For this
week, the “open topic” really baffled me, and it reminded me of how lost someone
can feel when writing an essay with no prompt (*cough* Keilty). It took years,
but I finally settled on trying to find some example of research being done without
immediate academic or scholarly purpose.
Beyond gaming,
I also have an interest in sports leagues like the NBA, which actually involves
multiple research methods on every level. There’s the data being gathered on
shots, passes, assists, and so forth on a game-to-game basis by scorekeepers
and interpreted by coaches, scouts, writers, and fans alike. There’s also the
(often unreliable) research conducted by sports writers on the off-court life
of a player, all still pertinent to the game as a whole because the
relationships, actions, and interactions outside of what we see on television
can play a tremendous part in “movement” – the trading, signing, or waiving of
a specific player. You can even look at what the average fan does to keep up in
the NBA as a form of casual research: checking the box score, their favourite
player’s line for the night, and the upcoming schedule of their team.
Do you guys
have any similar examples of research and research methods outside of the
classroom?
This reminds me a lot of Sabermetrics, which was/is the idea that statistical data on baseball can be analyzed to show what teams will win, and to determine what decisions a coach/manager should make in order to win. A guy named Bill James came up with the idea and he wrote a bunch of books on the subject. Baseball in general is also pretty statistics heavy, a lot of fans come to games with sheets to fill out (after 3 years I still don't understand what they're writing down).
ReplyDeleteI asked a friend once about those sheets! Apparently they're recording the scores for themselves - can't tell if it's habit, or because they don't trust the digitally displayed scores!
DeleteMargot, they're recording how much the price of hot dogs and beer has sky rocketed through the years!
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness, I believe we spoke briefly about this. Many baseballs fans record every hit, action, etc, happening throughout the game. I personally think this is a tradition from the days when baseball was broadcast via radio, and people needed a physical way to follow those long games without losing their minds.
You know what would also be interesting to look at along the lines of Basketball is the NCAA March Madness tournament and how much analysis goes into that bracket! Sports analytics is a really interesting topic. You could also study fantasy leagues, not only the information involved in this but also the cultural aspects. Fascinating!
ReplyDelete