That's a Wrap!

March 2025

I did it! 25 interviews organised, around 150 semi-structured questions asked, and 25 students’ voices, transcribed, recorded and ready to be coded. 21 interviews were carried out via Zoom, four in a variety of Cardiff-based coffee shops, and there were 19 male participants and 6 female interviewees; a gender balance I’d expected but am still a little disappointed to have experienced, as it does add weight to the argument that men play (RPG) video games far more than women. Ah well.

I didn’t realise how mentally ‘done in’ I’d be at the end of this. Admittedly, it has been a rather intense process, with all interviews carried out in the space of just over a month. To be honest it hit me like a train – I’d just logged out of Zoom after carrying out the final interview and BAMMO! I suddenly felt like my brain had deflated and my eyes couldn’t stay open. Ironically, I had finally got over my ‘performance anxiety’ (pre-interview nerves) and felt that I was finally getting to grips with the process and starting to do what felt like ‘reasonably god interviews’. Typical!

Being mentally exhausted doesn’t mean I haven’t enjoyed this part of my research – I have, immensely, and I’m honestly going to miss chatting to people. I’ve mentioned how much I was enjoying the process midway through in a post you can read here. I ended every interview feeling really buzzy and excited about what I’d heard. Memos were written in abundance, because everyone – even in the shortest of interviews – had something meaningful and important to share. As they opened up, realising that they had a safe space in which to talk about one of their (often misunderstood) passions, they became more engaged, more animated – and more honest. And at the end of each interview, many told me how much they had enjoyed the interview, everyone was keen to find out more about my research, pleased that they were helping to add to research that wants to point out that games can be a force for good. Many have offered to participate again, if needed, and to this end, only today (7th March) one of my first interviewees has just emailed a very honest and vulnerable email detailing a negative unintended consequence they have just experienced, and the work they are doing to turn this bad experience into a good one. There’s something I had never considered – using a negative UC as a starting point for reflection and personal growth. Bloody hell!

Going back to that final interview – I have to come clean and admit that after logging off, I took myself off for a sneaky 2pm nap and woke up after a deep sleep three and a half hours later. It was a work day. I hope my boss never reads this post…

…A few days later and I’m reflecting on all of this. I’m exhilarated. I’m excited. And on the back of that, I’m also really worried that this has been almost too easy. Surely I’ve done all of this wrong, and totally missed the point along the way, because it shouldn’t feel this simple? And, quite frankly, shouldn’t have been this bloody enjoyable? I am genuinely missing talking to bright, articulate, enthusiastic people about our shared love of games.

Anyway, here’s the obligatory staged photo of the very notebook I’m jotting all oof these thoughts into. It’s spring, I’m in Wales so the daffodils are especially beautiful, the mocha is great and after publishing this post I’m going to take a couple of weeks off from all things PhD-related to ready myself for the next step: initial coding.