The Quantitative/Qualitative Antinomy in Virtual World Studies

Abstract

This chapter takes a resolutely reflexive look at a research carried out from 2007 to 2009 on the video game World of Warcraft. It aims at making explicit the reasons why, in this research, qualitative and quantitative methodologies were conjointly used. Consequently, it will make visible the scientific practice that is usually left out of articles and reports, the trials and errors that influence the conduct of a research project. An empirical perspective, grounded on actual field research practices rather than a priori ideas on the quantitative/qualitative divide, reveals how difficult it is to make sense of this gap. More specifically, I will argue against the two methodology thesis that downsizes this divide to a simple theoretical opposition between objectivism and subjectivism. There are many similarities between the two methods. Furthermore, their differences cannot be accounted for only with their respective theoretical grounds. This counterproductive opposition can thus be replaced, with much profit, by a set or methodological guidelines much closer to the practice of conducting a research. The real question, then, is not so much "which one is better?" as "what can each method show, and under what conditions?