Hello Fellow Gamers,

Quite often in this game people go what they call incog. For those few of who may not know what that means. The definition is to go undercover and not tell anyone who are. I have been told I should do this , because I have made it clear  to everyone who I was. But for at least the last year and half I have been incog. I do not know who all knew from the start who I was.

  Nor do I care at this point because it was all for research purposes.

Yes, you heard me correctly for the last 2 to 3 years I have been here I have used this game platform and you wonderful people who play this game for observation purposes. For my academia studies. 

Some of you knew this , I told you straight up what I was doing. Using my interactions here as a platform for my studies. These were all upper stricter, people such as Crew leaders, or the Right hand man .

 I know at times I came across badly, but please understand that Not was I using you fine people and this game as my research platform, I also was using myself as a test subject. 

You may be wondering at this point what field I studying, or at this point really hate me for using you and not telling you I was.

Take a breathe and let me explain.

First I am studying Social Behavioral Science. Second you need to know why I chose this as a platform my for  research and observations. I am disabled and sick  and very house bound, reality of it is I am very bed bound.  My studies have all been online through the local community college. Lastly OI am done with with my first 3 years of study in this field and am moving on to University studies to obtain my BA in Social Science / with a specialized certification attached to it  Career and Life Planning. I have always been a gamer, I owned pong, I lived  at the arcade when I was a kid, you usually found me in an arcade. I do not watch television for various reasons and with the all the time I have play games. I have been in the online gaming community in many ways over the span of 20 years at least. I have been a player, I have been in admin positions, I have been in moderator positions, and I even helped one game site establish a role-play forum. 

Why do I tell you this because it is my experience, it is my background. I love the online gaming community , in the span of 20 years this community has not only created itself it has regulated itself to some degree. The online gaming community is a strong one. I think the gamer are going to be on the forefront of what the future holds for our online community in its entirety.

When I started my studies in social science the head of the Sociology department was the teacher of the class. She opened up with, "If you think you are  here to  study sociology and think people will like you , you are in the wrong field.  She told us no one likes us because we ask questions, they either do not want to answer, or do want to find the answer ,  or that people get upset because we think of something they do not.   I laughed at that becasue,  I do not care if people like me. I have been keeping you all at arms length getting to know you all.  You will find that now that my research on the online gaming community is over I bee a different kind person and player now. So, don't be afraid to actually come and get to me.  People liking me or not does not keep me awake at night.  The teacher also told us that in the field of Social Science and Behavioral Science  we need to observations , we use the scientific method.

People who study in these fields have a moral obligation, and ethics codes  first to their research then to those in society that they  are using fro their research.

This  is where the purpose of this letter to you all comes in. 

See it was perfectly ethical for me to lie to most of you people about what I was doing behind the keyboard.  Why?! you may be asking as you shake your head at me.  Because I had told several people who are regularly in the upper structure in this game what exactly I was doing. They laughed it off like a joke, I  let them .  Because you can not  control others response or behavior you only have control over your own. 

I will take this moment to explain to  you why my lying to you  was ethical.  An affect in the field of behavioral science called the HAWTHORN AFFECT. What is that?  Basically it is a theory that says people will change their behavior if they know they are being watched. I saw this happen in front of  my eyes very early in my  studies and was so fascinated by it.

It was at a water board district public meeting . People were all yelling at each other and generally being nasty just becasue they can as often the  human animal does.   The President and the VP of the water board knew I was there on assignment from one of my Sociology classes. and when it was time for the people on the floor to speak I stood up and they introduced  myself as an observer for my sociology class to observe the meting. The general public who been rude earlier to each  other changed. It was almost as if the air in the room calmed. People were more respectable to each other for the rest of the meeting.

So, I have seen first hand this Hawthorn Affect. It can ruin observations, and in  the end ruin experiments, becasue the observer will not get  a true accurate reading.  I needed my research to be as true, accurate and ethical as possible. 

The number one ethical code in Social and behavioral science  concerning living subjects,is the safety and welfare of the observation subject while maintaining the integrity of the observation or study.  To maintain the integrity of my observation I had to only tell a couple people what I was doing and leave the rest to not suffer from the Hawthorn Affect. 

This gave two groups to observe the group who knew and the group who did not.

