Academics Love Online Games For Their Potential Data
from the parallel-universes-at-your-fingertips dept
There have been plenty of articles looking at many different aspects of online gaming, but here's one you might not have thought of (unless you're an academic). Many researchers love the idea of online games and worlds because they're perfect for research purposes. Using online worlds, you can get tons of data about parallel worlds where conditions can be set up exactly to meet the needs of the hypothesis you're trying to prove (or disprove). I do wonder, though, if there's a "gaming effect" where people play these games in a different way than they live their real life - as the incentives (and dangers) are quite different. Still, the games certainly do present the possibility of setting up situations that offer at least some additional realism over older experiments and surveys.
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