Project Massive Results And Survey Iteration

Project Massive, a study being run out of Carnegie Mellon university into the tendencies of MMOG players, has released the findings of its second wave of testing and the third iteration of the survey. From the site: "Previously, Project Massive has investigated player communication and organization in PC based, Massively Multiplayer games. While this work continues, the inquiry has been expanded to address the impact of online play on the players' real life activities, perceptions, and experiences. No longer is the study limited to PC based MMOs. A number of online genres including first-person shooters and real-time strategy games have been added. Further, both console and PC player populations are included in the sample."

Comments

Re:Cost - 1993 vs. 2005

[jbellis]

hmm...

1997: Andor announces that instead of $10/month + $2/h, it will now only charge $25/month, flat.

1998: SOE launches Everquest, charging $12/month flat.

I think I see what happened...

Conclusion

[Reignking]

I know this survey is supposedly ongoing, but it would be nice if the authors could at least offer some conclusions. After going over some of the data, nothing surprised me. I'm not sure what they hope to find, or what their objective is.

Re:Suspicious

[patio11]

Ah, university, what a great racket. I had a grant proposal for $200 to buy a Japanese PS2 ("Cultural Studies") written up but chickened out at the last minute, but my prof said it would have been golden (hard for a guy whose research speciality is manga* to say your field lacks academic merit).

* You'd expect it to have been the worst class in terms of actual content in my college career, but it was EASILY in the top half once you cut past all the BS that was on the syllabus to convince the department that there was a Prestigious University Education happening in there.