Objective 3

Analyze information retrieved through the literature review.

Analyze data retrieved through the implementation of the survey.

Present compilation of findings from both the literature review and the survey in the analysis chapter of the dissertation.

Objective 4

Determine and discuss determinations the research reveals regarding the study's three hypothesis.

Discuss findings, offer conclusions and recommendations regarding the study and information the study reveals.

Conclusion

During the next section of the thesis, the review of literature, the researcher examines and presents information from the "family" of literature relating to online games; particularly online game players' personal perceptions, motivations, and behaviors. As noted at the start of the study, the worldwide phenomenon of increasing exposure to electronic media, with the global efforts promoting billions of dollars of online games, even in Thailand, confirm the need to better understand the behavior of online game players. The literature, the researcher asserts, starts the process leading to a better understanding of the conflicting concepts and concerns continually confronting the virtual and real worlds that online game players not only play in, but "live" in; worlds in which some online game players may at times - live to play.

CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

"In online gaming settings, players tend to be motivated mostly

(Wu and Liu 2007, Abstract).

Aim to Win

During the dissertation's second chapter, the researcher aims to "win" in the real world "game" of presenting a successful literature review examining how Thai game players personally perceive their personal behavior related to playing online games. Like any literature review that succeeds, this chapter begins with the researcher's idea and investigation; relating to a specific problem or issue related in the study's first chapter. To begin, the researcher follows recommendations Karen Smith, Malcolm Todd, and Julia Waldman (2009) present in the book, Doing Your Social Science Dissertation: A Practical Guide for Undergraduates. The researcher choose the second of the following three common approaches to develop his literature review.

1. A chronologically organized review;

2. A thematically organized literature review;

3. The methodologically organized review.

For the current study focusing on components contributing to how Thai game players personally perceive their personal behavior related to playing online games, the researcher utilizes the thematically organized literature review. During the survey of professional literature pertinent to the study's research questions, the researcher ascertains findings other researchers previously discovered that prove applicable to the current study's focus. Similar to the online game player's manipulation of the control, the researcher manipulates the literature to help frame and focus the study's research questions to systematically address the study's questions.

Just as no single online game possesses complete advantages over the others, no solitary source of information has an absolute advantage over other resources, Winston Tellis (1997) argues. When used together, various sources of researcher can, however, complement each other. Preferably, a study utilizes as many sources as prove relevant to the study. Table 1 depicts a number of strengths and weaknesses the researcher may find inherent in the various sources of "evidence" he incorporates into the study.

Table 1: Types of Evidence (Yin, quoted in Tellis 1997, Recommended Proceedures Section).

Source of Evidence

Strengths

Weaknesses

Documentation

stable - repeated review unobtrusive - exist prior to case study exact - names etc.

broad coverage - extended time span retrievability - difficult biased selectivity reporting bias - reflects author bias access - may be blocked

Archival Records

Same as above precise and quantitative

Same as above privacy might inhibit access

Interviews

targeted - focuses on case study topic insightful - provides perceived causal inferences bias due to poor questions response bias incomplete recollection reflexivity - interviewee expresses what interviewer wants to hear

The Direct Observation

reality - covers events in real time contextual - covers event context time-consuming selectivity - might miss facts reflexivity - observer's presence might cause change cost - observers need time

Participant Observation

Same as above insightful into interpersonal behavior

Same as above bias due to investigator's actions

Physical Artifacts

insightful into cultural features insightful into technical operations selectivity availability

During the study, as the researcher investigates how Thai game players personally perceive their personal behavior related to playing online games, the researcher examines credible contemporary literature relating to, but not limited to the following the three themes. These themes depict the literature review's subsections inherent in the study's hypotheses. These divisions simultaneously constitute the...

