| Dear Participant, My name is Christopher Dodds. I am currently conducting an MA by research in the School of Creative Media at RMIT University. My thesis topic is surveillance inside massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) and my supervisor is Lyndal Jones, Assoc. Professor, School of Creative Media, RMIT. The title of my project is Avatars and the Invisible Omniscience: The panoptical model within virtual worlds. Research is being undertaken to better understand the types of surveillance occurring within MMOs and the impact it may have on game play. Surveillance could take the following forms: parents surveying their children whilst they play computer games to monitor appropriate play, players surveying each other within games, and game administrators surveying player behavior to help enforce end user licence agreements. I am inviting you to participate in my research. Your participation involves answering a questionnaire to garner your experiences and opinions of surveillance occurring within computer games. Participation in this research is voluntary and you can withdraw at any stage if you feel uncomfortable about the questions, or decide you would prefer not to participate. Any unprocessed data may also be withdrawn upon request. The collected data will be analysed for my thesis and the results may appear in publications. The results will be reported in a manner that does not enable you to be identified. No names or personal contact details are being recorded or published, thus the reporting will protect your anonymity. All raw data is stored on a secure, password-protected computer and will be deleted after analysis. The collected interviews are being used to produce a series of artworks and encourage further research into the subject matter. The artworks and research aim to document occurances of surveillance and their effect on computer game play. Any complaints about your participation in this project may be directed to the Secretary, RMIT Human Research Ethics Committee, University Secretariat, RMIT, GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne, 3001. The telephone number is (03) 9925 1745. Details of the complaints procedure are available from: www.rmit.edu.au/council/hrec For further information please contact me at chris@iconinc.com.au or my supervisor at lyndal.jones@rmit.edu.au |