What this publication is

Most writing about games and virtual worlds is either a press release with a headline on it or a hot take with no numbers under it. There is very little in between: research that states what it measured, over what period, with what sample, and what would make it wrong.

ROLearn Intelligence is the in-between. It exists to answer a specific class of question that a marketer, a studio operator, or an investor actually has to make decisions about: how games become businesses, how they become media channels, and how the economies inside them behave.

What gets published here

Eight kinds of work, each of which makes a different promise. The kind is always stated in the byline and on the card, so you know what you are reading before you read it.

• Research: Original data collected and analysed by ROLearn Intelligence, with the question, sample, method and limitations stated in full.
• Analysis: Interpretation of data we or others published, arguing toward a conclusion a practitioner can act on.
• Data Brief: One chart, one finding, five minutes. The smallest publishable unit of original data.
• Case Study: A single activation, campaign or game reconstructed end to end from public and first-party data.
• Report: A flagship study, usually periodic, with a full methodology appendix and a downloadable dataset where licensing allows.
• Opinion: An argued position, clearly labelled as such. Facts are sourced; the conclusion is the author's.
• News: What happened, when, and why it matters to people building or marketing in virtual worlds.
• Interview: A conversation with an operator, edited for length and clarity, with the edits disclosed.

The standard every piece is held to

Anything published as research, a data brief, a case study, or a report must state its research question, data source, sample size, collection period, methodology, definitions, and limitations. That block appears at the top of the piece, not buried in an appendix, because a number quoted without its caveats is how good research turns into bad decisions.

The full rules are in the editorial standards and the research methodology. When we get something wrong, the fix is logged in public on the corrections page, with the original claim left legible.

Independence, and where the money comes from

This publication is funded by ROLearn, the software business, and by advertising. Neither buys influence over a finding. Advertisers get labelled positions and nothing else; the full arrangement is set out in the advertising disclosure.

Where a piece uses ROLearn's own collection pipeline as a data source, it says so explicitly in the apparatus block. That is a real conflict of interest and the honest response to it is disclosure plus a method you can check, not a claim of neutrality nobody could verify.

Two sites, two jobs

rolearn.dev is the software and the commercial product. intelligence.rolearn.dev is the research and the media. They share an owner and a data pipeline; they do not share an editorial process. Nothing you read here is a product page in disguise.

Questions we get asked

Who publishes ROLearn Intelligence?

ROLearn Intelligence is published by ROLearn and led by Tu Dang, its founder. ROLearn is a market-intelligence platform for game developers, studios, and brand teams working in virtual worlds.

Is the research independent of the product?

The publication uses ROLearn's collection pipeline as a data source and says so on every piece that does. No customer, advertiser, or sponsor sees a piece before it publishes, and no finding is withheld because it is inconvenient for the product.

Can I quote or republish this research?

Yes. Quote any figure with attribution to ROLearn Intelligence and a link to the piece it came from. For a full reproduction of a chart or dataset, email intelligence@rolearn.dev.

Get in touch

Editorial and research: intelligence@rolearn.dev
Corrections: corrections@rolearn.dev
Advertising: advertising@rolearn.dev

More on who is behind this, or read the research.