Looking for interviewees to my thesis

[Dovaeques]

"Hello there" .

As the titles suggests, I am looking for kind players willing to take part in an interview about their time spent in the game.
The goal of the interview would be to check why we (including myself) play the game. In other words, I wish to know the perspective of the people who play the game.

Why?: I am studing sociology and since video games have always been important to me, I have decided to write about gamers. Of course, being interested in FFXIV:ARR is not something random - about 2,5 years ago I spent a few months playing the game. I have never been a part of some incredibly difficult content, have not played regularly for quite some time and have not explored many of the game's aspects , but I am still attached to both my Thyrus Atma and the game itself.

How would it look like?: We would just have a conversation over Discord or some other communicator of your choice. Of course, since we live in different time zones (mine is GMT+1), we would have to agree on a convenient date.
Unfortunately, there are two downsides:
- A sociological interview usually takes about 20-30 minutes, so there are some questions
- An interview for my thesis would have to be recorded, since a proof of conducting an interview is needed.

Of course, there are no questions that would allow anyone to identify the interviewee. The only questions that are not directly related to the game itself are questions about age and gender, which are required for analytical purposes.

If you would like to take part in the interview, please contact me via Discord (Dovaknight #9706) or the game itself.
You can also leave your contact info in this thread.

[AnnaRosa]

Hope you are aware players can create fake discord profiles and provide you fake information.

No before you ask not interested.

[Canadane]

Hope you are aware players can create fake discord profiles and provide you fake information.

No before you ask not interested.

People can lie in real life too.
I'd like to think the majority do not.

Any chance of an email Q&A Dovaeques?
Or if everyone will be asked the same things, why not a google form survey?

[AnnaRosa]

People can lie in real life too.
I'd like to think the majority do not.

Any chance of an email Q&A Dovaeques?
Or if everyone will be asked the same things, why not a google form survey?

In real life is easier to tell if they are lying or not by observing their body language usually if persons volunteer in real life for a survey of this nature they won't be lying and if you doubt ask them to submit to a lie detector test, if they volunteer so far they won't mind.

[Canadane]

You seem to have the mindset that the majority of people will lie for some reason or another.
I'm sorry to hear about that.

[AnnaRosa]

You seem to have the mindset that the majority of people will lie for some reason or another.
I'm sorry to hear about that.

In the internet no one ever lies everything everyone every content that comes from the internet is legit, you do not even have politicians that lie and such.
A pity sarcasm does not exist too.
If you happen to cross Nigerian Prince in your survey send him my greetings.

[Dualgunner]

In real life is easier to tell if they are lying or not by observing their body language usually if persons volunteer in real life for a survey of this nature they won't be lying and if you doubt ask them to submit to a lie detector test, if they volunteer so far they won't mind.

I bet you're lying.

[Jaywalker]

OP I can't rn but you should look into ludology and consider how that relates to practices such as using the game as a social medium, RP, people who focus on mechanics and high skill level, people who focus on lore, people who focus on glamour, people who focus on crafting, and people who focus on making money/gambling in-game. Had a conversation about this recently with relation to FFXIV, you'll probably get a lot from that.

[Crevan]

I imagine you're going to do some sort of thematic analysis and it would be a type semi-structured interview?
I am curious as to what the aims your thesis are, and what perspectives in particular are you looking at and why? Is this specific to Final Fantasy XIV, or are you looking at MMORPGs in general or just MMOGs?

Also if people are lying you would be generally able to tell as there has been a large amount of work done on the gaming motivations. If they are so absurdly outside the norm it will be easy to tell, or if someone has something that is generally believable but fake, then that would be a limitation of the data collection method.

Sounds like an interesting project though. I can recommend reading Nick Yee's 'Proteus Paradox' and Jamie Madigan's 'Getting Gamers' for some really digestible information. Though I am sure that you have read up on a number of things in your literature review.
Good Luck!

[Dovaeques]

People can lie in real life too.
I'd like to think the majority do not.

Any chance of an email Q&A Dovaeques?
Or if everyone will be asked the same things, why not a google form survey?

Google form survey would definitely be a very convenient method. Unfortunately a survey is usually used for getting simple information in a quick way. I'm more interested in what people think and how they describe various aspects of the game and in such cases an interview is recommended by the literature. But I can ask my thesis advisor and let you know if such a thing would be possible/accepted.

I imagine you're going to do some sort of thematic analysis and it would be a type semi-structured interview?
I am curious as to what the aims your thesis are, and what perspectives in particular are you looking at and why? Is this specific to Final Fantasy XIV, or are you looking at MMORPGs in general or just MMOGs?

Also if people are lying you would be generally able to tell as there has been a large amount of work done on the gaming motivations. If they are so absurdly outside the norm it will be easy to tell, or if someone has something that is generally believable but fake, then that would be a limitation of the data collection method.

Sounds like an interesting project though. I can recommend reading Nick Yee's 'Proteus Paradox' and Jamie Madigan's 'Getting Gamers' for some really digestible information. Though I am sure that you have read up on a number of things in your literature review.
Good Luck!

Precisely. This would be a semi-structured interview - the questions themselves are planned, but there is no script or other additional rules/forms etc.

I wish to find out how gamers (of Final Fantasy XIV) describe the act of playing the game and various aspects associated with it. In other words, the aim of my thesis is to present the social world of Final Fantasy XIV, including the gamers' motivations and opinions.

Thank you for the recommendations and I can confirm that I have already included some things in my literature review (maybe too many ).