An investigation into the effects of playing Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG) on the behaviour and the academic performance of RI Year 1 students

Done by:Muhd Marthius (21)

Glenn Tan (29)

Vasu Namdeo (30)

Vikram Kasi Kannappan (31)

Vikram Ravichandran (32)

Teacher Mentors: Mr. Edmund Chow

Dr. Raphael Funwa

Content:1) Introduction and Background - Overview of presentation - Background - Problem statement-objectives - Brief project description (what and why)2) Main body of Presentation - Procedure - Methodology - Results and Discussion - Final Analysis-conclusion of project/research - Application3) Conclusion of Presentation - Critique and self reflection - Reference and Acknowledgement

Overview of presentation:Title: An investigation into the effects of playing Massive Multiplayer

Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG) on the behavior and academic performance of RI year 1 students.

Our research was conducted to:• Find out if and how RPG games addiction affects the behavior and

academic performance of RI Year 1 students.• Identify the general perceptions of RPG game players towards the

games that they play. • Help them understand the effect it has on themselves.• Inform them how they can refrain from being addicted. • Give them a new perspective about RPG games.

1

Background:This report presents:• Information about RPG game addiction and how it affects the

behavior and academic performance of RI Year 1 students.• Pros and Cons of playing RPG games• Methods to overcome RPG game addiction addiction

Our data has been collected through:• Surveys• Interview• Research (From books and the internet)

Problem statement-objectives:Objective:• To find out the effects of playing RPG games on the behavior and

academic performance of RI year 1 students.• To find solutions to reduce the negative effects of RPG game

addiction.

Hypothesis:• RPG game addiction can cause RI year 1 students to have behavior

issues, be more aggressive, pay less attention during lessons and score lower grades.

Explanation of what prompted our research:• An increasing number of people are getting addicted to RPG

games and neglecting their studies.

Brief Project Description: What our project is about:• How the playing and addiction of RPG games affects the behavior

and academic performance of RI year 1 students.• How RPG game addiction can be prevented.• The benefits and Disadvantages of RPG games.

Why we are carrying out this project:• A lot of people play RPG games and many are not aware of the

negative consequences and end up getting addicted.• We want to prevent this from happening to RI year 1 students by

informing them of the harmful consequences.

RPG games

Procedure

1. First, we each did our own Preliminary Idea (PI).

2. We took paragraphs from all our PIs to form the Group Project Proposal (GPP).

3. We created and conducted a survey of for 20 students from a wide range of classes.

4. We tabulated our results and produced our survey report.

5. We interviewed Mr. Paul Lim, head of the Leadership and Character Development board.

6. We transcribed the interview and produced the Interview Report.

7. We are still working on our final Report.

MethodologyPI and GPP We made mind maps to give us a clearer understanding of the project. We listed what we would have to do and possible problems we would encounter in this report. We got some information through the internet, books, blogs and reports.

Survey We came up with a questionnaire of 10 questions. We surveyed 20 year 1 students from a variety of classes. We distributed the survey equally to students from sports, normal and gifted classes to get accurate and reliable results.

Interview We came up with a questionnaire consisting often questions. We had a 10 minute interview with Mr. Paul Lim, Head of Leadership and Character Development. We reflected on the interview.

1h and below(%)

1h-5h(%)

5h-9h(%)

10h and above(%)

Total(%)

GEP students

3 53 22 22 100

Sports students

38 62 100

Normal students

36 38 4 22 100

Type of student

Number of hours spent on playing RPG games per week. (%)

Results and Discussion

The table reveals that Gifted Education Program students play RPG games for the longest amount of time while sport students who came in through DSA play RPG games for the least amount of time.

Table of the time spent on RPG games by each type of student. (%)

Results and Discussion

Type of RPG games played (%)

05

1015202530354045

Non- violentRPG games

Violent RPGgames

Both

Type of RPG game

Per

cen

tag

e o

f d

iffe

ren

t R

PG

g

ames

pla

yed

(%

)

From this graph, we can conclude that there are an equal number of RI year 1 students who play Violent and Non-violent RPG games.

Results and Discussion

Graph of the type of days that RI year 1 students play RPG games on

010203040506070

Weekdays Weekends Holidays Weekendsand

Holidays

Type of days

Nu

mb

er

of

resp

on

dan

ts

(%)

This graph shows us that RI year 1 students play RPG games more during their free time like on weekends and Holidays.

