The Daedalus Project

About Me

I was born and grew up in Hong Kong. Both my parents had been in the US for college before moving back to Hong Kong, so I grew up bilingual in Cantonese and English. When I was 14, I went to Choate, a boarding school in Conneticut.

Then I went to Haverford College, a small liberal arts college outside of Philadelphia. It was in my sophomore year (1998-1999) that I took a required methodology course with Prof. Doug Davis where I learned the basics of conducting online survey research and made my first webpage. In the beginning of my junior year, a pair of seniors were carrying out research in exploring whether players of different game genres have different personalities. They chose Quake, StarCraft and EverQuest as the exemplar of 3 genres. At that time, none of us had ever played EQ, so we went and got a copy to try it out. I was the only one who got hooked.

So in the spring of my junior year, I took an independent study with Doug Davis to apply my skills in an area I was interested in - immersive online environments. At that time, there was a paucity of quantitative data related to MMORPGs. Under Prof. Davis’ guidance, I defined my research goals and collected narratives and demographic data from around 1000 EverQuest players through online surveys which I created, publicized, processed and analyzed statistically. Apart from the demographics, I also gathered qualitative data relating to the appeal of the environment, the in-game relationships that users developed, and gender dynamics.

For my senior thesis the following year (2000-2001), I continued my research in EverQuest by using my earlier findings to guide and structure a more quantitative project. I was interested in how age, gender, personality and play frequency interacted with a variety of issues – such as gender-bending, relationship formation, and in-game dynamics. I also collected data on the experience of playing the game with a real-life romantic partner, or playing with a child or parent, as well as exploring how individuals project or idealize their personalities onto their virtual personas and what they might learn from their online experiences.

Over the course of the year, I collected over 20,000 surveys from about 4,000 individual respondents. I also developed and refined my methodology to be able to efficiently publicize my surveys, process large data files using spreadsheet, database and statistical software, and accumulate a growing respondent base. Early on, I realized the value of a sustained respondent base because I could collate data from an individual’s past and future surveys, thereby allowing me to ask more complex questions, as well as obtain rich profiles of individual users.

I also learned the importance of publicizing the findings of my research online. My research has been cited in the Washington Post, CBS, TechWeek, CNET, the Associated Press, Nature.com, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal among other news outlets.

The work presented here has also been used as course reading at academic institutions, such as Stanford (History of Computer Game Design), UC Berkeley (Research Topics in HCI), U. of Washington (Intro. To New Media), U. Mass (Social Issues in Computing), Loyola New Orleans (Interactive Media), and Haverford College (Foundations of Personality).

After college, I worked for about 2 years in a Tech R&D group in Chicago (2001-2003). I am currently in a PhD program at Stanford in the Communication Department where I am doing research in immersive virtual reality in addition to online games.

General FAQ

What is your motivation for carrying out this research?

Currently, the research presented here is not part of any commercial venture, nor am I receiving funding for this research from any commercial source.

This research is being carried out as an extension of my personal and academic interests. I am motivated by the ease with which I can survey and analyze data in a fascinating area that has a paucity of empirical data. The presentations also help me build upon and apply my tech skills.

How can I contact you?

You can reach me at contact@nickyee.com

How do I cite articles in "The Daedalus Project"?

Each article has its own perma-link, and includes the word "archives" in the URL. So for example, http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives/000192.php

The perma-link should be used in all citations when referencing specific articles. The general form of the citation should be:

"<Article Name>"
from "The Daedalus Project"
by Nick Yee
http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives/<perma-link>.php

If you are citing more than two articles, feel free to cite the site as a whole:

"The Daedalus Project" by Nick Yee, available at:
http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus

What is the general methodology used?

Links to online surveys are publicized on main portals catering to specific games. Respondents from past surveys are also notified of the available surveys. Most surveys are multiple choice and consist of 30-50 questions, and usually take about 5-10 minutes to complete. Approximately 2000-4000 respondents participate in each survey phase. While self-selected surveys have certain weaknesses, I think that many common critiques of The Daedalus Project are overstated.