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Thesis for Grad School.. change topic?

Blogs > ZeromuS
Post a Reply
ZeromuS
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
Canada13389 Posts
February 11 2011 16:31 GMT
#1
Hello TL,

I am having some issues with regards to my thesis. My supervisor has basically disappeared due to what I can only assume are personal reasons.

Currently my thesis topic is as follows:

Aggressive and abusive use of language or actions commited interpersonally mediated through video game play by males. This means that I want to see how individuals basically BM eachother in game or in real life (or hit eachother) BECAUSE of a game. I am looking at what is essentially the ways in which boys or men act aggressively towards others because they are losing in a game, or performing poorly etc.

The best example i can give is someone going 25-2 in Call of Duty at a LAN cafe or LAN centre and then dying and typing out "F*** YOU! NOOB" etc. Or yelling out. There was a previous study done of an all night LAN play and it was super interesting to see how the men and boys expressed their masculinity by swearing at or intimidating others as well as playing the video game.

The OTHER Topic I might want to look at is the expression of aggressive language and banter between players of Starcraft in the professional and semi-professional E-Sports scene. This would be cool especially if I could get interviews with players, though primarily I could use replays posted publicly.

The problem is that Ethics is a bigger deal in the first case and also in the first case most LAN centres within a reasonable distance to me have rules against BM and swearing etc.

I love starcraft and if my thesis could end up being related to starcraft I think I would be happier over the next 2 years but I already have a lot of work done for the first thesis. I would love to talk to my supervisor but she is gone.

As a note I am taking Criminology and am not looking at video game effects but how video games can be analysed as a medium through which men enact masculinity. This is really what I want to look at. If I go the SC pro scene or semi-pro scene I can public source video etc and ethics becomes less important. Further, I can also draw links to previous studies related to conventional sports and masculine expressions of activity. I mean the majority of players of SC are male so if anything expressions of masculinity in game playing can be more pronounced than similar expressions in conventional sports.

Any thoughts or Ideas?

If I get the Starcraft route I will be about 4 or 5 months behind on my thesis but I am ok with that.

Thanks community would love to hear your thoughts :D

**
StrategyRTS forever | @ZeromuS_plays | www.twitch.tv/Zeromus_
atenthirtyone
Profile Joined May 2010
United States88 Posts
February 11 2011 16:43 GMT
#2
Hey, fellow graduate student here. Have you done any literature reviews on your subject yet? That's generally a great way to know what others in a particular field of study have done so far. There's tons of psychology databases that many universities subscribe to, and that's a good place to do your searching.
Rev0lution
Profile Blog Joined August 2007
United States1805 Posts
February 11 2011 16:43 GMT
#3
Why exactly would anyone want to hear or read a thesis on retards yelling at each other through the safety of their computer screens? Not only is your topic immature, it shows signs of an isolated academic experience. Do you really expect me to believe a thesis on starcraft is more important than child abuse, rape, verbal abuse, etc?

I mean, did you really pay top dollar to have your thesis made on such a mundane topic?

I
My dealer is my best friend, and we don't even chill.
Random()
Profile Blog Joined August 2004
Kyrgyz Republic1462 Posts
February 11 2011 16:46 GMT
#4
So being a total jerk is actually "expressing masculinity" That's a nice point of view. However I don't really see what interesting things you could say on that topic. I mean the context of a video game does not change much, it's like any other competitive activity in this aspect. "Males" in general just hate losing.
Rotodyne
Profile Blog Joined July 2005
United States2263 Posts
February 11 2011 16:50 GMT
#5
Does a female rager have high testosterone levels? Or maybe a penis? O_O
I can only play starcraft when I am shit canned. IPXZERG is a god.
Slaughter
Profile Blog Joined November 2003
United States20254 Posts
February 11 2011 17:27 GMT
#6
On February 12 2011 01:43 Rev0lution wrote:
Why exactly would anyone want to hear or read a thesis on retards yelling at each other through the safety of their computer screens? Not only is your topic immature, it shows signs of an isolated academic experience. Do you really expect me to believe a thesis on starcraft is more important than child abuse, rape, verbal abuse, etc?

I mean, did you really pay top dollar to have your thesis made on such a mundane topic?

I



You obviously don't know the world of academia if you think his topic is the most mundane/boring/useless one you ever come across.
Never Knows Best.
ZeromuS
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
Canada13389 Posts
February 11 2011 18:11 GMT
#7
On February 12 2011 01:50 Rotodyne wrote:
Does a female rager have high testosterone levels? Or maybe a penis? O_O


No and I don't care my interest is in why males get aggressive not females. Female ragers would have different reasons and experiences for their raging. Men and women are not both the exact same and the reasons for males to do some things are different than girls. Girls play GTA too but they go and kill prostitutes for different reasons than guys other than fun. When there are two reasons both might share "for fun" but after that there is a change.


On February 12 2011 01:43 Rev0lution wrote:
Why exactly would anyone want to hear or read a thesis on retards yelling at each other through the safety of their computer screens? Not only is your topic immature, it shows signs of an isolated academic experience. Do you really expect me to believe a thesis on starcraft is more important than child abuse, rape, verbal abuse, etc?

I mean, did you really pay top dollar to have your thesis made on such a mundane topic?



