Thank you for your fast responses and your willingness to participate and help me with this thesis. I am really happy that you are so open, thanks! I will contact you shortly via PM or Skype. But first maybe you could send me a PM if you would be also available for a group discussion, which I will have to discuss with my Professor again; and also it’s up to you. It could be problematic because of the different time zones and your jobs etc. But if you prefer a private interview and a group discussion isn’t possible for you, that is also ok with me. I will prepare both :-)
@Mozared You are part of this site as a moderator and as you said, you have mapped a while ago. I think it would be interesting to get you viewpoint on this matter and how you perceive the relationship between the community and, in this case, Blizzard Entertainment.
@IskatuMesk I did not want you to think that I thought that you here at SC2 Mapsters would have negative perception of such requests, but I have seen negative responses towards such studies here and there in the gaming world and just wanted to talk about it more openly. I did not want anyone to be offended. Sorry if that was the case! I am looking forward talking to you :-)
@ArcaneDurande This aspect of perspective is one of those more or less highlighted by other studies, and will be more part of my theoretical context regarding the personal motivations. It is very interesting indeed. For my interviews I am more interested in the theoretical understanding of those very different social constructions of community and company (see Zolden! ;-) ) and how they can maintain a relationship.
@wargirlwargirl I would happy if you would agree to participate yourself, as you could have an even different perspective :-)
Last but not least @Zolden: I’m no Family Guy man myself, but thanks for that video. I think my choice of words is a little bit outdated and more or less judgmental, but it was not my intention. But I like 70s movies, indeed!
Thanks for all the responses; I will also answer the PMs as fast as possible. I think I would now have enough participants for this master thesis, but I will of course be happy for everybody, who wants to take part in this.
Cheers, looking forward interviewing all of you :-)
I hope I don’t infringe any of the board and community rules in posting here without first checking with the owner of this site and that this post will be shut down immediately.
Hi SC2Mapsters,
First, please let me introduce myself. My Name is Felix and I'm a graduate student at the faculty of Sociology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt (Germany). Currently I'm working on my master thesis in which I'm interested in the collaborative relation between (video game) developers and their respective modding communities.
In short (tl;dr):
I’m looking for people who would take a bit of time (approximately 30 min to 1 hour) out of there busy schedule for an interview or if there are enough interested modder here a group discussion over Skype about their experiences in working on their projects in an environment legally controlled by an corporation and how this is perceived by the community. Though I am an avid gamer myself since way before the first StarCraft was released, I currently need you as experts, read: active modding community members (preferably with a longer time period of involvement), to interview on that subject for my thesis and therefore am asking for your help :-)
A longer insight why I’m asking you to participate:
Before you quit reading this post right here (and condemn me for posting), please let me give you an understanding of my request for interviewees to participate by describing a little what my interest is.
I don't want to bore you with the details, but at the core of my research question lays the theoretical improbability of collaboration between a formal organization- as in corporation - and the social order we call community. Though a lot was written, mostly in the field of economics, which is more about the “outcome” for everybody involved, there are still many open questions. The social aspects within communities and the respective corporation they choose to collaborate with lead to questions that are currently understudied in the research on open and user innovation (e.g. open source). I am interested in how you interact and which role from your perspective Blizzard plays in your endeavors and your community. In short: With this thesis I hope to get a better understanding for the social aspects of collaboration.
How can a relationship been maintained between a company and a community like yours?
So why do I come here and hope to find some people to talk to and not to a group like steam workshop or some similar communities? Well, there are different answers to this question: First of all it is my experience of the creativity and influence that the StarCraft and WarCraft modders have had in the last years: namely DotA and his predecessor Strifes of Aeon for StarCraft. Secondly I was an avid player of Blizzards RTS games and to extend know what you are talking about. And lastly there is Blizzards endeavor to integrate the modding community with all the changes that come into play by organizing mods in the Arcade and opening them, with the starter editions of StarCraft II, to the general public, which goes for the Galaxy Editor, too.
In the hopes that this post finds you well and was not too long and bored you to death, I would very much appreciate your help! I wanted to give you a good overview over what and why I’m asking you community members to help me with your knowledge and expertise.
Last but not least, over the years that I was part of different gaming communities I often read resentments against research of cultural or social studies in particular as answers on more or less similar posts like mine to help in graduate or undergraduate thesis’. I hope that you don’t share this views and hopefully will be able to help me shed some light into the study of community driven innovation and the relationship between two unlikely to cooperate that makes it possible from a sociological perspective.