Concerns/Issues Regarding Playing Online Games
2. Factors Motivating Playing Online Games

3. Online Games Players' Typical Behaviors

Concerns/Issues Regarding Playing Online Games

In the book, Videogames and education, Harry John Brown (2008) asserts that during the past decade, public discourse regarding videogames in general presents strong conflicting arguments. Some contend that "the emergent medium will either elevate us, making us faster, more creative thinkers, or degrade us, making us illiterate, socially isolated, and pathologically violent" (p. x). Videogame advocates, albeit invoke cognitive theory as well as classroom evidence; arguing that games may actually enhance human learning. Brown assets regarding online games:

These playgrounds of the imagination are becoming an important host of ordi-nary human affairs. There is much inure than gaming going on there: conflict, governance, trade, and love. The number of people who could be said to "live" out there in cyberspace is already numbering in the millions: it is growing, and we are already beginning to see the subtle and not-so-subtle effects of this behavior at the societal level in real Earth countries (Brown 2008, p. 137)

In the paper, "Raising Information Security Awareness in Digital Ecosystem with Games - a Pilot Study in Thailand," presented at the 2008 Second IEEE International Conference on Digital Ecosystems and Technologies Chun Che Fung, Senior Member IEEE, and Varin Khera, Member IEEE, both with School of Information Technology, Murdoch University, Australia, and Arnold Depickere, Division of Arts, Murdoch University, Australia Panjai Tantatsanawong, UniNet, Commission on Higher Education, Thailand, and Poonpong Boonbrahni (2008), Institute of Information Science, Walailak University, Thailand, report on the initial pilot study utilizing a simulation game, CyberCIEGE. Fung et al. used CyberCIEGE "to assess the effectiveness of raising the awareness and knowledge on Information Security among a small group of Thai stu-dents" (Abstract). This initial test on the acceptance of the game by the stu-dents stresses that a number of undesirable elements pose significant threats and damages to organizations through what may appear to be a secure, reliable network system.

Well-documented research and practice contribute to a primary supporting argument for the theory of using games, simulation, video and multimedia to support learning and teach-ing in a number of sectors including education, health, management and a variety of other sectors. This approach succeeds due to "its ability to attract attention, to raise the level of interest, and to achieve a high degree of interactivity. In the disciplines of Information and network security, there are already in existence a number of such products and many reports" (Fung et al., 2008, p. 377). Fung et al. further explain with the following example:

[An]… Internet-based security game by Next Generation Security (NGSEC) was adopted by the An-glia Polytechnic University UK in their curriculum in Net-work Security. It was reported that the students wel-come the program of study and the ability to update the re-sources dynamically was considered as a positive aspect.

CyberProtect is another product launched by the Infor-mation Assurance Support Environment (IASE) in 1999. IASE is an organisation specialised in providing in-formation and training for the Department of Defence and professionals in various security disciplines. CyberProtect is an interactive computer network defensive exercise which plays like a video game. Its objective is to familiarise players with information systems security terminology, concepts, and policy. Players are supposed to learn about defensive security tools as they face a range of security threats. They are given limited resources and they have to apply practical and intelligent judgement in risk analysis and risk management. (Fung et al., 2008, p. 377)

The CyberProtect game, however, according to literature, proves problematic. The "core engine of the game is probabilistic in nature and it does not include organisational security policy and it is not extensi-ble" (Fung et al., 2008, p. 377). As a result this online game, designed as a tool for student education, delivers a fixed set of activities without providing any in-teractive activities in the virtual environment.

Byron Reeves, Thomas W. Malone, and Tony O'Driscoll (2008) also examine online games as educational tools but also stress they serve as a particularly compelling and an increasingly popular form of entertainment. In their study, "Leadership's Online Labs," Reeves, Malone, and O'Driscoll repot that that a number of estimates report "the current number of registered players world-wide at more than 50 million; World of Warcraft alone claims 10 million players, who pay a subscription fee of roughly $15 a month. Participants play for an average of 22 hours a week" (p. 3). Nick Yee, researcher with the Palo Alto Research Center, reports that the average age for the subscribing online player is 27, with men totaling about 85% of them.

Online games vary in setting and theme, however many prove to have similar structures. "Roughly 40 to 200 players form teams, or guilds, that undertake increasingly difficult tasks, whereby individuals acquire…