LEADER 04841nam 2200709Ia 450 001 9910460040703321 005 20200520144314.0 010 $a0-8014-5775-0 010 $a0-8014-5899-4 024 7 $a10.7591/9780801458996 035 $a(CKB)2670000000078994 035 $a(OCoLC)726824199 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebrary10457566 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000485723 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11311930 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000485723 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10604864 035 $a(PQKB)10536663 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3137945 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse28848 035 $a(DE-B1597)480122 035 $a(OCoLC)979753249 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780801458996 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3137945 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10457566 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL759699 035 $a(EXLCZ)992670000000078994 100 $a20081204d2009 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurcn||||||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aMaking virtual worlds$b[electronic resource] $eLinden Lab and Second Life /$fThomas M. Malaby 210 $aIthaca $cCornell University Press$d2009 215 $a1 online resource (177 p.) 300 $aBibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph 311 $a1-336-28413-7 311 $a0-8014-4746-1 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $tFrontmatter -- $tContents -- $tAcknowledgments -- $tIntroduction: A Developer's-Eye View -- $t1. The Product: Second Life, Capital, and the Possibility of Failure in a Virtual World -- $t2. Tools of the Gods -- $t3. Knowing the Gamer from the Game -- $t4. The Birth of the Cool -- $t5. Precarious Authority -- $tAppendix A: The Tao of Linden -- $tAppendix B: The Mission of Linden Lab -- $tNotes -- $tBibliography -- $tIndex 330 $aThe 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. 606 $aSecond Life (Game)$xSocial aspects 606 $aShared virtual environments$vCase studies 606 $aComputer games$xDesign$xSocial aspects$vCase studies 606 $aBusiness anthropology$zCalifornia$zSan Francisco$vCase studies 606 $aCorporate culture$zCalifornia$zSan Francisco$vCase studies 608 $aElectronic books. 615 0$aSecond Life (Game)$xSocial aspects. 615 0$aShared virtual environments 615 0$aComputer games$xDesign$xSocial aspects 615 0$aBusiness anthropology 615 0$aCorporate culture 676 $a794.8 700 $aMalaby$b Thomas M.$f1967-$01046685 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910460040703321 996 $aMaking virtual worlds$92473773 997 $aUNINA