Another moral and ethical code that people  in the field of Behavioral and Social Science have to uphold is  the observation subject does have a right to know they were being observed and why.  These ethics and morals are why I am writing this to you and explaining this all to  you fine people.

That is one reason anyways.

Also, I want to take this opportunity to say

Thank you to all of you here at Mafia Returns

For talking with me and answering some of  the questions that I know you were wondering where they came from.  Now you know where the  conversation subjects came from.

Now if you feel the  need to get mad at me for this, that is fine that is how you  feel.

If you need to have some closure becasue of what I just told  you all . Send me a private message I will happily  answer any of your questions.

A great big heartfelt most appreciated to all of you thank you.

Now I will go be a player. 

Hope you  are all having a wonderful day. Enjoy your game. :)

~ Tosti

My youngest is like that. She's definitely got some sort of attention disorder, however excels when she knows she's being tested. Every time the specialists send someone to observe her behavior, she's an absolute angel. She's already intelligent enough, so when they send someone with a bag of tests for her to do, she makes us look like fools for ever suggesting anything is wrong. I've always said she needs to be observed in a much more candid way.

Anyway, 'welcome' to the game and... you're welcome?

Did you find this place as part of your studies, or do you share our mutual interest in mafia, power, blood, bitching etc?

I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm not in the least bit upset at potentially being a test subject. If anything, I'm intrigued.

You say it's a social behaviour experiment, but that's quite a vague description. I'm assuming a thesis or dissertation of some sort? Does it have a name? Certainly MafiaReturns has quite a unique microcosm, so what was the core purpose of the study?

I would ask these questions privately, but I expect I won't be the only one curious about the different aspects of your study.

I don't really understand how this could have provided you with any meaningful research, but if you got something valuable out of it, crack on I guess.

I'm curious about your research design. What sort of question were you hoping to answer? How did you choose the specific people to interview and observe? What were your variables?

(The first being as Terry brought up, on review)

Certainly feel free to message me when you get a chance. I'm quite interested, along with others, it would seem.

My sister did Sociology - now she's a pets at home cashire. Off topic but i don't know you so, bleep blorp

@ Tommy Mezzo I found this game through another games vote site that I had already been playing for well over 10 years . I did not  play at the game while, I was doing my research to keep people I had already interacted with for years  from being potential observations.  Among other personal reasons, the main reason for this was that  I felt my previous knowledge of them and their lives outside the game would taint my results.

@ Terri I like your questions very well thought out. I have just finished the first step which was my observation part and  note taking and class discussion parts . I did this over the span of my stay here which started 4 years ago in April.  Due to the notes and amount of discussions I used this place as examples for in learning concepts, and theories, I tested out a  few theories such as the Hawthorn Affect that I mentioned.   As I said in the primary post I am starting my university studies in the Fall of this year. I was accepted by my State University into their online B(achelors)O(n) L(ine) D(egree)program. This is  a program made for people much like myself who live in remote areas, or are housebound for some reason. I will  be taking this research and my notes, everything I gathered for it  with me to continue my studies. What comes of my study eventually , I don't know.  My basic idea in my study is about  community and how and why  people interact the way they they do.  The human animal is very fascinating and complex.

@ Gary thank you. have a nice day.

@ Grin-05 that is becasue you are not knowledge of Social Science, nor do you  have any idea what Behavioral Science means. If you did have these definitions in your mind, it would not be  hard for to see what I may have gotten from my research. I do apologize if I have used terms  or language you are not aware of . This could be the issue as to why you do not still understand, I do not know but if you truly want to figure out why please feel to contact me in PRIVATE message, and will be able to   discuss our way to an understanding point.  I thank you Grin for your  support though with your lovely crack on statement. It made me smile. :)

@ Robert Moore. First I loved Roger Moore as a James Bond,  so great last name pick.   I do not like repeating myself and if I answered  your question I would be doing that. Redundancy, repetition really bores me to no end.  So I respectfully ask you to refer to my answer to Terri as this is what I would say to answer your question. 

@ Spicy  I have already been many things in my life. Some jobs I enjoyed more  than others. I have also had my dream job already.. and owned my own business for awhile.

