Implementation

Obviously there will have been practical as well as theoretical or methodological decisions to make, such as how to manage data collection, how to capture and track codes and how to capture and manage memos during the coding phases and how to perform the sort ensuring solid follow through into the write-up. For a complete coverage

117

of my learning process with the attendant dead ends, realizations and inspirations see the relevant chapter later in this thesis. This section deals with a somewhat idealized rationalization of the implementation of the methodology.

2.3.1. Data

The data collection was, eventually, almost entirely reliant on interviewing suitable subjects. While I experimented with other methods including observations, diaries, and email correspondence none of these provided the rapid and rich information provided by sitting down and discussing subjects’ experiences and opinions. A few memos were drawn from chance encounters and conversations; a few observations about a partially related focus group I observed during professional activities outside this research; and a single trial observational study. The total number of individuals who contributed data to this research, including a few which contributed directly memoed notes, from those chance encounters mentioned above, to flesh out the sort, is around 25. A non- comprehensive list of participants is provided in Appendix A.

Initially the lengthy interviews were recorded and fully transcribed, but once the theory was emerging and data collection and coding were becoming more streamlined only the recordings were used for coding. Once I had identified a candidate core category I moved to making summary field notes and stopped recording or transcribing interviews altogether. These were practical decisions intended to speed up the process as I become more confident in using the methodology. Transcribing from digital files seems to be less well established than transcribing from tape, and as the recordings I made were on both Minidisc and using the facility of a mobile phone to record telephone conversations. The process of converting digital files and transcribing them can take a great deal of time and effort, which arguably could be better spent in collecting more data and strengthening the research (Glaser 1998). Similarly audio recordings take a degree of setting up; one

118

needs to carry the equipment when one expects to collect data, find a quiet environment in which to make the recording, ask permission of the subject(s) that a recording be made, ensure the equipment is performing correctly and that there is enough capacity on the storage medium for the full extent of the interview. Almost all issues which I have fallen foul of at some stage (though I always ensured that I had informed consent from active participants). So as soon as I felt confident enough I followed Glaser’s advice and moved to making field notes, forgoing audio recordings, speeding up my iterations significantly.

That is not to say that the production of field notes is not problematic. Producing notes and interviewing at the same time slows the interview process and prevents one from fully engaging with the subject. However, producing notes after the interview has concluded may result in one forgetting to note important points made in the interview, focusing instead on their desired outcome. Interestingly Glaser’s preferred method is to write field notes after every interview as he believes that this allows the researcher to fully engage with the domain and that the notes are then also the first step in

abstraction from data to theory. I feel that the approach I have taken in this study, of moving from full transcript to field notes recorded during data collection is suitable for someone with developing skill and experience as a researcher.

2.3.2. Data management and coding

Keeping track of the data in the form of both text and audio, while allowing for the freedom in coding and memoing demanded by the GT methodology, presents other challenges. Using untranscribed audio as a source of data I was obviously unable to use a purely paper based system, as recording codes on paper would have been quite

difficult to tie to a section of a recording, without transcribing it. Indeed I had decided to use some form of software to track my codes and memos and their relationship to the

119

data at a stage before I decided to forgo transcription. The I used software then allowed the transition through using only the audio without transcription.

The various data, the codes and memos were collected together and tracked using Atlas.ti (ATLAS.ti Scientific Software Development GmbH 1993), a software package designed for an interpretation of GT. This package was just flexible enough to allow me to apply my own interpretation of the methodology and is capable of allowing one to attach codes to a wealth of different data types and to attach memos to both the data and the codes produced.

It must be pointed out that Glaser suggests coding in the margins of the field notes and writing memos independently of the data (but making reference to specific, traceable codes), thus ensuring that individual sections of the data are not over used, and that the origin of a code can be quickly traced (however this approach means that obtaining an overview of all the codes created is much more difficult than if the data, codes and memos are stored separately but linked by some mechanism such as that provided by specialist software).

The actual coding strategy employed in the pursuit of this research was initially guided by Straussian methods; noting interesting points about each piece of data (in my case salient points made during an interview which may have been a phrase, sentence or paragraph). When it became apparent that a primarily comparative scheme was more efficient, this method of denoting all points of interest was halted and the points made chunked together into comparative groupings which then became comparative codes for use in the more Glasarian coding scheme to follow. The originating data and codes in each comparative grouping were also inspected to formulate properties of these codes. Further coding was then performed in line with this comparative scheme, still accounting for the parent category when noting properties.

120

It is interesting to note that a coding scheme whereby the researcher denotes parts of the data and summarises them as some label or shortened description at first seems less complicated and onerous than comparing each section of the data to all other parts of the data looking for similarities and differences. However, in summarising all the data, applying any possible label the researcher can imagine, the wealth of codes quickly becomes too large to handle, and it was when this was realised that the original coding scheme was abandoned, new insights into the methodology were sought, and a new, more practical, coding scheme was initiated. A later section of this thesis will discuss misconceptions such as this and how they might affect a research programme. The above explanation of the false start and eventual recovery are included, because by starting to code in the descriptive way and then reforming that code book to be compatible with a comparative method of further encoding, the nature of the

methodology might have been fundamentally affected, potentially producing a different result than if only one coding method had been used. It is my belief that as enough data was collected to arrive at theoretical saturation and no more (there was a lagom amount of data and codes utilised in creating this theory, to utilise a very apt Swedish word), and that any further data collection, or coding fully comparatively at a different point in the process would have yielded a very similar result. This is a feature of the methodology, in that in iterating the data collection until theoretical saturation, no more data need be collected than necessary, as further data collection will not further modify the saturated theory, and it is the theory which is critical rather than the codes.

