Hello! I'm researching you

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!