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The Presence of Stigma Among Users of the MMORPG RMT

A Hypothetical Case Approach

University of Northumbria at Newcastle, United Kingdom

In those massive multiplayer online role-play games in which the real money trade (RMT) is specifically prohibited by the end user license agreement and terms of service, researchers should be aware of the impact of their work into potentially sensitive topic areas. If these users of the RMT secondary market feel they are a stigmatized community, this will potentially directly affect access to data, data integrity, data bias, and the ability to disclose and disseminate back to the research community. A hypothetical qualitative case study approach is applied using three separate research elements to aid in the understanding of why prospective research candidates could potentially feel stigmatized.

Key Words: stigma • real money trade • qualitative research • ethics • MMORPG

This version was published on April 1, 2008

Games and Culture, Vol. 3, No. 2, 225-247 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1555412008314131


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