PlayOn 2.0 is a continuation of a research project started at the Palo Alto Research Center in late 2003. The project pioneered the use of large scale, automated data collection to investigate the social dynamics of a variety of massively multiplayer online games, foremost among them World of Warcraft. Early on the team members decided to release their findings as they came out, rather than waiting for the publication of the eventual conference or journal papers. Comments from readers were invaluable and often cast a new light on some of the metrics we had uncovered. An archival version of this first blog is available here, with commenting turned off.
After a 2-year hiatus, the project received a large government grant at the end of 2009 to renew and expand its data collection in World of Warcraft. Beyond the metrics collected in-game for PlayOn 1.0, the project is now collecting data from the World of Warcraft Armory as well. Crucially, we also recruited participants who agreed to reveal information about their out-of-game identity such that their in-game activities could be analyzed in light of their “real life.” As we uncover relationships between in-game and out-of-game behavior, we will continue the tradition of regularly posting results as they come out for comment by our readers on this new blog: PlayOn 2.0.
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