"Virtual Worlds, Real Libraries is designed to help librarians and educators recognize the potential of multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs) and consider ways to get involved as they proliferate. Lori Bell, Rhonda B. Trueman, and 24 contributors describe innovative projects in Second Life and other virtual worlds, and demonstrate how reference, teaching, collections, discussion groups, young adult programs, and other services can be successfully applied in a virtual environment."--Cover.
Virtual worlds have exploded out of online game culture and now capture the attention of millions of ordinary people: husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, workers, retirees. Devoting dozens of hours each week to massively multiplayer virtual reality environments (like World of Warcraft and Second Life), these millions are the start of an exodus into the refuge of fantasy, where they experience life under a new social, political, and economic order built around fun. Given the choice between a fantasy world and the real world, how many of us would choose reality? Exodus to the Virtual World explains the growing migration into virtual reality, and how it will change the way we live--both in fantasy worlds and in the real one.
This text provides a comprehensive treatment of virtual world design from one of its pioneers. It covers everything from MUDs to MOOs to MMORPGs, from text-based to graphical VWs.
If you are one of the many who have read about and heard about virtual worlds but do not really understand what a virtual world is, or even how to use appropriate terminology when discussing them, then this is the book for you."--Jacket.
Virtual Worlds are 3-D constructs that exist in cyber-space. Participants operate within these constructs in the form of avatars. Although wirtual worlds appear at first to be merely games, in fact they can be used to carry out criminal conspiracies or terrorism. The book has the assistance of Akil Ar-Raqib is a researcher working in Beirut, Lebannon and Zurich, Switzerland.
From EverQuest to World of Warcraft, online games have evolved from the exclusive domain of computer geeks into an extraordinarily lucrative staple of the entertainment industry. People of all ages and from all walks of life now spend thousands of hours—and dollars—partaking in this popular new brand of escapism. But the line between fantasy and reality is starting to blur. Players have created virtual societies with governments and economies of their own whose currencies now trade against the dollar on eBay at rates higher than the yen. And the players who inhabit these synthetic worlds are starting to spend more time online than at their day jobs. In Synthetic Worlds, Edward Castronova offers the first comprehensive look at the online game industry, exploring its implications for business and culture alike. He starts with the players, giving us a revealing look into the everyday lives of the gamers—outlining what they do in their synthetic worlds and why. He then describes the economies inside these worlds to show how they might dramatically affect real world financial systems, from potential disruptions of markets to new business horizons. Ultimately, he explores the long-term social consequences of online games: If players can inhabit worlds that are more alluring and gratifying than reality, then how can the real world ever compete? Will a day ever come when we spend more time in these synthetic worlds than in our own? Or even more startling, will a day ever come when such questions no longer sound alarmist but instead seem obsolete? With more than ten million active players worldwide—and with Microsoft and Sony pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into video game development—online games have become too big to ignore. Synthetic Worlds spearheads our efforts to come to terms with this virtual reality and its concrete effects. “Illuminating. . . . Castronova’s analysis of the economics of fun is intriguing. Virtual-world economies are designed to make the resulting game interesting and enjoyable for their inhabitants. Many games follow a rags-to-riches storyline, for example. But how can all the players end up in the top 10%? Simple: the upwardly mobile human players need only be a subset of the world's population. An underclass of computer-controlled 'bot' citizens, meanwhile, stays poor forever. Mr. Castronova explains all this with clarity, wit, and a merciful lack of academic jargon.”—The Economist “Synthetic Worlds is a surprisingly profound book about the social, political, and economic issues arising from the emergence of vast multiplayer games on the Internet. What Castronova has realized is that these games, where players contribute considerable labor in exchange for things they value, are not merely like real economies, they are real economies, displaying inflation, fraud, Chinese sweatshops, and some surprising in-game innovations.”—Tim Harford, Chronicle of Higher Education
Handbook of Research on Practices and Outcomes in Virtual Worlds and Environments not only presents experienced professionals with the most recent and advanced developments in the field, but it also provides clear and comprehensive information for novice readers. The handbook introduces theoretical aspects of virtual worlds, disseminates cutting-edge research, and presents first-hand practices in virtual world development and use. The balance of research, theory, and applications includes exploration of design innovations, new virtual reality technologies, virtual communities, pedagogical design, and the future of virtual worlds and environments.
As learning moves into a more innovative and technologically savvy environment, it becomes increasingly important that library education continues to adapt and understand the resources that are available. Advancing Library Education: Technological Innovation and Instructional Design aims to provide relevant theoretical frameworks, empirical research, and new understandings for those interested in Library and Information Science and the impact new techniques and technologies are having in this area. Librarians, academics, and researchers will benefit from this careful look into current advancements in their field.
Virtual worlds are places where humans interact, and as such they can be environments for research and learning. However, they are complex and mutable in ways that more controlled and traditional environments are not. Although computer-mediated, virtual worlds are multifaceted social systems like the offline world, and choosing to study virtual world phenomena demands as much consideration for the participants, the environment and the researcher as offline. By exploring virtual worlds as places of research and learning, the international practitioners in this book demonstrate the power of these worlds to replicate and extend our arenas of research and learning. They focus on process and outcomes and consider questions that arise from engaging in teaching and research in these spaces, including new approaches to research ethics, internationalization, localization, and collaboration in virtual worlds. This book was originally published as a special issue of Learning, Media & Technology.
