Ethnography And Virtual Worlds

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Ethnography and Virtual Worlds

Author : Tom Boellstorff
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691264864
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (912 download)

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Book Synopsis Ethnography and Virtual Worlds by : Tom Boellstorff

Download or read book Ethnography and Virtual Worlds written by Tom Boellstorff and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2024-08-06 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A practical guide to the ethnographic study of online cultures, and beyond Ethnography and Virtual Worlds is the only book of its kind—a concise, comprehensive, and practical guide for students, teachers, designers, and scholars interested in using ethnographic methods to study online virtual worlds, including both game and nongame environments. Written by leading ethnographers of virtual worlds, and focusing on the key method of participant observation, the book provides invaluable advice, tips, guidelines, and principles to aid researchers through every stage of a project, from choosing an online fieldsite to writing and publishing the results. Provides practical and detailed techniques for ethnographic research customized to reflect the specific issues of online virtual worlds, both game and nongame Draws on research in a range of virtual worlds, including Everquest, Second Life, There.com, and World of Warcraft Provides suggestions for dealing with institutional review boards, human subjects protocols, and ethical issues Guides the reader through the full trajectory of ethnographic research, from research design to data collection, data analysis, and writing up and publishing research results Addresses myths and misunderstandings about ethnographic research, and argues for the scientific value of ethnography

Ethnography and Virtual Worlds

Author : Tom Boellstorff
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691149518
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis Ethnography and Virtual Worlds by : Tom Boellstorff

Download or read book Ethnography and Virtual Worlds written by Tom Boellstorff and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012-09-16 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title provides practical and detailed techniques for ethnographic research customized to reflect the specific issues of online virutal worlds, both game and nongame.

Coming of Age in Second Life

Author : Tom Boellstorff
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691168342
Total Pages : 348 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis Coming of Age in Second Life by : Tom Boellstorff

Download or read book Coming of Age in Second Life written by Tom Boellstorff and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-08-25 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Millions of people around the world today spend portions of their lives in online virtual worlds. Second Life is one of the largest of these virtual worlds. The residents of Second Life create communities, buy property and build homes, go to concerts, meet in bars, attend weddings and religious services, buy and sell virtual goods and services, find friendship, fall in love--the possibilities are endless, and all encountered through a computer screen. At the time of its initial publication in 2008, Coming of Age in Second Life was the first book of anthropology to examine this thriving alternate universe. Tom Boellstorff conducted more than two years of fieldwork in Second Life, living among and observing its residents in exactly the same way anthropologists traditionally have done to learn about cultures and social groups in the so-called real world. He conducted his research as the avatar "Tom Bukowski," and applied the rigorous methods of anthropology to study many facets of this new frontier of human life, including issues of gender, race, sex, money, conflict and antisocial behavior, the construction of place and time, and the interplay of self and group. Coming of Age in Second Life shows how virtual worlds can change ideas about identity and society. Bringing anthropology into territory never before studied, this book demonstrates that in some ways humans have always been virtual, and that virtual worlds in all their rich complexity build upon a human capacity for culture that is as old as humanity itself. Now with a new preface in which the author places his book in light of the most recent transformations in online culture, Coming of Age in Second Life remains the classic ethnography of virtual worlds.

Making Virtual Worlds

Author : Thomas Malaby
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 0801457750
Total Pages : 179 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (14 download)

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Book Synopsis Making Virtual Worlds by : Thomas Malaby

Download or read book Making Virtual Worlds written by Thomas Malaby and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2011-01-15 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The past decade has seen phenomenal growth in the development and use of virtual worlds. In one of the most notable, Second Life, millions of people have created online avatars in order to play games, take classes, socialize, and conduct business transactions. Second Life offers a gathering point and the tools for people to create a new world online. Too often neglected in popular and scholarly accounts of such groundbreaking new environments is the simple truth that, of necessity, such virtual worlds emerge from physical workplaces marked by negotiation, creation, and constant change. Thomas Malaby spent a year at Linden Lab, the real-world home of Second Life, observing those who develop and profit from the sprawling, self-generating system they have created. Some of the challenges created by Second Life for its developers were of a very traditional nature, such as how to cope with a business that is growing more quickly than existing staff can handle. Others are seemingly new: How, for instance, does one regulate something that is supposed to run on its own? Is it possible simply to create a space for people to use and then not govern its use? Can one apply these same free-range/free-market principles to the office environment in which the game is produced? "Lindens"—as the Linden Lab employees call themselves—found that their efforts to prompt user behavior of one sort or another were fraught with complexities, as a number of ongoing processes collided with their own interventions. Malaby thoughtfully describes the world of Linden Lab and the challenges faced while he was conducting his in-depth ethnographic research there. He shows how the workers of a very young but quickly growing company were themselves caught up in ideas about technology, games, and organizations, and struggled to manage not only their virtual world but also themselves in a nonhierarchical fashion. In exploring the practices the Lindens employed, he questions what was at stake in their virtual world, what a game really is (and how people participate), and the role of the unexpected in a product like Second Life and an organization like Linden Lab.

