Curse

MichaleS · Mar 10, 2011, 11:58 PM // 23:58

Hello!

If you play Online Games, the University of South Florida is asking for your help!

We are currently running a study to examine the effects of Online Game Addiction and are looking for volunteers to fill out a short online survey. Anyone who plays online video games, whether they play a lot or a little, is invited to please take our survey. The purpose of the study is to try to understand more about people who get addicted to online games and why people might get addicted to them in the first place. Ultimately, we would also like to understand what factors might help protect someone from experiencing negative side effects from playing online games, and how people can incorporate online video games into a healthy lifestyle.

I would also like to point out that the point of this study is NOT to paint video games in a negative light - my goal in pursuing this line of research is to understand how people can still play and enjoy video games without getting to the point where other areas of their life might suffer.

The survey is completely anonymous, and is hosted by a survey program run by the University of South Florida. We don't ask for your name, we don't collect your IP address information, and we don't collect any other information besides what you provide for us by answering questions on the survey.

If you would like to help us obtain a better understanding of the effects of Online Game Addiction, please follow this link to our survey:

http://hsccm2.hsc.usf.edu/checkbox/S...?surveyid=5427

Thank you so much for your time and help!

P.S.

I was given approval from the forum admin before posting this link.

End · Mar 11, 2011, 12:44 AM // 00:44

not to be an asshole or nuffin...I was about to fill it out but the blue font gave me a headache on the blank white background...

But ill try and mess with my monitor settings and fill it out later

Mercury Angel · Mar 11, 2011, 07:35 AM // 07:35

The (adapted) Internet Addiction Scale has no ability to discriminate between problems caused by gaming, pervasive time management problems, and social problems caused by social attitudes. (That is, the common perception outside the gaming community that any time spent gaming is wasted, that people who play games are losers, and that any significant amount of time spent gaming is indicative of addiction, while other 'normal' hobbies are held to a different standard.)

You're putting a lot of weight on the shoulders of an ad hoc adaptation, unless you or someone else has validated the new scale. Without demonstrable validity, any analyses based off the scale are suspect.
(I found Kim, Namkoong, Ku., and Kim's article that uses it, but I can't access the article at the moment to see what they've done to validate it in their research, if anything.)

Can you provide a copy of the segment of your dissertation proposal justifying the use of the modified version of Young's scale?

MichaleS · Mar 22, 2011, 03:24 PM // 15:24

The problem you're describing is one faced by multiple researchers in the field. There is a lack of a clear set of criteria for Online Game Addiction / Internet Addiction, and the field in general is still fairly new, so it's hard to narrow down a perfectly valid measurement for Online Game Addiction (some people even argue that Online Game Addiction doesn't exist, but I'm not going to get into all of that here). I think that's an important concept / limitation to keep in mind when reading any of the multiple articles published on Online Game Addiction, especially since most of those articles will also highlight this same limitation in their own studies.

With that being said, the Online Game Addiction Scale I'm using in my study was first introduced by Whang (2002), and I found it in the Kim, Namkoong, Ku, and Kim article you mentioned (relationship between online game addiction and aggression, etc.). Although the OGAS has no validation data published in peer reviewed journals (that I've seen so far), the OGAS is a slight modification of the Young Internet Addiction Scale, which has been used in countless studies of internet addiction. I feel this is acceptable given the limitations faced by the field in general, and considering my study is descriptive in nature.

I agree with you, in that future research in the field should be directed toward developing more valid measurements for online game addiction / internet addiction, but it is a process that will take time. For now, I feel justified in using the Online Game Addiction Scale, for the lack of a better measurement.

**cosyfiep** · Mar 22, 2011, 04:04 PM // 16:04

"I attempt to cut down the amount of time I spend playing online games and fail." is in there twice...dont know if that is planned or not.

also you need a few more choices for those of us who have completed college, but not finished grad degree, as well as MANY people do not need (nor want) to give you there income.

(not to mention I do have some extenuating circumstances why I am a bit nervous--my mom is very ill....you should take things like that into consideration as well).

Zebideedee · Mar 30, 2011, 11:47 AM // 11:47

I done a couple of these on the imdb boards, the first one was fun, after that I realised every one was asking the same questions. After that I lost my faith in being a lab rat

The Only Warrior · Mar 31, 2011, 04:00 AM // 04:00

i was half done and your noob ass page refreshed itself, so no survey for you. fix your text fields and that blue print then we'll talk about me clicking some more boxes.