If you had to do something all day every day for 3 years and study it and examine it would you like to read about Rapists and their personal accounts of their actions and reasons for 3 years or would you rather do something you enjoy? I have studied tons of terrible crimes and read ridiculous transcripts and I personally will probably go into a serious depression if I read about that every day for a few hours.


Hey if you want me to send you some chilling stuff about rape and the detailed accounts of it sure. How's about I send you 10 articles about child pornography? When you consider I need to write 100 - 150 pages about a topic and I need to have a literature review (which I already have most of) consisting of 200 academic articles, again, I need to do something I like or this money I spend on my thesis will be waste if I decide to stop because of it.

Also, there is so much on rape, verbal abuse etc etc that it will be difficult for me to do something new or innovative. If i choose a mundane topic (which you suggested in criminology crimes are mundane and highly studied) it will be harder for me to get my degree because I need to do something new and make 0 mistakes or anything at all wrong. If i make one tiny mistake and an expert notices it I have to work another 3 - 4 months to get my work fixed, re-reviewed then redefende. If I fail the review/defend process 2 times I fail and all my money is wasted.

I wanna do something new and interesting to show a video game related research interest is pheasible and can avoid the games cause violence thing.

Starcraft is an example, the issue of aggression and games is big topic in academia. The problem is the research is 90% in the favour of psychological testing sayig that video games casue violence. I want to look at the issue from a different perspective. I am only doing a masters I can't examine all video games and I don't actually have any money given to me to do this or facilities. I have to out of pocket pay 10,000 of my own dollars in tuition for the opportunity to do what I want for a piece of paper.

/end rant
StrategyRTS forever | @ZeromuS_plays | www.twitch.tv/Zeromus_
Iranon
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
United States983 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-02-11 18:13:34
February 11 2011 18:12 GMT
#8
You seem to be equating "masculinity" with "aggressiveness". Interesting. I would think your thesis would be an attempt at quantifying how they are linked, but it looks like you already made up your mind on how that works.

Anyway, as a previous poster said, do your lit review. Once you've done that you'll have a better idea of whether or not this is a viable topic. That said, you probably going to have a hell of a time designed a study that is at all reasonably controlled... You aren't going to wind up with very meaningful conclusions about "how men enact masculinity" by running statistical analysis on the outbursts of a bunch of dudes playing Starcraft.

Edit: based on your last post maybe you only want to be looking at aggression in video games... that's a much more reasonable goal than looking at aggressiveness and masculinity. Maybe your OP was just oddly phrased.
QuanticHawk
Profile Blog Joined May 2007
United States32049 Posts
February 11 2011 18:14 GMT
#9
For option 1, it should not be limited to games, because that goes on in virtually any sporting capacity. Unless you are trying to say that it happens more online, and my hunch would be that it is not the game that causes this, but being anonymous online and the lack of physical reprecussions for the 13 year old dork. Furthermore, people certainly aren't cocks only when they lose a game.

your second option is too vague I think. It's also still boils down to anonymous vs not anonymous. Plus, short of getting real interviews with players, it's a waste of time. You miss so much from replays. You can actually talk with passive aggressive nerds at a lan, which will make your points that much better
PROFESSIONAL GAMER - SEND ME OFFERS TO JOIN YOUR TEAM - USA USA USA
ZeromuS
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
Canada13389 Posts
February 11 2011 18:24 GMT
#10
Well we need to keep in mind I am doing qualitative sociological style research. I don't want to concluisvely prove something just examine it and see if I can come up with something. I mean the concept of hegemonic masculinity is important to me and it involves the "ideal" male and masculinity in North american culture.

And again, I don't have the scope to examine everything but I want to look at aggression as it relates to video games but not video games causing aggression. I will look at winning and losing equally but my example involved losing.

I've done a lit review and it can apply to both.
StrategyRTS forever | @ZeromuS_plays | www.twitch.tv/Zeromus_
bonifaceviii
Profile Joined May 2010
Canada2890 Posts
February 11 2011 18:34 GMT
#11
Are you going to somehow incorporate smack talk in sports with this, or is it specific to anonymous video-game interaction?
Stay a while and listen || http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=354018
ZeromuS
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
Canada13389 Posts
February 11 2011 19:11 GMT
#12
On February 12 2011 03:34 bonifaceviii wrote:
Are you going to somehow incorporate smack talk in sports with this, or is it specific to anonymous video-game interaction?


I would relate it to findings of research looking at smack talk in sports as well yes. The reason I want to try looking at pc cafes/lan routes is to examine if they use the games as a vehicle for smack talk or not? Interviews could help me see if anonymity is what allows them to smack talk more or less. In a shared space is anonymity still a factor in smack talk or not? is one of my potential questions.


hmm maybe i should keep on the pc cafe/lan centre route
StrategyRTS forever | @ZeromuS_plays | www.twitch.tv/Zeromus_
KingOctavious
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
United States324 Posts
February 11 2011 20:02 GMT
#13
I would go for the thesis focused on video games in general, not just SC2. The latter seems to have very limited applicability, whereas video games in general have a much broader presence in society, by definition.
Check out my book, The Year in StarCraft II: 2011, http://yearinsc2.com/ :D:D
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