Research Guide


1. What do you already know about your issue?
I have user end experience on my topic. I've been playing MMORPGs for about 14 years now, starting with Diablo. Though I tend to grow board and move on to different games, or taking long breaks. I have met a lot of people online through MMORPGs and I have witnessed different events, and behavior take place that are unique or parallel real life, which surprises some people.

2. What questions do you have about your issue?
Why are they addictive, mostly, and what resources are starting to emerge because of this “new' addiction.

3. Who is interested in this issue?
Maybe psychologists, or people who are interested in human behavior, and people who play the games themselves.


4. Where do people read, write, talk, or hear about this issue?
Mostly from non-academic sources. Magazines, T.V. Commercials, friends/family and in the news when very unfortunate worse-case-scenario situations happen.

5. Where will you look to find your secondary sources?
I am hoping to create a survey, or interview some people. I would like to interview some one who has coped with sever MMORPG addiction, but I need to find some one willing to answer questions first.

6. Are you going to conduct primary research? If so, where? How?
Through a survey, and interviews. I would like to find people through message boards, and screen the applicants of trolls. Or I could use my friends. But I fear that is too small of a group.

7. Create a timeline/schedule for completing your research.
This week I plan on completing my bibliographies, and find my academic sources of information and create a general outline/idea for my paper. From there I will create the survey/questions I would like to ask for my interviews. That way I am able to gather relevant information. Thursday I would like to put out the survey, and hopefully get enough responses by Saturday so that I can sit down and go through the information. On Tuesday I will probably begin writing my draft, and organize data so that I have some thing solid to submit on Thursday the 26th.

Annotated Bibliography 1

Young, Kimberly. "Understanding Online Gaming Addiction and Treatment Issues for Adolescents." American Journal of Family Therapy Oct. 2009: 355-371. Web. 21 Jul 2010. http://www.netaddiction.com/articles/Online_Gaming_Addiction.pdf .


Summary
This article is very informative about online gaming addictions in youth, detailing information on symptoms and treatment. The article lists multiple sources, which it uses to support its statistics. It also spends time explaining what exactly online gaming is, how it evolved from games in the 1980's to what it is today. The article suggest that youths who get addicted to online gaming may have larger underlying emotional issues.

Reflection
I think I struck gold. Usually scholarly articles about video games are able to hammer the nail into the board, without actually hitting the nail on the head. I think this article is full of information, and sources that I can use for my research paper. When I was reading and it was talking about how gaming addicts would often play the game for 15-20 hours straight, I remember a time in my life where on my days off all I would do is play an MMORPG for that long.