didn't RTFA, so please feel free to kick me if they explain it there)...
But by 'friends', do they mean local, flesh-and-blood friends only, or do they include people that you either don't meet on a day-to-day basis or have never met at all?
I mean, I have a couple friends that I've played Ragnarok with, but they're people I've gotten to know from roleplaying in AOL.
With the prevalence of 'online friends' and long distance relationships created and/or strengthened by the Internet, there's a lot of ambiguity in the article. I want my ten bucks, dammit!
If you offer money for an opinion, it might attract more people who are actually not MUD'ers at all.
Offering money screws your sample me thinks...
Alan, is that you?
"I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer." -Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear
MUD-geeks are up in arms as to the division of 10 by 3.
Who get's that last cent?!? Who damnit?!?!?!
Cool, i can fake three surverys and have money sent to me, and each of my grandparents to make $30.
-- botsex is {grep;touch;strip;unzip;head;mount}
Note that getting money for doing this is nothing all that unusual. Participants of psychological studies are usually paid for their participation, as it becomes a lot easier to find subjects for study. At universities where psychological research is conducted, it is not uncommon to see posters urging students to come and participate in a study to earn a little extra cash.
Paying people for participating has no effect on the results of the study. What can screw up a study is when the subjects are aware what exactly is being studied. When you're aware of what behaviour is being observed, you usually change that behaviour, either consciously or unconsciously. Usually, people conducting a study will tell the subjects they are studying one thing, where in reality they are studying something else.
They'll mail a personal check... man, I hope they aren't going to write all those personal checks, that's gonna kill their arms.
This sig no verb.
Why would they focus on MUD, seems like the survey might be tainted! Probably created from MUD players who are trying to get money from the college!