There must be alot of money in online gaming research. It seem at least once a month, we are writing about a new study on online gaming or social gaming.

Today our company is SRI International, an independent nonprofit research and development organization, that is leading a global research team to study online behavior in virtual gaming environments.

The Virtual Environment Real User Study (VERUS) will compare and explore the relationships between real-world characteristics of gamers and what their avatars do in online virtual worlds.

The company hopes that a look at world wide gamers will help to show how gamers from different cultures approach online gaming. They will recruit volunteers although no information is given on how to volunteer. For the study, researchers will be watching volunteers play in Second Life and World of Warcraft (and other virtual environments) in computer laboratories or internet cafes.

“We have formed a strong, multidisciplinary team of international researchers and organizations with extensive knowledge of behaviors in virtual worlds, as well as in experimental economics, social and behavioral sciences, education research, linguistics, cognitive engineering and artificial intelligence,” said John Murray, Ph.D., principal investigator for the VERUS project. “We anticipate that the study’s findings will significantly enhance SRI’s existing capabilities in the study and use of virtual worlds, especially for our work for clients in the fields of education, simulation and training.”

An interesting note is that Multiverse, a virtual world platform developer, will be involved providing specialized virtual environments for the study.