Role: Research and Facilitator
Duration: September - November 2022 (3 Months)
Tools: Figma, Figjam, and Google Docs
The Kennesaw State University Game Room on the Marietta Campus is a location where students may hang out with friends or unwind between courses.
How important is the Joe Mack Wilson Student Center game room to KSU students?
The game room acts as an intermission at a play.
While there are various reasons why students at KSU enter the game room, we have observed that the room is an escape from responsibilities. This space allows them pause their school tasks and gives them a chance to take a break.
Applied Ethnography is a field research inquiry that seeks to comprehend people's societies, cultures, and shared interests, as well as their community.
I've never been a gamer, and I've always considered gaming as a way to entertain, engage with others, and relax. But coming to the gaming room really changed my opinion of individuals who play video games since the way they acted was so bizarre. I noticed a man strolling around the room with another man on his back, and they subsequently switched places. The behaviors of the gamers at the tv station and the gamers at the east wide room were intriguing to me since the gamers at the tv station were extremely cool, whilst the gamers at the east broad room were really competitive and aggressive and people were afraid of them. Ethnography is a qualitative research method used to better understand people's behavior and interactions. I believe ethnography is important because it provides a one-on-one experience in understanding people that visit the field location. To answer our research question, we used the Ethnography technique in our outcome procedure. Method, Recruitment, Fieldwork, Analysis, and Report are the sections. To respond, we needed to understand the gaming room and its significance.
Ethnography is a qualitative research method used to better understand people's behavior and interactions. Applied ethnography varies from ethnography in that it is a research framework that analyzes the society of the user. Applied ethnography requires providing the social context of the field under study to the cultural meanings, insider's perspective, and knowledge of people's ideas. This project was completed as part of a class project. We had a deadline that we had to stick to and this was a group project.
Recruiting is the process of locating and identifying the resources required to do research. Recruiting is an essential component of our research approach. Before beginning our study, we employ an applied ethnographer recruit to guide us in the proper route by completing a Research Design Form and creating an early interview script for our field. I chose our field because our team leader, Lindsey, offered it at the start of the class, I wanted to be on campus, and the time of the field suited my schedule. Our team was granted access to this field after our team leader, Lindsey, spoke with the desk assistant in charge of the student center. The most difficult aspect of this procedure, in my opinion, was coming up with questions for our interview.
We had no problems gathering data in our team, and we didn't have to make any changes as a result of our participation. Fieldwork is necessary for applied ethnographers in order to address their research questions. Applied ethnographers allowed us to look into the heart of the user's beliefs and opinions. Our team had been out in the field for 40 hours. We want to go to the field and locate a place to sit and perform some fieldwork. We undertake our fieldwork independently, although we occasionally run across each other or meet at the field. I believe that we want people like that to mold our findings since we were able to compare the diverse outcomes of each person. Fieldwork is when you collect data and analyze people's behaviors and interactions by taking notes and taking photos. To address our study question, we must conduct observations and interviews in the field. "Interviewing is very important to find out what participants are thinking, but observation offers that key ethnographic differentiator: the gap between what participants say and what they do" (Lander, 134).
I conducted my research in the gaming room. I looked around when I entered the game area. I discovered a good location that was ideal for me. There were around six seats arranged in a circle, with a table in the center for the chairs. I sat there for hours, taking notes on everything I observed. I began writing my note on my phone, then transferred it to Google Docs, and then to my professor's Microsoft Word template. In my journal, I created Checkpoint #1 and Checkpoint #2 sections, with Observation Jotting #1, Observation Field Note #1, Interview Jotting #1, Interview Field Note #1, Interview Jotting #2, and Interview Field Note #2 in each. Our teams observed for around 40 hours ( each teams members did 10 hours each). I spent around ten hours observing. For my observation, I completed roughly two portions. I went to the game room twice and stayed for 5 hours each time. I will admit that there was not a lot of activity at first, but as time passed, it became really busy. I believe that the individual entering the game room and the manner they acted within the game room were the two factors that varied during the observation. When I was around regular folks and those who played games in the gaming room, I began to see trends. The observation taught me that anything you observe may be recorded in your observation note and that everything is essential. I believe that our team's research question was not altered by our field experiences.
