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  • © 2010

Online Worlds: Convergence of the Real and the Virtual

  • Online Worlds" is a landmark publication about virtual worlds, exploring the cutting edge of social computing, and based on solid scientific research
  • It is based on solid methodological approaches including participation observation ethnography, quantitative statistical analysis, laboratory experimentation, design studies, and others
  • Virtual worlds are of increasing popular and scientific interest, and the breadth of this book will make it accessible to a wide audience

Part of the book series: Human–Computer Interaction Series (HCIS)

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Table of contents (23 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-vii
  2. Introduction

    • William Sims Bainbridge
    Pages 1-6
  3. New World View

    • William Sims Bainbridge
    Pages 7-19
  4. Spore: Assessment of the Science in an Evolution-Oriented Game

    • John Bohannon, T. Ryan Gregory, Niles Eldredge, William Sims Bainbridge
    Pages 71-85
  5. A Virtual Mars

    • Richard Childers
    Pages 101-109
  6. Opening the Metaverse

    • Julian Lombardi, Marilyn Lombardi
    Pages 111-122
  7. Examining Player Anger in World of Warcraft

    • Jane Barnett, Mark Coulson, Nigel Foreman
    Pages 147-160
  8. Dude Looks like a Lady: Gender Swapping in an Online Game

    • Searle Huh, Dmitri Williams
    Pages 161-174
  9. Virtual Doppelgangers: Psychological Effects of Avatars Who Ignore Their Owners

    • Jeremy N. Bailenson, Kathryn Y. Segovia
    Pages 175-186
  10. Speaking in Character: Voice Communication in Virtual Worlds

    • Greg Wadley, Martin R. Gibbs
    Pages 187-200
  11. What People Talk About in Virtual Worlds

    • Mary Lou Maher
    Pages 201-212
  12. When Virtual Worlds Expand

    • William Sims Bainbridge
    Pages 237-251

About this book

William Sims Bainbridge Virtual worlds are persistent online computer-generated environments where people can interact, whether for work or play, in a manner comparable to the real world. The most prominent current example is World of Warcraft (Corneliussen and Rettberg 2008), a massively multiplayer online game with 11 million s- scribers. Some other virtual worlds, notably Second Life (Rymaszewski et al. 2007), are not games at all, but Internet-based collaboration contexts in which people can create virtual objects, simulated architecture, and working groups. Although interest in virtual worlds has been growing for at least a dozen years, only today it is possible to bring together an international team of highly acc- plished authors to examine them with both care and excitement, employing a range of theories and methodologies to discover the principles that are making virtual worlds increasingly popular and may in future establish them as a major sector of human-centered computing.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Div. Information & Intelligent, National Science Foundation, Arlington, U.S.A.

    William Sims Bainbridge

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access