ABSTRACT
The growth of the Internet has enabled the creation of massive online spaces in which people can communicate, work and play together. This allows people to interact with each other in virtual worlds in new ways, creating new experiences and playing with identities online. Essentially, two types of virtual world exist: those with no specific rules or purpose, where people can meet, communicate and carry out activities to suit themselves, such as Second Life; and worlds that have purpose and goals, such as massively multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft. In the former, activities are more freeform and emergent and, in a sense, they can be viewed as a place in which to play, explore and experiment rather than as a game with goals, rules and outcomes. Much of the literature in the first two sections of this chapter is taken from research undertaken in virtual worlds, as these are much more prevalent in formal education, and are extremely relevant to the context of online games as digital habitats.