The interviews were scheduled in person at Kennesaw State's Lawrence V. Johnson Library in rooms 259 and 260, as well as online using Discord. Interviews are used to collect information and comprehend the interviewee's perspectives on "norms, practices, beliefs, and belief systems" (Ladner 130). The interview questions we created are about the game room. They were classified into three categories: personal, games, and outside of games. During our interviews, two roles were assigned: moderator and facilitator. The moderator was in charge of asking questions and keeping the conversation going with our interviewees. During the interviews, the facilitator was in charge of taking notes and might ask questions that were not in the interview script. Our team did field notes after each of the interviews.
Austin Ware, a 23-year-old KSU senior studying Mechatronics (Robotics), resides on the Marietta campus. Games are more of a pastime for him. During a semester, he learned about the gaming room and strangely entered it, where he saw that everyone was playing video games. Austin went to the game room to meet new people and found it less scary to make new acquaintances. He visits the game room three to four days a week and spends five to eight hours a day there.
John Grundort, a 25-year-old KSU junior studying Interactive Design, lives off-campus with his family. In the gaming room, he finishes some fast homework. His favorite pastime is shopping for shoes. The first time he heard about the game room was when he heard people yelling and decided to investigate. He currently visits the gaming room around once a month, but at the beginning of the semester, he wanted to attend twice a week but would periodically stop visiting. During the week, he visits the game room in between classes.
Juan P., an 18-year-old KSU freshman studying in Civil Engineering, lives off-campus with his family. He initially learned about the game room on his Marietta campus orientation trip in high school, when they showed him the gaming room and he was intrigued. He goes around twice a week and spends about two or three hours on weekdays because he works on weekends. He enjoys classic activities such as ping pong and pool. He doesn't do homework in the gaming room since he finishes all of his schoolwork on Mondays, so he would come in between courses on Tuesdays and Thursdays to play games.
Alex D., an 18-year-old KSU freshman studying Mechanical engineering, lives off-campus with his family. He initially heard about the game room on his KSU Marietta campus orientation trip, and what drew him in were the pool table and the equipment he saw. Alex visits the game room with buddies exclusively on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Alex seems to view the gaming room as just a place for him to hang out with his pals and play games on his own. He has no attachment to the game room; it is just a location for him to go to in between classes.
Sherry is a 22-year-old KSU junior studying Technical Communication who resides in an off-campus apartment. Sherry stated that she started going to the game room during the autumn semester of her freshman year in 2019. During the weekdays, she visits the game room for approximately two to four hours, between 11:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. She only comes to campus on Fridays to go to the game room and hang out with pals. When she's in the gaming room, she generally hangs out with folks who are watching TV and playing video games. She will occasionally do schoolwork in the gaming room, and her friends will respect her space while she is doing homework.
Our meetings were primarily for decision-making and check-in purposes. We decided on the ordered matrix, our study topics, and our cohering metaphor. We constructed an ordered matrix template and voted on items connected to our research to decrease fieldwork and identify trends. The ordered matrix is a matrix with rows and columns that summarizes the trip during the interview and observation procedure (Lander, 151 & 152). After we finished our interviews and observations, we constructed a two-ordered matrix containing information concepts for all of our operations. We utilized an ordered matrix to help us establish connections and compare and contrast our observations and interviews. My team decided on our conceptual categories by discussing them as a group and voted on those that we all liked. Using our ordered matrix, our team came up with multiple variations of a solution to your research topic, and we all voted on the one that best answered our research question. Our team chose our cohering metaphor by voting on which cohering metaphor best matched our study findings.
The report was the final element of our response to our study question. After we completed our analysis we were able to complete our report and put everything together.
By the end of this study, I understood what ethnography is and why we needed to answer our research question. I learned about ethnography and how to do applied ethnographic research, as well as the significance of interviews, observations, and field notes. I had no trouble gathering data since I kept telling myself that all data is valuable and may be utilized in an observation or interview. We made no changes as a result of participant input. For me, the obstacles were attempting to find individuals to interview or not understanding how to initiate conversations with people on the ground. Try not to write things that aren't significant, in my opinion. During my interview, I tried to jot down every response that our interviewee gave in my field note. I dealt with other people's issues by going to the gaming room and just asking someone upfront, then completing the interview that same day, and telling myself that it was acceptable if I didn't know every piece of information.