2.3.3. Theoretical sampling

A fundamental feature of the Grounded Theory methodology is that of Theoretical Sampling. As there is no theory or theoretical position at the start of the process of collecting and encoding data the only rational sampling strategy is that of Opportunity; grabbing the easiest to obtain data and analysing that. Any other strategy would assume

121

that we have some idea as to what kind of result we will expect, pointing us at specific places to look, which would require some hypotheses, which should rightfully come from a theory. As such it is only as hypotheses are formed that increasingly specific targets are sought in the data. In our case this method of sampling means that there should be no assumptive decision to sample a set number of game players, from certain

populations in a specific way. Where other, more validative, types of study might set out to sample, by structured interview say, a fixed number of people from both genders, a range of ages, specific races, specific nationalities, ranges of intelligence, the 6 NRS social grades, action game players, casual gamers, hardcore gamers, World of Warcraft players or any other group, we might reasonably ask why this metric was considered over other possible sampling dimensions. If no theoretical justification exists for a particular sampling dimension then there is no reason to consider it. If the sampling dimensions are intended to capture a representation of the population then there is still a problem as we do not know what proportions of what dimensions would constitute a representative sample, as we do not yet know the critical dimensions let alone the possible proportion of representation of that sample in the population.

Within the GT Methodology, as the opportunity sample is analysed the researcher is likely to form ideas about what seems to be going on, what the dimensions are, and thus, how the population might differ and thus what types of data might be useful to collect next. There are strategies to consider here, in that there are two ways of ensuring that the code and memo books are developing in useful ways. Once the researcher has a dimension in mind, sampling on that dimension can involve seeking different cases to those already included, in order to create more codes and memos, or similar cases to those already included, to saturate the properties of the existing codes and thus saturate the memo book.

122

The sampling performed in the research presented here focussed primarily on the demographic of the sample, with a little exploration of the data collection method. Initially the sample consisted of close friends with some known interest in playing videogames. The next step was to sample acquaintances of different ages (as there seemed to be a sense that experience of play was possibly involved) and from different social backgrounds (as it seemed theoretically obvious that my peers would have a fairly homogenous view of videogames: we were all likely to have encountered and enjoyed similar games). A recurring theme of many 'off record' conversations was that many people rejected videogames, and some of the data from people of different ages and backgrounds indicated that there were different ways that people encountered games as agreeable and became players, as such people who rejected games as well as people who would describe themselves as 'hardcore' gamers were interviewed. By this time the hypotheses of process of engagement and identification (with identification seeming to provide a core hypothesis at this stage) were well established and the sampling strategy shifted to short semi-structured interviews with a broad opportunity sample (mainly students on various courses) to saturate these concepts. As such the sampling dimensions could be said to have been gaming experience and stated preference for videogame play as an agreeable leisure activity followed by age (which might also capture part of the experiential difference). Social background was covered to some degree in the nature of the opportunity sample as was gender, and the theoretical direction of the research made explicitly sampling for the limits of these dimensions redundant in that it seemed unlikely that I would have found anything which might have expanded the theory of negotiated cultural value by talking to individuals who could be described as more privileged, educated, impoverished, marginalised, male or female than the existing sample other than a longer list of code properties of non-core codes. This stopping rule (that only data which expands the theory not the code book) is

123

important. The 'interchangeability of indicators', where a new piece of data can be said to inform the theory in the same way as another, gives rise to a general theory of the domain rather than a narrative of the cases sampled. It is my contention that the data collected are sufficient for promoting the theory developed, and that further data will provide further indicators, supporting rather than substantially expanding the theory. I further contend that sampling on any dimension within the domain of videogame players (and videogame aware non-players) will yield an equivalent theoretical result.

2.3.4. Memoing and sorting

Initially the memos were captured using the memo facility of Atlas, but could have originated in other places such as my personal pocket notebook.

During sorting the memos were printed out in their entirety, cut into individual slips of paper, and further memos were produced on hand written slips to be integrated along with the printed memos during the process of sorting.

At the stage of initiating the sorting process the memos suggested that individuals’ value judgements towards features of a game were related to their individual sense of their expected place in society; the memos were then sorted around this core, creating the dense, integrated theory presented below, which also draws in the other major theme which was present in the memos, that of a negotiation or process.

The aim of sorting in this instance was to develop piles of memo slips which contained the content for a handful of thesis chapters that could be used to explain the core category and how the other theoretical concepts contribute to the core, then to take these chapters and further sort them into subsections. These chapters and sections then directly informed the theoretical parts of the thesis.

124

2.3.5. Writing up

Writing up is considered to be part of the GT process rather than an activity which happens once the process is completed. That is the activity of creating theoretical memos leads into sorting and thence directly into writing. Also, while the theory is written as sorted there should also be an attempt to demonstrate where the theory sits in the general theoretical context. To this end my literature review at this stage

(literature reviews are advised against until a core category is identified, in order to maintain groundedness in the data), was captured on memos written on different coloured paper to be sorted into the relevant section and subsequently worked into the eventual written thesis section. The different coloured paper was used to clearly differentiate the memos concerning concepts from literature and those from the grounded process, while they are all piled up together in the sorted theory.

Some other writing did take place before saturation, sorting and actual thesis writing. I focused this on my understanding of the methodology with some mention of emerging codes. This did prove fruitful as feedback did suggest alternative views of the

methodology which ultimately resulted in greater understanding of the ongoing processes and aims.

Similarly, a brief literature review was performed even before GT was selected as a methodology, though no literature relating to theories of videogame play and engagement were consulted throughout the coding phases, and the major literature review was performed as part of the write-up.