Want to participate on an interview for a master thesis about twinkers and norms?

Lindis Marie Gundersen

Legend
I am a master student of psychology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). I am currently writing my thesis focusing on social norms. I want to use social norms of a virtual world to shed light on the norms of the real world.

I would like to interview 3 people above 18 years of age who are twinking in World of Warcraft. The questions I want to ask are about the gamers motivation for the way of playing, behaviour in game, other gamers reactions and the relationship between social norms in the virtual world and real life.
For the interviews I will use Skype or similar communication program and the conversation will be recorded. The interview will last about an hour, and we will agree on the time of interview.

All data will be made anonymous, and the audiophiles and e-mails will be deleted when the project is over, by 30th of August. The participation is voluntary and you have the possibility to withdraw from the project at any time before the project is done. You do not need to give any reason for your withdrawal.

If you want to participate, please write a personal message or an e-mail to lindismarie@gmail.com with your confirmation on having read this information, agreement to participate and the time you would like the interview to take place.

If you have any questions regarding this project, please send an e-mail to lindismarie@gmail.com. You can also contact my supervisor, Hroar Klempe at the department of psychology by e-mail hroar.klempe@svt.ntnu.no.

This project is reported to Data Protection Official for Research, Norwegian Social Science Data Service (NSD).

Best regards
Lindis Marie Gundersen
 
That seems quite interesting.

I also E-mailed you.

Please, keep us informed of the progress of your thesis. I'm pretty sure a lot of twinkers would be interested by its content.
 
Am I the only one who finds this rather sketchy?

I would like to interview 3 people above 18 years of age who are twinking in World of Warcraft. The questions I want to ask are about the gamers motivation for the way of playing, behaviour in game, other gamers reactions and the relationship between social norms in the virtual world and real life.
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Why twinks in particular anyway? I'm certain you'd find plenty more candidates at level cap~
@ forum posters, be careful with the information you give out.
 
Valencia said:
Am I the only one who finds this rather sketchy?
Why twinks in particular anyway? I'm certain you'd find plenty more candidates at level cap~
@ forum posters, be careful with the information you give out.
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I'm sorry you find this sketchy, but I've done what I can to do this as professional as I can. That's why I've chosen my entire name as my username. A quick google search or/and an e-mail to my supervisor will verify the information I've given.
I've chosen to focus on twinks because I find them particularly interesting from bouth what I've read, seen and heard, also there's close to no research on this particular group of gamers. In fact I've only found one paper which was basicly just a scientist who had been twinking for years telling about his experience.
 
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Lindis Marie Gundersen said:
I'm sorry you find this sketchy, but I've done what I can to do this as professional as I can. That's why I've chosen my entire name as my username. A quick google search or/and an e-mail to my supervisor will verify the information I've given.
I've chosen to focus on twinks because I find them particularly interesting from bouth what I've read, seen and heard, also there's close to no research on this particular group of gamers. In fact I've only found one paper which was basicly just a scientist who had been twinking for years telling about his experience.
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My apologies, if so.

Am rather curious about this paper in mention, is it possible you could perhaps link to it?
 
Dorigon said:
Who is your twink?
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I don't have a twink really. I'm more of a casual gamer I guess, never able to stick with one goal, wich I kinda find liberating as I can't act like that in the real world. Haven't played in a year though, due to lack of time and money. Mostly lack of money...
 
The mere fact that you would think people twinking variate from any other gamer, is a puzzle to me. We're not a specific breed or race. Why do some people play soccer, others handball - third football? One might say why do they choose to do sports - but does any specific sport really matter?

There really isn't anything special about us, most of us probably play other video games and/or endgame as well...

Quite puzzled indeed.
 
ChaelSonnen said:
interesting.. could we read your paper once you are finished?
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I haven't desided wether I will write in Norwegian or English. It surtainly would be easier for me to write it in my mother tongue, but there might be some benefits writing in English, so I am considering it. Anyway, the thesis will be available online once finnished and I could make a link on the forum. It won't be any time soon though. The date for when the project is "finnished" wich I wrote in the original post, means when I'm done analysing the interviews and not the time of the paper to be done.
 
lindenkron said:
The mere fact that you would think people twinking variate from any other gamer, is a puzzle to me. We're not a specific breed or race. Why do some people play soccer, others handball - third football? One might say why do they choose to do sports - but does any specific sport really matter?

There really isn't anything special about us, most of us probably play other video games and/or endgame as well...

Quite puzzled indeed.
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I would believe that there is a difference in norms between those who play football and those who play handball, or skiing for that matter. If the difference is big enough for it to be interesting and meaningfull, I'm not sure of, and I'm looking forward to find out. And I'm sure people play other games and even play WoW in different ways, just as people who play football might also do other kind of sports. The fact that one take part of different groups in society, does not mean that there are not different norms in the different groups, we're just very good at making our behavior apropriate to the role we are taking on.
 
Email Sent, would be interesting to see what a pyschology major would have to say about the mind set of a twink, Unlike everyone else I feel that twinks are different kinds of players, the majority of games would rather focus on what the game is intended for getting to the max lvl and doing what the designers are constantly building on. Feel free to email me whenever and I will get back to you
 
Lindis Marie Gundersen said:
I would believe that there is a difference in norms between those who play football and those who play handball, or skiing for that matter. If the difference is big enough for it to be interesting and meaningfull, I'm not sure of, and I'm looking forward to find out. And I'm sure people play other games and even play WoW in different ways, just as people who play football might also do other kind of sports. The fact that one take part of different groups in society, does not mean that there are not different norms in the different groups, we're just very good at making our behavior apropriate to the role we are taking on.
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True true. So how exactly does interviewing 3 people, of which will probably not represent the majority of the community, help you determine an accurate difference between "us" and "others"? Speaking of which, who is the "others", so called control group? What are we even being compared to... I honestly fail to see how this is going to give any useful results at best :/
 
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