Recently in Virtual World Category

Bainbridge, William S. "The Scientific Research Potential of Virtual Worlds." Science. Vol 317. 2007. pp 472 - 476.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/317/5837/472

ABSTRACT
Online virtual worlds, electronic environments where people can work and interact in a somewhat realistic manner, have great potential as sites for research in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences, as well as in human-centered computer science. This article uses Second Life and World of Warcraft as two very different examples of current virtual worlds that foreshadow future developments, introducing a number of research methodologies that scientists are now exploring, including formal experimentation, observational ethnography, and quantitative analysis of economic markets or social networks.

Steinkuehler, Constance A. "Cognition and Learning in Massively Multiplayer Online Games: A Critical Approach." University of Wisconsin - Madison, 2005.

http://website.education.wisc.edu/steinkuehler/thesis.html

ABSTRACT
This dissertation consists of a collection of articles based on a two-year online cognitive ethnography of the Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) entitled Lineage. In the first chapter, I outline why we ought to research MMOGaming culture (Chapter One, Part One) and present a theoretical framework for how we might go about such investigation (Chapter One, Part Two). Next, I apply the suggested theory to selected data, demonstrating both its applicability and explanatory power (Chapter Two). In the remaining four chapters, I address specific research questions that are prompted by the theoretical lens used: how identity is constructed in such environments (Chapter Three), the nature of learning in MMOG cultures (Chapter Four), the literacy practices that constitute participation in such environments (Chapter Five), and finally how the virtual worlds of MMOGs bear on other worlds beyond them (Chapter Six) at both the micro level of individual experience (how MMOGs function in the everyday life of those who participate, Part One) and the macro level of broader economic, legal, and social forces (how MMOGs are a "mangle of practice," Pickering 1995, of corporations, designers, players, and in-game currency farmers, caught up in the tensions of an increasingly globalized world, Part Two). I have chosen to keep the citations organized under separate headings for each chapter for ease of reference. All tables and figures, however, are compiled together at the end. In what follows, I briefly review the contents of each chapter in greater depth.

Heim, Michael. The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality. NetLibrary, Incorporated, 1993.

http://www.amazon.com/Metaphysics-Virtual-Reality-Michael-Heim/dp/0195092589

ABSTRACT

Lastowka, Greg and Hunter, Dan. "The Laws of Virtual Worlds." California Law Review. 2003.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=402860

ABSTRACT
What if you could check out of your world, and enter a place where the social environment was different, where real world laws didn't apply, and where the political system could be anything you wanted it to be? What if you could socialize there with family and friends, build your own palace, go skiing, and even hold down a job there? And what if there wasn't one alternate world, there were hundreds, and what if millions of people checked out of Earth and went there every day?

Virtual worlds - online worlds where millions of people come to interact, play, and socialize - are a new type of social order. In this Article, we examine the implications of virtual worlds for our understanding of law, and demonstrate how law affects the interests of those within the world. After providing an extensive primer on virtual worlds, including their history and function, we examine two fundamental issues in detail.

First, we focus on property, and ask whether it is possible to say that virtual world users have real world property interests in virtual objects. Adopting economic accounts that demonstrate the real world value of these objects and the exchange mechanisms for trading these objects, we show that, descriptively, these types of objects are indistinguishable from real world property interests. Further, the normative justifications for property interests in the real world apply - sometimes more strongly - in the virtual worlds.

Second, we discuss whether avatars have enforceable legal and moral rights. Avatars, the user-controlled entities that interact with virtual worlds, are a persistent extension of their human users, and users identify with them so closely that the human-avatar being can be thought of as a cyborg. We examine the issue of cyborg rights within virtual worlds and whether they may have real world significance.

The issues of virtual property and avatar rights constitute legal challenges for our online future. Though virtual worlds may be games now, they are rapidly becoming as significant as real-world places where people interact, shop, sell, and work. As society and law begin to develop within virtual worlds, we need to have a better understanding of the interaction of the laws of the virtual worlds with the law of this world.

Pearce, Celia. "The Truth About Baby Boomer Gamers." Games & Culture. Vol 3. Issue 2. 2008 pp 142 - 174.

http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/~cpearce3/PearcePubs/PEARCE_BabyBoomerGamers.pdf

ABSTRACT
This article describes a study conducted in the summer of 2006 aimed at exploring the play patterns and lifestyles of gamers who fall into the loose demographic of "Baby Boomers," typically defined as people born between 1946 and 1964. This independent study, including more than 300 participants, combined quantitative and qualitative techniques to paint a multifaceted picture of the gaming lifestyles and tastes of this understudied population. The study findings show that Baby Boomers comprise a vibrant video game audience, that they are devoted players, and that they have distinct needs and interests that have gone ignored by both the mainstream game industry and the game press. They also provide some detailed data about their play styles and gaming interests, the role of gaming in their larger media mix, as well as specific case studies that paint a nuanced portrait of this understudied and underserved audience.

Lofgren, Eric T. and Fefferman, Nina H. "The untapped potential of virtual game worlds to shed light on real world epidemics." The Lancet Infectious Diseases. Vol 7. Issue 9. 2007. pp 625 - 629.

http://terranova.blogs.com/s14733099077021283.pdf

ABSTRACT
Simulation models are of increasing importance within the field of applied epidemiology. However, very little can be done to validate such models or to tailor their use to incorporate important human behaviours. In a recent incident in the virtual world of online gaming, the accidental inclusion of a disease-like phenomenon provided an excellent example of the potential of such systems to alleviate these modelling constraints. We discuss this incident and how appropriate exploitation of these gaming systems could greatly advance the capabilities of applied simulation modelling in infectious disease research.

