This week there were no closures, and the drama just made me want to puke so I tried to ignore it in favour of something positive. IE: Nick Yee’s Work. This week’s Massive Update is brought to you by the letter D.

The Daedalus Project is an ongoing research project run by Nick Yee, a Ph.D. graduate from Stanford University and a man widely regarded as one of the foremost researchers into the field of virtual worlds. Every so often, Yee releases a few short papers based on the information he’s gathered.

If you’ve never heard of the Daedalus project, the best place to start is at The Daedalus Gateway, which highlights some of the most interesting topics Yee has followed up on in his work. For example, did you know the average player spends about twenty hours a week playing? The average age of an MMO Gamer is 26, and more than a third of Massive gamers are married?

“Another caricature of video gamers is that they are solitary hermits, but the data on MMORPG players show that 80% of MMORPG players play with someone they know in RL (a romantic partner, family member, or friend) on a regular basis,” says one of Yee’s reports. “Thus, MMORPGs are in fact highly social environments where new relationships are forged and existing relationships are reinforced.”

This newest chapter in the ongoing project deals with a bevy of fascinating topics, including memorable experiences, leadership roles, and the life-cycle of a player.