Coming of Age in Second Life

            In this portion of the book, Boellstorff explains the foundation of his research in Second Life and delves into the history of virtual worlds as well as his methodology. His initial aim was to explore the culture of Second Life within the game. As such, he was not concerned with delving into the “real” lives of the people controlling the avatars and argued that Second Life represents a very real culture with distinct subcultures in itself. Although he discussed ethnographies that investigated other online communities as well as the logistics of conducting participant observation of virtual communities, it seems, from his discussion, that he was one of the first to conduct such an in-depth, long-term study of an online culture. Thus, his research is important not only for what it reveals about Second Life, but also what it reveals about the practicalities of generating ethnographies of virtual cultures.

            This topic shows that technology shapes not just the “real world” but also creates separate worlds that represent a melting pot of anonymous cultures. I think this type of ethnography is particularly valuable because virtual communities like Second Life afford people the ability to construct alternate realities like those of science fiction or futuristic anthropology and “actually” play them out with other autonomous players. It will be interesting to see how culture is constructed in such communities and the implications of having so much free reign in social interactions.