Virtual Ethnography

Author : Christine Hine
Publisher : SAGE
ISBN 13 : 1847876498
Total Pages : 188 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (478 download)

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Book Synopsis Virtual Ethnography by : Christine Hine

Download or read book Virtual Ethnography written by Christine Hine and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2000-04-04 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cutting though the exaggerated and fanciful beliefs about the new possibilities of `net life′, Hine produces a distinctive understanding of the significance of the Internet and addresses such questions as: what challenges do the new technologies of communication pose for research methods? Does the Internet force us to rethink traditional categories of `culture′ and `society′? In this compelling and thoughtful book, Hine shows that the Internet is both a site for cultural formations and a cultural artefact which is shaped by people′s understandings and expectations. The Internet requires a new form of ethnography. The author considers the shape of this new ethnography and guides readers through its application in multiple settings.

Play Between Worlds

Author : T. L. Taylor
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262250543
Total Pages : 206 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (622 download)

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Book Synopsis Play Between Worlds by : T. L. Taylor

Download or read book Play Between Worlds written by T. L. Taylor and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2009-02-13 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of Everquest that provides a snapshot of multiplayer gaming culture, questions the truism that computer games are isolating and alienating, and offers insights into broader issues of work and play, gender identity, technology, and commercial culture. In Play Between Worlds, T. L. Taylor examines multiplayer gaming life as it is lived on the borders, in the gaps—as players slip in and out of complex social networks that cross online and offline space. Taylor questions the common assumption that playing computer games is an isolating and alienating activity indulged in by solitary teenage boys. Massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs), in which thousands of players participate in a virtual game world in real time, are in fact actively designed for sociability. Games like the popular Everquest, she argues, are fundamentally social spaces. Taylor's detailed look at Everquest offers a snapshot of multiplayer culture. Drawing on her own experience as an Everquest player (as a female Gnome Necromancer)—including her attendance at an Everquest Fan Faire, with its blurring of online—and offline life—and extensive research, Taylor not only shows us something about games but raises broader cultural issues. She considers "power gamers," who play in ways that seem closer to work, and examines our underlying notions of what constitutes play—and why play sometimes feels like work and may even be painful, repetitive, and boring. She looks at the women who play Everquest and finds they don't fit the narrow stereotype of women gamers, which may cast into doubt our standardized and preconceived ideas of femininity. And she explores the questions of who owns game space—what happens when emergent player culture confronts the major corporation behind the game.

Researching Virtual Worlds

Author : Louise Phillips
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1136250514
Total Pages : 197 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (362 download)

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Book Synopsis Researching Virtual Worlds by : Louise Phillips

Download or read book Researching Virtual Worlds written by Louise Phillips and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-11 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents a wide range of methodological strategies that are designed to take into account the complex, emergent, and continually shifting character of virtual worlds. It interrogates how virtual worlds emerge as objects of study through the development and application of various methodological strategies. Virtual worlds are not considered objects that exist as entities with fixed attributes independent of our continuous engagement with them and interpretation of them. Instead, they are conceived of as complex ensembles of technology, humans, symbols, discourses, and economic structures, ensembles that emerge in ongoing practices and specific situations. A broad spectrum of perspectives and methodologies is presented: Actor-Network-Theory and post-Actor-Network-Theory, performativity theory, ethnography, discourse analysis, Sense-Making Methodology, visual ethnography, multi-sited ethnography, and Social Network Analysis.