0
Hey SC2Mapsters,
Thank you for your fast responses and your willingness to participate and help me with this thesis. I am really happy that you are so open, thanks! I will contact you shortly via PM or Skype. But first maybe you could send me a PM if you would be also available for a group discussion, which I will have to discuss with my Professor again; and also it’s up to you. It could be problematic because of the different time zones and your jobs etc. But if you prefer a private interview and a group discussion isn’t possible for you, that is also ok with me. I will prepare both :-)
@Mozared You are part of this site as a moderator and as you said, you have mapped a while ago. I think it would be interesting to get you viewpoint on this matter and how you perceive the relationship between the community and, in this case, Blizzard Entertainment.
@IskatuMesk I did not want you to think that I thought that you here at SC2 Mapsters would have negative perception of such requests, but I have seen negative responses towards such studies here and there in the gaming world and just wanted to talk about it more openly. I did not want anyone to be offended. Sorry if that was the case! I am looking forward talking to you :-)
@ArcaneDurande This aspect of perspective is one of those more or less highlighted by other studies, and will be more part of my theoretical context regarding the personal motivations. It is very interesting indeed. For my interviews I am more interested in the theoretical understanding of those very different social constructions of community and company (see Zolden! ;-) ) and how they can maintain a relationship.
@wargirlwargirl I would happy if you would agree to participate yourself, as you could have an even different perspective :-)
Last but not least @Zolden: I’m no Family Guy man myself, but thanks for that video. I think my choice of words is a little bit outdated and more or less judgmental, but it was not my intention. But I like 70s movies, indeed! Thanks for all the responses; I will also answer the PMs as fast as possible. I think I would now have enough participants for this master thesis, but I will of course be happy for everybody, who wants to take part in this.
Cheers, looking forward interviewing all of you :-)
Felix
0
I hope I don’t infringe any of the board and community rules in posting here without first checking with the owner of this site and that this post will be shut down immediately.
Hi SC2Mapsters,
First, please let me introduce myself. My Name is Felix and I'm a graduate student at the faculty of Sociology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt (Germany). Currently I'm working on my master thesis in which I'm interested in the collaborative relation between (video game) developers and their respective modding communities.
In short (tl;dr):
I’m looking for people who would take a bit of time (approximately 30 min to 1 hour) out of there busy schedule for an interview or if there are enough interested modder here a group discussion over Skype about their experiences in working on their projects in an environment legally controlled by an corporation and how this is perceived by the community. Though I am an avid gamer myself since way before the first StarCraft was released, I currently need you as experts, read: active modding community members (preferably with a longer time period of involvement), to interview on that subject for my thesis and therefore am asking for your help :-)
A longer insight why I’m asking you to participate:
Before you quit reading this post right here (and condemn me for posting), please let me give you an understanding of my request for interviewees to participate by describing a little what my interest is.
I don't want to bore you with the details, but at the core of my research question lays the theoretical improbability of collaboration between a formal organization- as in corporation - and the social order we call community. Though a lot was written, mostly in the field of economics, which is more about the “outcome” for everybody involved, there are still many open questions. The social aspects within communities and the respective corporation they choose to collaborate with lead to questions that are currently understudied in the research on open and user innovation (e.g. open source). I am interested in how you interact and which role from your perspective Blizzard plays in your endeavors and your community. In short: With this thesis I hope to get a better understanding for the social aspects of collaboration.
How can a relationship been maintained between a company and a community like yours?
So why do I come here and hope to find some people to talk to and not to a group like steam workshop or some similar communities? Well, there are different answers to this question: First of all it is my experience of the creativity and influence that the StarCraft and WarCraft modders have had in the last years: namely DotA and his predecessor Strifes of Aeon for StarCraft. Secondly I was an avid player of Blizzards RTS games and to extend know what you are talking about. And lastly there is Blizzards endeavor to integrate the modding community with all the changes that come into play by organizing mods in the Arcade and opening them, with the starter editions of StarCraft II, to the general public, which goes for the Galaxy Editor, too.
In the hopes that this post finds you well and was not too long and bored you to death, I would very much appreciate your help! I wanted to give you a good overview over what and why I’m asking you community members to help me with your knowledge and expertise. Last but not least, over the years that I was part of different gaming communities I often read resentments against research of cultural or social studies in particular as answers on more or less similar posts like mine to help in graduate or undergraduate thesis’. I hope that you don’t share this views and hopefully will be able to help me shed some light into the study of community driven innovation and the relationship between two unlikely to cooperate that makes it possible from a sociological perspective.
Cheers and all the best, Felix