From: daern@ozramp.net.au (Shane McKenzie) Subject: MISC: Survey (on Virtual Crime reposted) Date: 26 Aug 1996 17:52:42 +1000 Message-ID: <4vrl4a$kp@ozramp.ozramp.net.au> Organization: oZramp - The Australian onramp to the Information Superhighway I am interested in your opinions and experiences of inappropriate behaviour and 'virtual crimes', as they relate to MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons/Dimensions). It is VOLUNTARY, and we hope you will fill it out in detail and return it. It should take approximately half an hour of your time. DO NOT include your name, or email address, and your responses will be completely anonymous and confidential. The data are being collected for a Bachelor of Arts Criminology Honours project, which has been approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Melbourne, and is being supervised by Dr. David Tait. The completed thesis, expected around December, 1996, will be placed on a World Wide Web site. (Details to follow) Instructions for completing the questionnaire: Most of the following questions are open-ended. This means that we would like you to complete them in as much detail as you can. When a question specifies a choice of responses, place an asterisk to the RIGHT of your chosen response. For example to respond that you play on a MUD once a week, you would place an asterisk as shown: Never Once Monthly Weekly* Everyday Instructions for returning this questionnaire: You found the survey in a newsgroup: Use the 'reply' function which will automatically give an appropriate subject header, and allow you to fill out the survey within your newsprogram. You found the survey in an ftp site: Fill out the questionnaire in a text editor, and then attach the file to an email, and send it to daern@ozramp.net.au with the subject header: Survey Response By including this header, your email address will automatically be removed from your mail, ensuring immediate anonymity. For the purpose of ease of reading, throughout this questionnaire, the term MUD is used to include MUSHes, MOOs and other multi-user environments, such as IRC, that are not strictly MUDs, but involve multiple-user interactions. QUESTIONNAIRE Q. 1 Have you ever played on a MUD? How frequently? Never Once Monthly Weekly Everyday IF you answer NEVER to this question, please go to Q. 6 Q. 2 Are you a MUD player, wizard, god/administrator, other? Q. 3 Which MUD(s) do you visit most often, and why? Q. 4 How closely do you identify your MUD character/persona with yourself? Why? Q. 5 Do you, or your character, engage in behaviour upon the MUD that is different from your everyday behaviour? (For example, you are very shy in RL, but talkative when MUDding?) Q. 6 What do you consider inappropriate behaviour on MUDs? Q. 7 Would you consider this behaviour 'virtual crime'? Q. 8 Would you consider this behaviour an instance of a real- life crime? If so, would you consider it of the same importance as the real-life crime it compares to? (For instance, theft in a MUD, compared to theft in real-life) Q.9 Who should regulate inappropriate behaviour or virtual crime on MUDs? (e.g. players, wizards (immortals), sysadmins, state laws, federal laws, others, or no sanctions) Q.10 How prevalent do you believe 'virtual crime' to be? Never Occurs Rare Common Very Common Happens everyday Q.11 From the following list of behaviours, place an asterisk next to those which you believe are inappropriate. a. Player Killing b. Virtual sexual harassment c. Virtual rape d. Offensive language e. Virtual theft f. Invasion of privacy g. Immortals with mortal characters h. Other (please specify the behaviour) Q.12 From the following list of behaviours, place an asterisk next to those which you believe are virtual crimes. a. Player Killing b. Virtual sexual harassment c. Virtual rape d. Offensive language e. Virtual theft f. Invasion of privacy g. Immortals with mortal characters h. Other (please specify the behaviour) Q.13 From the following list of behaviours, place an asterisk next to those which you believe should be considered real- life crimes. a. Player Killing b. Virtual sexual harassment c. Virtual rape d. Offensive language e. Virtual theft f. Invasion of privacy g. Immortals with mortal characters h. Other (please specify the behaviour) Q.14 What penalties do you think are appropriate for the following behaviours on MUDs? (e.g. reprimand, public reprimand, character removal (aka toading), notifying sysop, removal of internet account, fine, suspended sentence, jail sentence, other, or no sanction. You may specify more than one penalty for each behaviour listed below.) a. Player Killing b. Virtual sexual harassment c. Virtual rape d. Offensive language e. Virtual theft f. Invasion of privacy g. Immortals with mortal characters h. Other (please specify the behaviour) Q. 15 Can you relate any instance of inappropriate behaviour, or 'virtual crime' you have experienced on a MUD, or that you know someone else has experienced at your MUD? (Please do not include names, character names, or the MUD involved in your answer. If you know, please give details of which command, or MUD object made this possible, for example an emote command, or a 'Wand of control' etc) Q. 16 What are your views on the Communications Decency Act recently passed in the United States? Q. 17 Where did you find this survey? (On which newsgroup, or mud, was it *advertised*?) Q. 18 Any other comments you would like to make on any of the topics covered in this questionnaire, that you feel were not covered by specific questions. THANK YOU FOR COMPLETING THE SURVEY. Instructions for returning it are above. Shane McKenzie, aka Daern. daern@ozramp.net.au (Shane McKenzie)