Online Worlds: Convergence of the Real and the Virtual

Author : William Sims Bainbridge
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 184882825X
Total Pages : 317 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (488 download)

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Book Synopsis Online Worlds: Convergence of the Real and the Virtual by : William Sims Bainbridge

Download or read book Online Worlds: Convergence of the Real and the Virtual written by William Sims Bainbridge and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-12-08 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Netnography

Author : Robert V Kozinets
Publisher : SAGE Publications
ISBN 13 : 1848606451
Total Pages : 233 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (486 download)

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Book Synopsis Netnography by : Robert V Kozinets

Download or read book Netnography written by Robert V Kozinets and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2010 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With as many as 1 billion people now using online communities such as newsgroups, blogs, forums, social networking sites, podcasting, videocasting, photosharing communities, and virtual worlds, the internet is now an important site for research. This exciting new text is the first to explore the discipline of 'Netnography' - the conduct of ethnography over the internet - a method specifically designed to study cultures and communities online. For the first time, full procedural guidelines for the accurate and ethical conduct of ethnographic research online are set out, with detailed, step-by-step guidance to thoroughly introduce, explain, and illustrate the method to students and researchers. The author also surveys the latest research on online cultures and communities, focusing on the methods used to study them, with examples focusing on the new elements and contingencies of the blogosphere (blogging), microblogging, videocasting, podcasting, social networking sites, virtual worlds and more. This book will be essential reading for researchers and students in social sciences such as anthropology, sociology, marketing and consumer research, organization and management studies and cultural and media studies.

Digital Environments

Author : Urte Undine Frömming
Publisher : transcript Verlag
ISBN 13 : 3839434971
Total Pages : 269 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (394 download)

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Book Synopsis Digital Environments by : Urte Undine Frömming

Download or read book Digital Environments written by Urte Undine Frömming and published by transcript Verlag. This book was released on 2017-03-31 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Digital technology permeates the physical world. Social media and virtual reality, accessed via internet capable devices - computers, smartphones, tablets and wearables - affect nearly all aspects of social life. The contributions to this volume apply innovative forms of ethnographic research to the digital realm. They examine the emergence of new forms of digital life, such as political participation through comments on East Greenlandic news blogs, the personal use of video broadcasting applications, the rise of transnational migrant networks facilitated by social media, or the effects of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram on global conflicts.

Digital Ethnography

Author : Sarah Pink
Publisher : SAGE
ISBN 13 : 1473943132
Total Pages : 233 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (739 download)

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Book Synopsis Digital Ethnography by : Sarah Pink

Download or read book Digital Ethnography written by Sarah Pink and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2015-10-09 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lecturers, request your electronic inspection copy This sharp, innovative book champions the rising significance of ethnographic research on the use of digital resources around the world. It contextualises digital and pre-digital ethnographic research and demonstrates how the methodological, practical and theoretical dimensions are increasingly intertwined. Digital ethnography is central to our understanding of the social world; it can shape methodology and methods, and provides the technological tools needed to research society. The authoritative team of authors clearly set out how to research localities, objects and events as well as providing insights into exploring individuals’ or communities’ lived experiences, practices and relationships. The book: Defines a series of central concepts in this new branch of social and cultural research Challenges existing conceptual and analytical categories Showcases new and innovative methods Theorises the digital world in new ways Encourages us to rethink pre-digital practices, media and environments This is the ideal introduction for anyone intending to conduct ethnographic research in today’s digital society.

Communities of Play

Author : Celia Pearce
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262291541
Total Pages : 343 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (622 download)

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Book Synopsis Communities of Play by : Celia Pearce

Download or read book Communities of Play written by Celia Pearce and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2011-09-30 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The odyssey of a group of “refugees” from a closed-down online game and an exploration of emergent fan cultures in virtual worlds. 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.

Handbook of Research on Practices and Outcomes in Virtual Worlds and Environments

Author : Yang, Harrison Hao
Publisher : IGI Global
ISBN 13 : 1609607635
Total Pages : 404 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (96 download)

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Book Synopsis Handbook of Research on Practices and Outcomes in Virtual Worlds and Environments by : Yang, Harrison Hao

Download or read book Handbook of Research on Practices and Outcomes in Virtual Worlds and Environments written by Yang, Harrison Hao and published by IGI Global. This book was released on 2011-07-31 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Media Anthropology for the Digital Age

Author : Anna Cristina Pertierra
Publisher : Polity
ISBN 13 : 9781509508464
Total Pages : 200 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (84 download)

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Book Synopsis Media Anthropology for the Digital Age by : Anna Cristina Pertierra

