Sinéad

World of Warcraft currently has 11.5 million monthly subscribers, there are 15 million registered-accounts on Second Life, and 38,000 active members in-world at any one time. These numbers show that millions of people are interacting, collaborating, and forming strong relationships online every day - with fascinating outcomes.

My name is Eily Coghlan, and I’m currently studying Msc Cyberpsychology along with Sinéad. My research is specifically interested in investigating gender bending online. This is when an individual chooses to play an avatar who has a different gender online then they have in real life. It’s a common occurrence in online gaming, and a simple Google search returns hundreds of thousands of results. I’m trying to discover what inspires people to gender bend and what reasons they have for doing so. As part of my reseach I have created an online survey which I need people who gender-bend in these games AND people who don’t gender-bend to fill out.

Like Sinéad has already done, you also have the chance to win a €50 Amazon voucher at the end of the survey! You can now double your chances! I appreciate anyone who responds, I am extremely grateful! If you don’t happen to play either of these games, please pass it on to anyone that you know who does. It’s quite quick, only takes 10 minutes to complete!

Thanks to Sinéad for letting me sneak in on her blog!