ABSTRACT
With millions of users, virtual worlds are important sites of communication and interaction. Since virtual worlds are fundamentally places (Boellstorff 2008, 216), the methods and findings of classical anthropological studies can fruitfully be extended to research that takes as its object virtual worlds. This means that it is not only possible but also desirable to explore them with the same ethnographic tools used to study human cultures all over the world, as the subfield of “virtual anthropology” proposes (see Boellstorff 2008). In his ethnography Coming of Age in Second Life (2008) Tom Boellstorff argues that virtual worlds are cultural locations needing to be studied “in their own terms.” He carries out ethnographic research that takes place entirely within Second Life and makes no attempt to learn about users’ or residents’ offline lives and identities. Although the ethnographic approach introduced in this chapter benefits from Boellstorff’s research, it differs by treating virtual worlds as “spatial extensions” in children’s lives (Lee 2001; Ruckenstein forthcoming). By focusing on virtual worlds from the perspective of children and teenagers as users, the chapter argues for empirical research that highlights people’s everyday doings in and around virtual worlds.
