Discussion 9: Specifics of Researching Role-playing Games
Watch Josephine Baird’s “Surveys, Interviews, and Consent” (22 min) and Annika Waern’s “How Can We Know What Actually Happened in a Larp” (7 min).
Read Sarah Lynne Bowman’s “Educational Live Action Role-playing Games: A Secondary Literature Review” (20 pages).
Then, answer the following questions. Try not to worry about getting the answer “right” if you are new to research. Instead, answer based on your current understanding or instincts.
1) What methods have you gathered for feedback from players so far, e.g., surveys, interviews, observational data? Without divulging specific details about your participants, discuss how an ethical review process might enhance your research consent practices. Be specific.
2) After reading Bowman’s article, what do you think the purpose of a literature review might be? What types of data do you think literature reviews include? What types of data do you think are excluded from literature reviews? Use specific examples from the text.
3) If you were to conduct a more extensive literature review on your game concept, what topics might you include? Be specific.
Finally, respond to at least two (2) of your peers in Ask a Question, Answer a Question format.