Download or read book Media Anthropology for the Digital Age written by Anna Cristina Pertierra and published by Polity. This book was released on 2018-01-11 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The field of anthropology took a long time to discover the significance of media in modern culture. In this important new book, Anna Pertierra tells the story of how a field - once firmly associated with the study of esoteric cultures - became a central part of the global study of media and communication. She recounts the rise of anthropological studies of media, the discovery of digital cultures, and the embrace of ethnographic methods by media scholars around the world. Bringing together longstanding debates in sociocultural anthropology with recent innovations in digital cultural research, this book explains how anthropology fits into the story and study of media in the contemporary world. It charts the mutual disinterest and subsequent love affair that has taken place between the fields of anthropology and media studies in order to understand how and why such a transformation has taken place. Moreover, the book shows how the theories and methods of anthropology offer valuable ways to study media from a ground-level perspective and to understand the human experience of media in the digital age. Media Anthropology for the Digital Age will be of interest to students and scholars of media and communication, anthropology, and cultural studies, as well as anyone wanting to understand the use of anthropology across wider cultural debates.

Ethnography for the Internet

Author : Christine Hine
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 100018966X
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (1 download)

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Book Synopsis Ethnography for the Internet by : Christine Hine

Download or read book Ethnography for the Internet written by Christine Hine and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-05-11 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The internet has become embedded into our daily lives, no longer an esoteric phenomenon, but instead an unremarkable way of carrying out our interactions with one another. Online and offline are interwoven in everyday experience. Using the internet has become accepted as a way of being present in the world, rather than a means of accessing some discrete virtual domain. Ethnographers of these contemporary Internet-infused societies consequently find themselves facing serious methodological dilemmas: where should they go, what should they do there and how can they acquire robust knowledge about what people do in, through and with the internet?This book presents an overview of the challenges faced by ethnographers who wish to understand activities that involve the internet. Suitable for both new and experienced ethnographers, it explores both methodological principles and practical strategies for coming to terms with the definition of field sites, the connections between online and offline and the changing nature of embodied experience. Examples are drawn from a wide range of settings, including ethnographies of scientific institutions, television, social media and locally based gift-giving networks.

Human No More

Author : Neil L. Whitehead
Publisher : University Press of Colorado
ISBN 13 : 160732170X
Total Pages : 254 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (73 download)

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Book Synopsis Human No More by : Neil L. Whitehead

Download or read book Human No More written by Neil L. Whitehead and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2012-08-12 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Turning an anthropological eye toward cyberspace, Human No More explores how conditions of the online world shape identity, place, culture, and death within virtual communities. Online worlds have recently thrown into question the traditional anthropological conception of place-based ethnography. They break definitions, blur distinctions, and force us to rethink the notion of the "subject." Human No More asks how digital cultures can be integrated and how the ethnography of both the "unhuman" and the "digital" could lead to possible reconfiguring the notion of the "human." This provocative and groundbreaking work challenges fundamental assumptions about the entire field of anthropology. Cross-disciplinary research from well-respected contributors makes this volume vital to the understanding of contemporary human interaction. It will be of interest not only to anthropologists but also to students and scholars of media, communication, popular culture, identity, and technology.

Digital Anthropology

Author : Heather A. Horst
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 0857852930
Total Pages : 403 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (578 download)

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Book Synopsis Digital Anthropology by : Heather A. Horst

Download or read book Digital Anthropology written by Heather A. Horst and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2013-08-01 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthropology has two main tasks: to understand what it is to be human and to examine how humanity is manifested differently in the diversity of culture. These tasks have gained new impetus from the extraordinary rise of the digital. This book brings together several key anthropologists working with digital culture to demonstrate just how productive an anthropological approach to the digital has already become. Through a range of case studies from Facebook to Second Life to Google Earth, Digital Anthropology explores how human and digital can be defined in relation to one another, from avatars and disability; cultural differences in how we use social networking sites or practise religion; the practical consequences of the digital for politics, museums, design, space and development to new online world and gaming communities. The book also explores the moral universe of the digital, from new anxieties to open-source ideals. Digital Anthropology reveals how only the intense scrutiny of ethnography can overturn assumptions about the impact of digital culture and reveal its profound consequences for everyday life. Combining the clarity of a textbook with an engaging style which conveys a passion for these new frontiers of enquiry, this book is essential reading for students and scholars of anthropology, media studies, communication studies, cultural studies and sociology.