Histogram of how students were introduced to RPG games

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1

Method of introduction

Res

po

nd

ants

(%

)

Websites

Friends

Curiosity

Advertisements

Results and Discussion

Based on this Histogram, we can see that most RI year 1 students were introduced to RPG games through their friends.

Results and Discussion

Graph of the number of students who skip sleep to play RPG agmes

01020304050607080

Cut short sleep Sleep on time

Students' sleeping habits

Res

po

nd

ants

(%

)

From this graph, we can infer that 75% of RI year 1 students skip sleep to play RPG games.

Results and Discussion

We can infer that most students rarely sacrifice their time with friends and family to play RPG games. However, 20% of the students give up their family time to play RPG games.

Graph of whether students sacrifice time with family and friends to play

RPG

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Usually Seldom Never

Frequency of sacrificing family time to play RPG games

Resp

on

dan

ts (

%)

1Final Analysis-conclusion of research

There are some benefits in playing RPG games but there are more disadvantages. It all depends on how addicted a student is to a game.

Benefits• RPG games help students relieve stress. After

playing they claim that they can work better with a clearer mind.

• RPG games are also a good way to pass time.

Disadvantages

However, RPG games tend to be very addictive.

DisadvantagesBased on our research, we have learnt that there have not been many cases of addiction to RPG games for the year ones of 2011.

• Some students, but very few, suffer from bad conduct and poor results.

• Some have trouble finishing their homework.

• Many of the students lack sleep but seldom fall asleep during lessons.

• A handful of students are always found daydreaming about their RPG games instead of paying attention during lesson.

• Most students are able to prioritize between studies, family and RPG games but some are not able to.

Final Analysis-conclusion of research

Application

• We hope that this research will help the year ones of Raffles Institution 2011 understand the advantages and disadvantages of RPG games.

• This research applies to most of the year ones.• From this research, they will understand the

importance of regulating and prioritizing the amount of hours they spend on RPG games.

• It will also help teachers and students understand playing trends of the year 1s in RI.

• As a whole, we hope that this research will reduce the number of students who are addicted to RPG games.

Conclusion

• All of us could not meet at the same time to discuss our project. Adding on, we also had different views on different parts of our project. This lead to problems arising.

• We solved these problems by using Wikispaces and discussing our project during recess time or after school. Listening to one another and cooperating also helped a lot in solving our problems.

Problems encountered and solved

• We did not have ample time to discuss our project and so all of us were not really clear on what we were supposed to do.

• We took too long to come up with our survey and interview questions, so these segments were really disorganized at first, but then, they improved as time passed by.

Limitations and Constraints

• We could have arranged more meetings after school hours to discuss our project, and to clear any doubts we had in our duties.

• We could have come up with our own ideas at home and posted it on Wikispaces or brought it up during the meetings so that we could be ready for our assignments.

• Time management skills could also have played a vital role here as if we all could have finished our individual parts on time, we would have no problem meeting deadlines.

Suggestions for Better Approach to Problem

• We could extend our project to other games, which are not role-playing, so that our search basis could widen and more people could be surveyed or interviewed accordingly.

• We could try to find out the academic performance of Year 2, 3 or 4 also, or maybe even Primary 6, where the students addiction might originate.

Suggestions for Better Approach to Problem

• We could have arranged more meetings after school hours to discuss our project, and to clear any doubts we had in our duties.

• We could have come up with our own ideas at home and posted it on Wikispaces or brought it up during the meetings so that we could be ready for our assignments.

• Time management skills could also have played a vital role here as if we all could have finished our individual parts on time, we would have no problem meeting deadlines.

Suggestions for Future Extensions to Project

• We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to Mr. Edmund Chow and Dr. Raphael Funwa for their continuous and invaluable guidance throughout the entire course of the project.

• We also would like to show our deepest appreciation to Mr. Paul Lim for setting aside his valued time for us to interview him.

• We would like to thank all the RI Year 1 students who patiently participated in our survey.

• We would also love to thank our parents for their motivation and understanding.

• We would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every other one who made this project a success.

Acknowledgements

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