The Experiment

We run the experiment by introducing the players to the setting and adjusting the control variables, or rules, so that they remain constant and unchanged through the course of the investigation ... er, um, the game running.  We introduce the players as independent variables into the experiment and we are as careful as reality allows to restrain ourselves from tainting the experiment with unnecessary adjustments.  However, the observer effect remains nonetheless, because every statement made by the DM must necessarily alter the state of the independent variables being measured.

This reduces the quality of the experiment as an experiment considerably.  However, the social activity of the players can still be observed with reasonable expectations of learning from their behaviours and choices, so that by listening and watching, and restraining ourselves from interaction, we can gain an understanding of the players' patterns of behaviour, cultural norms, values, creative habits, actions under specific circumstances, organization of self-imposed authorities, means of communication and knowledge sharing, kinship, willingness to sacrifice, emotional responses, cognitive strengths and willingness to collaborate, and finally commonalities that can be seen in the various subjects being monitored.

The experiment can be run again and again, every week in fact, with the same subjects/players or with different subjects as opportunity allows, so that ~ if the players are left alone ~ we can see how to adjust the control variables to encourage certain spontaneous behaviours while suppressing others.  If we remove controls on restrictive player behaviours, for example, no longer requiring them to behave either lawfully or chaotically; and we impose other controls, such as keeping them from attacking one another, we can see an organic development in overall processes that suggest other hypotheses that will lead to further experiments.  Each conclusion allows us to improve as scientists, especially if we retain an observational that restrains ourselves from imposing our own beliefs, except before the experiment is initiated, as our beliefs are imposed through the control variables we choose.

In short, having created the experiment, we can take the role of anthropologists watching the players interact, to see what they'll do, once placed in the given situation.  This enables the players full freedom of action within the boundaries of the experiment.  In this manner, we can separate ourselves from the supposed immediate wants of the subjects, which can be denied, so that we may observe long-term whether or not the frustration of those wants leads to a negative response to the experiment or a positive one.

Does a player's request for immediate gratification today have any meaningful influence over the player's sense of well-being if gratification comes with time and through the player learning how to press the right levers?

Only an experiment will tell.