WowAce

Marauder project description

Marauder is NOT a stand-alone addon. It is the player piece of a custom quest, which is part of a federally funded research project being conducted by a team of academic researchers from Colorado State University, the University at Albany-SUNY, and Concordia University. It is only fully functional when used as part of the SCRIBE study in a group with the researcher. If you are not planning to take part in the study, please do not use this add on. If you want to participate, sign up at scribes.colostate.edu.

The game portion of the add on generates quest windows, overhead text, sound, quest logic (e.g., is everyone standing in the right place to solve the puzzle?), and images that are used to play the custom-built quest in WoW. The recording portion of the add on sends local, party, and whispered chat - but NOT Real ID chat - to a designated researcher who is the party leader. It also sends location much like the add on Quest Helper, and records combat, jumps, and emotes. It registers and sends class, race, gender, and stats. It sends these things to a designated researcher *only* when players are in a party with the researcher, and recording requires a manual start by the researcher that only works when players are in that party with him. Even if others download the add on, they cannot play the custom quest, nor can they record anything themselves using this add on.

The way we save the chat and location data is by sending messages to the researcher's toon while players are still in game. The add on doesn't send or do anything at all remotely. Once players leave the study session party, no data are recorded or sent anywhere. Unlike add ons such as Auctioneer, our add on does NOT combine or apply the data recorded with data from other sessions.

Marauder doesn't record anything else that goes on in players' computers, and once they leave the party, it stops doing anything. It will *not* capture anything before they join the party, nor will it capture anything they do outside the party or outside WoW, even during sessions. Add ons are unable to access logins, passwords, or any other personal information.

The add on follows Blizzard's guidelines for add ons, their EULA, and ToS very carefully. This is federally funded research being conducted by academic researchers, and we have rigorous review processes to protect participant privacy and rights.

The project seeks to understand how people act and interact in the World of Warcraft. To do that, we need to record the chat and movement of ONLY those players who sign up and formally consent to participate in the study. The data we collect will be used to analyze patterns in how people chat and move when playing during their session. No names will be used in analysis, and participation is anonymous. No profit, donations, or payments are requested or accepted by the researchers for player use of this add on.

This project has been approved by the University at Albany Institutional Review Board, Colorado State University’s Institutional Review Board, and the Air Force Research Lab Institutional Review Board for ethical research with human subjects. Approval of this project signifies that the procedures adequately protect the rights and welfare of the participants.