Information
This project has been granted ethics clearance under ERGO. Its clearance number is 12967
What is the research about?
This study forms part of my PhD research into how people behave in online environments. In particular, I’m interested in how we recreate social structures when we play games, and how we experience these social structures. By playing League of Legends, writing about my experiences and recording chat logs from games I’ve created a digital ethnography as part 1 of my study. From this I’ll analyse the data to see what kind of social structures and rules are expressed by people in online games.
At this stage, part 2 of my study, I would like to interview other League players to get a fuller picture of the experience of play.
Why have I been chosen?
You’ve been selected because you’re a League of Legends player! I've either come to know through playing the game or I've approached you through your university's League of Legends group. I’d like to set up an interview with you, consisting of up to 27 questions and lasting about half an hour.
What will happen to me if I agree to take part?
The first thing that will happen is that I will ask you to fill out the following consent form confirming that you’re willing for me to interview you and use the resulting data for my work. After that we’ll set up a convenient time for the interview to take place. The interview will be via Skype or whichever video chat client you prefer, and will take up to an hour but is formulated to take around half an hour.
Are there any benefits in my taking part?
None of any monetary value, unfortunately. However every bit of data is hugely helpful to my research, so I thank you.
Are there any risks involved?
There are no risks to participants.
Will my participation be confidential?
The Data Protection Act and Research Governance policy are very strict on this so you have nothing to worry about. Both confidentiality and anonymity are assured. Any and all identifying information will be immediately removed from the data. The only identifying data I will keep will be your summoner name. This is so that if you contact me at a later date I’ll be able to find and remove data pertaining to you. Summoner names will not appear in any final write-ups. For added security, even the anonymous data will be kept on a separate, protected hard drive and locked in a drawer.
What happens if I change my mind?
You are absolutely welcome and within your rights to contact me at any time asking that I remove data I collected from an interview with you, right up until I submit my data analysis and write-up for assessment as part of my thesis.
Why should I tell you if I’m under eighteen?
I’m not cleared to study minors!
What happens if something goes wrong?
If you have a concern or complaint, you can email the Research Governance/Ethics committee at the University of Southampton directly at rgoinfo@soton.ac.uk.
Where can I get more information?
You can contact me through the League of Legends client or email me at leagueresearch@outlook.com. I will be happy to answer any questions or concerns.