Hello! I'm researching you

[Chevi]

Hello everyone! My name is Csenge. I am a Culture Studies PhD student at Bowling Green State University, OH, USA. I am writing my dissertation on forum-based role-playing games. I have been a forum gamer for a long time, and I want to make this form of gaming better known and better understood – and find out more about it myself. I am especially interested in why people like to role-play on forums, what they enjoy about it, and how forums work as a form of storytelling.

This is not a case study - my work is not going to be about THGRP specifically. Rather, I am picking a few sites that caught my interest, and I am here to experience the game in person. So yes, I am making a character (or two), and I'll be RPing as well as observing! 
Later on, I would also love to interview some volunteers about their experience - I want RP communities to add their own voices to my research, rather than just me speaking for everyone.

I wanted to introduce myself, let you know who I am and why I am here. I am not going to be collecting any private, personal, or identifiable data, and I am not going to use real names or usernames in my notes. I also fully respect the authorship rights of the threads on the forum – I am not going to quote or screenshot anything without permission. Since my dissertation might turn into a book later on, I am taking copyright very seriously.


With that said, I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable, or put anyone on the spot. If you have concerns about me joining the site, or any questions about my research, please let me know!

[Onyx]

Hi Csenge! It was lovely to meet you a little earlier in the Slack channel, but here I am to give you a formal welcome to the site and to say how excited we all are to have you here! I'm Onyx, or you can call me Nicole, and I've never been part of a study before, so please do forgive me if I get a little prematurely starstruck (hehe)!

Anyway, I just wanted to reiterate what I said earlier, which is that if you have any questions or concerns we would be extremely happy to help you, and if you do want someone to thread with then I'm always up for blowing the dust off some of my characters and putting them to proper use. Apart from that, I look forward to getting to know you better, and I wish you the best of luck with your research!

[d6a georgie cham 🍓🐢 frankel]

Hello! Welcome to the site!

It's really intestesting what you're doing. If you need any help or have any questions just pm me on here or on slack (my name is Frankel on there too)

I hope you have lots of fun!

[Baby Wessex d9b [earthling]]

Csenge! Very nice to officially meet you. ^^ I'm Kay and we've already talked lots on Slack. Totally here if you need anything and as for your research...

I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE!

[ghosty]

Hello! Like everyone has said, welcome to the site! We've chatted loads on slack already so, there really is nothing more that I can say. xD If you have anything needed for your study, don't be afraid to ask ^^

[я𝑜𝓈𝑒]

Hey Csenge!

I'm Briar, one of the members here. ^^ Please do feel free to ask me any questions for your research, as I'm more than happy to help you out with the project!

[pogue]

Welcome to the site! I'm Pogue, and I think your project is really fricken cool honestly. Don't hesitate to ask me any questions! ^^

[Arrows]

Welcome to the site! Also this whole thing sounds really amazing! If you have any questions or need anything like everyone has said let me know ^^

[Chevi]

Awwww, thank you so much everyone! I am really excited to be here, and you all are making me feel very much welcome I hope I'll get to RP and talk with all of you sooner or later!

[thompson harvard - d2b - arc]

Hello! I'm ArcticWoof, a member here on the site.

I find what you're doing really interesting and I'm super excited to see that you picked our little home for your research! If you have any questions about anything don't hesitate to ask about it on our slack channel, which you have already found luckily enough. I hope you have a great time here, as everyone here is super excited to see you here.

also- FINALLY I HAVE ANOTHER OHIOAN BLESS

[Tom]

Hello! I am Tom or you can call me Trenton. Welcome to the site. I hope you enjoy researching us. I hope to get to thread and talk to you at some point, but if you need any help with site things, I'm always on slack or you can pm me here! Nice meeting you!

[Deleted]

omg i'm gonna be famous

very interesting indeed, welcome! i'd be so down to getting interviewed if you need a meme king -- hope to catch you around.

[Avalon]

Hello and welcome to the site!
I'm Avalon, one of the resident staff RP Tutors.

It's very interesting what you're doing! Everyone here is very welcoming and friendly, but with that said they seem to have covered everything. If you have any questions about anything in the general sense of the site please feel free to ask!

I'm also on Slack as Avalon, so feel free to hit me up with anything!

[cass]

Hello! I'm Cass, welcome to the site!

It sounds very interesting! Everyone has already covered most of it, but just as they have all said: If you do need a hand with anything please let me know. I look forward to meeting you ^^ If you ever want to slack me (very much interested in helping you out with your research any way possible), my slack name is Cass c:

[Knuckles]

Hi welcome! I'm emsrocks, we talked on slack yesterday for a while. I welcome you to the site. I'm very interested in the research, and I'd love to volunteer for interviews if needed. I do hope you stay after all this is done. Like everyone else has said, don't hesitate to ask questions.