Debunking Quantitative Research

Before I get into my post topic, I want to briefly discuss where my project is heading.
I decided to fully go with competition and its impact upon social and individual play experience in World of Warcraft. In order to build a foundation for my research, I decided to look at quantitative research taken in WoW AND compare the findings to quantitative research methodologies.
I used a book Brett gave me called, A Handbook of Media and Communication Research, by Klaus Bruhn Jensen. (F'in Google Roxorz). Chapter 5 in the book runs the gamut of information concerning quantitative research. I found it extremely helpful in analyzing this:
Alone Together
All of this information is the basics of my research. This research is making it possible to compare and contrast basic information and help interpret more the more complex and Qualitative research (which I will be diving into next post).
Some examples I have found through my own analysis:
• There is a need for gratification. Gratification is a primary reason why people take in media. The research in Alone Together shows that the higher the level, the more time people spend in aspiration for the next. (Reference the two figures on page 3). Or another main goal is to become level 40 to gain a mount. These are just two of many goals people have in the game. But this data does not explain why there is a constant drive to continue to play the game and that the quantitative study of gratification has not proven itself useful in predictions. We just now understand the cycle of the player. Now, I want to look into the relationship between the amounts of exposure in game to the desire of competition (and winning or gratification).
• This dives into my next point, exposure. Jenson says the "primary product of media organizations is not its content, buts its audience." Basically, the idea is for the product/ media to make an apparently attractive role of 'being an audience'. Exposure is crucial for a certain mediums survival. Jenson continues on about how the creators and maintainers of certain media 'view the viewers' in determining what they want, in order to make their media the best, most enjoyable and audience building. WoW, as seen in Alone Together, gives the unique ability to dive into a media with extreme ease and uniqueness unlike any other. Allowing guilds to be built, competing amongst factions and each other, and the pure social environment all create WoW to be an audience captor and enchanter. Blizzard is definitely becoming good at gaining high levels in audience amusement. From here, I want to look at how this media is become something more than just a secondary means of exposure, into the main means of entertainment and social value. This, in my wild guessing, is going to be tied to competition because of the way people strive to gain levels, being that each level is harder and harder to achieve, to be better than the next person. I feel a parallel to professional sports where the players damn near only play their sport, and everything else is secondary to them.
• Next, I drew out a weird parallel between the news and WoW. Now, bear with me. What Jensen was saying about the news is that some people watch the news and are unable to retain much if any information from it. They just had the gratification of watching the news and knowing that there really is nothing of great importance. The people, who liked to watch the news, did so because of the pure enjoyment factor, almost an opposite of the desire to receive factual information. What I am hypothesizing is that people are playing the game, not to be immersed into the game, but because they feel the need to compete. But the difference between WoW and the typical evening newscast is that WoW is slightly adapted to the audience that desires to compete, because the media is creating an audience that wants to want to compete. Then again, none of this I can prove without diving into the qualitative research (Next post, I promise).

I took several more notes, but these were the more note worthy ones. I am going to end this post with how the WoW is applicable to Jensen's 4 types of research that focuses on long term significance.

1) Natural Experiments. This concerns peoples' play and conversation (and other uses of) time before and after exposure to a new medium. WoW tends to slowly suck more and more hours away from players, as their characters become more powerful. Again, I am drawing an element of competition here.
2) Public Events. The news coverage of sporting events are becoming more of a grand display then just the mere competition. The competitions between the higher-level characters are becoming somewhat interesting to the other players. Also, the company running WoW is able to set up certain events (such as a new patch, raid, or a competition) to create a public event worthy of everyone responding to and watching (or participating). This is how the media of WoW is able to shape participation within the community.
3) Institutional practices. This is involved in forming a balanced world, not the balanced world of WoW, but the idea that this media is becoming a balance between other institutions. This concept is still a bit fuzzy in my head, but I plan on working in out soon.
4) Cultural Formations. What I have determined this to be is the cultural norms the media is putting forth, and that we are adhering to. What in the game is universally taken out and put forth in real life? I am sure the 8 million people who play the game have taken something the game has taught them and applied it to some aspect of their real life. One ideal could be that sitting in front of a computer for 8 hours a day is not a bad thing after all.
That about does it for this post. I think I am going to read over this one more time tomorrow to see if I put everything I wanted to say in, and to see if any of this actually made sense.