• 3Aug 12

  UPDATE: Video Game Study

  So, like all research projects, they tend to change their direction at a moments notice and my video game is no exception to that rule. After working hard on my studies at my internship with MSHRC here in Nebraska, I have developed my LGBT (Lesbian, Gay Bisexual, and Transgender) gaming study a bit more. I am going to start off small and just interview 8-10 LGBT identified gamers here in Nebraska who actively play MMOs and MMORPGs. The reason for doing this is because there have been numerous national studies done on video games and how they effect social status and sexual behavior among heterosexuals. There is little to no literature about this same thing on LGBT populations and I believe that the data may be a bit different only because there have been other studies done with LGBT sex seeking behaviors that found that a large part of the community (mainly gay men) find most of their sexual interactions through the internet. I want to see if gay men and other LBT identified people use MMOs and MMORPGs (which can act as an online interaction much like other sites that have been used in gay male studies on sex seeking behavior on online forums) to find possible sexual and relationship partners and whether them participating in MMO and MMORPG communities has any effect on their sexual lives. I am excited to pair my two favorite things, Sexual Health and Video Games, into a study and hopefully can have some meaningful information come out of it!

  • Posted Aug 3, 2012 8:05 am GMT
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• 12Apr 12

  6 Years

  Almost 6 years have passed since my last blog post on here and things have totally changed for me since the last time I blogged. I have been going to college for my Public Health degree with an emphasis on Sexual Health and I have been loving every minute of it. This summer I got an internship with a well known research agency, the Midlands Sexual Health Research Collaborative, and I plan on working with them on my very first research article. The cool part is that I get to think of a study that I would love to do that could impact the community. So of course I took my love of games and my love of sexual health and decided to combine the two.

  I want to do a study that looks into cyberbullying of LGBT players in MMO type games like WoW, SWTOR, Second Life, etc. Now I know there have been numerous studies done before focusing on this audience, but I am not studying the effects of LGBT bullying, instead I want to research the reactions that people have when they see such bullying taking place. Most studies done on cyber bullying take place on social medias like Facebook or Twitter, but this time I want to see if we remove the face behind the bullying, remove the body language and facial expressions that people can pick up on in video chat rooms, and instead see how people will react when someone is being bullied from an avatar where no body language can be read and emotional reaction is hard to come by.

  Will those that see such bullying react and try to defend the person being attacked or will they just report the person they see going against the rules and not help out the person who may be emotionally scarred from the bullying happening online?

  I plan on bringing this study to my bosses and seeing what they have to say. I would love to combine my two favorite things in a study and I think I can get it done! I will let you guys know how it all goes!

  • Posted Apr 12, 2012 7:19 am GMT
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• 22May 06

  I finally beat KH2!!!!

  I know it's been a while, but I finally beat it.
  • Posted May 22, 2006 5:09 pm GMT
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