My dream job,  I was  a teacher for several years. I use to be a behavioral coach for special education grades K-12. I was in  a very bad car accident  where it took me nearly two years to relearn how to walk. So when I found myself needing to redirect.  Redirect I did I went back to school. Sociology and behavioral science felt like  a natural progression.  My studies were so good I finished two A.A  degrees in 3 years . Where average is one degree in two years.. I was on the Dean's List several times, and invited to the PTK organization asked me to become a member, which I did accept and became a member of .  I am currently writing letters to programs that are wanting me to come study with them. I had to turn down an offer to continue my studies out of the United United this summer  due to a pending surgery in the near future for some health issues.  So, I had  to decline the offer and ask to be placed on next years( summer) roster , my health pending.  Hopefully I get my health regulated stable and a better quality in that year, I would love to continue my studies with that program. 

  @ Everyone

All these accomplishments during my studies are due to my observations I did on this game and you fine people.  This  is why I say thank you, to the community. I would not have had the observations I did and the class discussions I had, the Dean' s list's and the invitation to PTK  if it were not for you people.  I would not have the opportunity to  write to these recruiters trying to recruit me to their schools or programs. It was all you guys who made it possible for me to  achieve these things I just listed. <3 So thank you all.

I demand payment for being used in this study.

Amazing how your idiotic fake persona is alarmingly close to your idiotic actual persona. Good luck with your research. I can't wait to read the final piece in the Journal of Imaginary Nonsense. 

Thank you Ruben Gary and Grin-05 for your feedback it is appreciated as long as it is authentic.

thank you. have a nice day.

I'm glad you were able to take something away from your experience here that helps with your studies. I hope that you will continue to play for many years!! 

Hey Ryant, that`s cool, taking a game as field for research purpose, i guess it makes sense to take an online game, since people show their true selfs here, on the online space. I am glad you were able to finish your study and theories, i would like to ask, if you publish them (your studies) somewhere, please mail me the link so i can read it and take my own conclusions about what you was able to understand from our virtual society.

Thank you both of you MissNiki and Dovahkin.   I still have at least two years  ( haven't decided if I am going past my Bachelors yet or not) till my studies are done on this next phase anyways. Hopefully I can take the offer to study over seas next summer.

I found your comments to Grin to be quite condescending. He's a bright fellow. I'm sure he understands the rudimentary language you used.  I get the impression that you like to think of yourself as the smartest person in the room, yet you have not earned even a Bachelor's degree. There are several people around here with advanced degrees. I have three, including a doctorate. I'm not bragging, just trying to make a point that you might consider humbling yourself a little bit.  Also, I'm a little curious as to what sort of research project as an undergraduate lasts multiple years? I wrote a 75 page dissertation and that took less than one year.

Giving you the benefit of the doubt that everything you said is genuine, why would you drone on and on about possible ethical dilemmas? There is nothing unethical about simple observation in any almost setting (excepting, of course, environments that are subject to confidentiality). I doubt anyone gives a shit about being observed. I think most people were simply curious about the hypothesis you proposed and what sort of conclusion you drew?  Fifteen minutes of my life wasted, and you didn't even touch on it.

@ Frank Pastorelli thank you for your opinion about who I am behind the screen.  I  also appreciate your pep  talk on my future goals. I do apologize that you feel the need to come  out and  try and provoke me into some triad argument because I may or not of hurt your ego.  Furthermore the 15 minutes you wasted reading and responding to this is not my concern or issue or lost time, it is yours and you can own that. You did that to yourself, you did not have to come here and read my post nor did you have to post . That lost time is on you. Thank you for  you opinion and have a nice day.

@ Mr-Incredible  you are correct they are not any measure of intelligence especially since you the IQ and EQ and they are both measured differently. Some of the smartest people never finished high or even went to college.   Such as Steve Jobs. mentioned in Why I hate School and love education. Hope you  have a good day .

Suli Breaks - Why I Hate School But Love Education

Thank you both of you for your input, Have a great day.

I feel the need to tell anybody that if you find me offensive, condescending or otherwise rude to you, or treating you in any way you do not like.

I suggest you quit finding me and wasting your time.

Have a Great day :)

Geez Your story sounds so familiar, but I can not pin point who you exactly are Ryant, as I think you have sort of told me about yourself but I just can't figure out who.

I think I have saw your profile couple times stating "If you don't feed me, fuck me, or finance me. I don't give a shit what you think of me." in a couple of your characters.