Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides an insight into how ‘Second Lives’ in the sense of virtual identities and communities are constructed textually. It provides a theoretical investigation of Second Life as nation through the lens of Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities. The book then explores essential questions of authorship, control, and agency. It also provides exploration of gender and the body in Second Life and Entropia Universe against the backdrop of postmodern and post-postmodern feminist theory. In seeking to demonstrate how human presence is constructed in virtual worlds, the book addresses a pivotal concern surrounding the recent growth in massively multiplayer online games and virtual worlds: the experience of presence when moving between real and virtual space. It presents an innovative and rigorous methodology for studying the discursive construction of female characters in online and offline gaming environments.