Steinkuehler, Constance A. "Learning in massively multiplayer online games." Sixth International Conference on the Learning Sciences. Kafai and Sandoval and Enyedy, N. and Nixon and Herrera, F. Erlbaum, 2004.

http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1149126.1149190

ABSTRACT
Given their increasing domination of the entertainment industry and wide spread popularity among a wide range of populations, massively multiplayer online videogames (MMOGs) are quickly becoming the form of entertainment and a major mechanism of socialization. Researchers have taken notice, and educational MMOGs are now beginning to emerge; however, there is a paucity of research on the actual culture/cognition of MMOGameplay, despite its necessity for sound theory and viable design. This paper outlines an ongoing cognitive ethnography of a currently thriving MMOG. Using discourse analytic methods, this project is developing a "thick description" (Geertz, 1973) of naturally-occurring gameplay, paying particular attention to the forms of socially and materially distributed cognition that emerge, the learning mechanisms embedded within community practice, and the ways in which participation shapes and is shaped by the situated (on-and off-screen) identities of its members. After outlining the data collection and analysis methods used, I present an illustrative analysis of selected data and preliminary findings specific to learning within this new virtual space for play.

Pearce, Celia. Communities of Play: Emergent Cultures in Multiplayer Games and Virtual Worlds. MIT Press, 2009.

http://www.amazon.com/Communities-Play-Emergent-Cultures-Multiplayer/dp/0262162571/ref=pd_sim_b_5

ABSTRACT
"[Celia Pearce's] background as a games designer is evident in the way she respectfully engages readers in clear, vivid prose structured in an original and--can we say it?--entertaining way. From its thoughtful analyses of play and community to its authoritative contextualization of games and virtual worlds, this book repays study on many levels. Enjoy!"
--from the foreword by Bonnie Nardi

Play communities existed long before massively multiplayer online games; they have ranged from bridge clubs to sports leagues, from tabletop role-playing games to Civil War reenactments. With the emergence of digital networks, however, new varieties of adult play communities have appeared, most notably within online games and virtual worlds. Players in these networked worlds sometimes develop a sense of community that transcends the game itself. In Communities of Play, game researcher and designer Celia Pearce explores emergent fan cultures in networked digital worlds--actions by players that do not coincide with the intentions of the game's designers.

Pearce looks in particular at the Uru Diaspora--a group of players whose game, Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, closed. These players (primarily baby boomers) immigrated into other worlds, self-identifying as "refugees"; relocated in There.com, they created a hybrid culture integrating aspects of their old world. Ostracized at first, they became community leaders. Pearce analyzes the properties of virtual worlds and looks at the ways design affects emergent behavior. She discusses the methodologies for studying online games, including a personal account of the sometimes messy process of ethnography.

Pearce considers the "play turn" in culture and the advent of a participatory global playground enabled by networked digital games every bit as communal as the global village Marshall McLuhan saw united by television. Countering the ludological definition of play as unproductive and pointing to the long history of pre-digital play practices, Pearce argues that play can be a prelude to creativity.

Burke, Timothy. "Can a Table Stand on One Leg? Critical and Ludological Thoughts on Star Wars: Galaxies." Game Studies Journal. Vol 5. Issue 1. 2005.

http://gamestudies.org/0501/burke/

ABSTRACT
My frustration in this case is somewhat similar. Does a virtual economy that follows a Pareto distribution or centers on mechanisms of hyper-accumulation make one think of the fictional universe of Star Wars, give one a sense of experiential immersion in a galaxy far, far away? Star Wars the fictional property seems to have wealth and poverty, so perhaps so. However, is the role that players want to play in such a universe, their sense of desired imaginative investment, more about being Uncle Owen and less about being Luke Skywalker? No one comes into Ultima Online planning to play an anonymous serf, and yet, a massive social foundation of serf-like labor ought to be the essence of economic realism in a faux-medieval setting. If Koster is satisfied with a power law distribution of wealth because it is realistic, why doesn't he also want most players to be explicitly framed as a laboring class within a pyramidal economy? Somebody is doing manual labor down in the spice mines of Kessel, after all.

Leo and Chang, Geunyoung. "Lifestyles of virtual world residents: Living in the on-line game Lineage." CyberPsychology and Behavior. Vol 7. Issue 5. 2004.

http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089%2Fcpb.2004.7.592

ABSTRACT
This study attempted to explore different lifestyles of game players who have adopted the virtual world as part of their life in the online game world. An online survey was conducted to the players of one of famous Internet based games called 'Lineage'. 'Lineage' has become the biggest online game in the world accommodating over 6 million users worldwide, where people create his or her new identities and play various roles. 4,786 game players have participated in the survey, and their lifestyles were identified with their values and attitudes in the virtual world. Upon classification of their lifestyles, the behavioral tendencies and characteristic desires were compared by the lifestyles in virtual world. The study showed that game players have developed their own distinctive lifestyles, and the lifestyles were strong criterion on explaining the behavior patterns and their different desire to achieve in the world among them. The lifestyles were classified into three general categories; Single-Oriented Player, Community-Oriented Player, Off-real World Gamer. Each group displayed distinct differences in their values and game activities, as well as anti-social behavior tendencies. The differences were reflecting not only their personality but also their socio-economic status within the virtual world that is constructed through the game activities. This study hopes to serve as a model to understand how players from different real life backgrounds will behave to the various game features and how they adopt the virtual world for their new social identities.