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% AAlTifAKr^zoKorz6 MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY PUBLICATION FOR EDUCATORS Volume 30 No. 1 Spring 2009 VIRTUAL WORLDS AND FUTURES OF AN by Tom Boellstorjf Welcome to Second Life In graduate school I discovered Sim City, a popular simu- lation released in the late 1990s. But also around this time, Imagine yourselfsuddenly set down alone on a tropical computer engineers were pioneering a new technology beach close to an island village. Spread out before that could generate a three-dimensional virtual world that you on a gorgeous blue sea is an archipelago of is- could be experienced by many people at the same time, lands and continents. While the boat that has brought people who could communicate with one another through you to this place sails away, you realize you are alone and text (and eventually though voice). have nothing to do but begin your ethnographic journey. In June 2003 Linden Labs invited the public to You have no previous experience in conducting field- join Second Life; by November 2007, when the final work in this environment; there is little to guide you and manuscript for my ethnography was submitted, there were no one to help you. Thus began my two-year field study over 10 million registered Second Life accounts, with over 1 in Second Life. 1.5 million people logging on per month, and tens Having made eight different trips of thousands of persons "inworld" at one to Indonesia, totaling almost three years time. About a year later, just over 1 5 million of fieldwork, in June 2004 I began my accounts were registered, with residents new field study by logging onto my 30tk spending over 28 million hours "inworld" computer. I entered Second Life as an each month, with, on average, over "avatar," a virtual person named Tom 50,000 residents logged in at any par- 2 mtwersatp Bukowski. What I found was a stun- A ticular moment. Second Life is not a ning vista of green hills, sandy beaches small phenomenon, and there are many and lands dotted with homes, streets, virtual worlds much larger than Second even whole cities, a new world popu- Life (including those designed for children, lated by people appearing as humanlike like Club Penguin, and those designed as "avatars," each having entered this virtual world games, like World of Warcraft). by logging on from an actual location around the globe. Since childhood, I have always been fascinated How Can an Anthropologist Study Virtual by technology. Born in 1 969, 1 am a member of the first Worlds? generation in the United States for whom video games were a part of everyday life. I was an avid player as well After some preliminary searching among various "virtual as a voracious reader ofJ.R.R. Tolkien's Lord ofthe Rings. worlds," I settled on Second Life for my particular study. Inside: Obesity and Culture, Iraqi Ethnic Groups, Applied Readers, Discounted Text t 3 Smithsonian *^ National Museum of Natural History AnthroNotes Volume 30 No. 1 Spring 2009 I began my fieldwork by logging into my computer and Are people spending time in Second Life nothing more joining Second Life through my avatar Tom "Bukowski." than people who "need to get a first life"—geeks, losers, I spent two years conducting this research using, to the the socially isolated and misfit? What is happening in virtual greatest degree possible, the same methods I had used in worlds? What kinds of culture and subcultures are appear- Indonesia. At the end, rather than publish my research find- ing there? In what ways do virtual cultures differ from ings in the form of a blog or webpage, I decided to create those in the actual physical world? What are the promises 1 the "traditional ' product of anthropological research: a and the perils of this new venue for human societies? What book, published on real paper and ink in the physical world, can anthropologists learn from a study of virtual worlds? which I titled Coming ofAge in Second Life, with its obvious It soon became clear to me that what was hap- reference to Margaret Mead's classic study of Samoa. pening inside Second Life was absolutely worthy of an- I decided quite consciously to structure my research thropological attention. In fact, I came to believe that eth- around the idea of "old method, new topic." However, nography may be particularly well-suited for the study of this is an oversimplification, since the methods anthropolo- virtual worlds. After all, from its beginnings anthropology gists use are never "traditional"—they are constantly being has worked to place the reader "virtually" in the culture of revised and updated to fit the incredibly varied fieldsites in another through the ethnographer's central methodology which anthropologists conduct research. of participant observation. Thus, I set out upon my Second Life research as a The open-endedness of Second Life meant that I kind of ethnographic experiment. I did not know if it was able to subordinate interviews and surveys to partici- would even be possible to conduct anthropological re- pant observation, the centerpiece ofany truly ethnographic search in virtual worlds. Was there really "culture" there? approach. Not only did I create the avatar Tom Bukowski, Author Tom Boellstorff in Second Life. Page 2 AnthroNotes Volume 30 No. 1 Spring 2009 I shopped for clothes for my avatar in the same stores as What Can Anthropology Tell Us about Virtual any Second Life resident. I bought land with the help of Worlds? a Second Life real estate agent and learned how to use Second Life's building tools. I created a home and office Anthropological inquiry has long demonstrated that there for my research named "Ethnographia." I learned games are many forms of human being—many ways to live a created and played inside Second Life, like "primtionary" human life. In a sense, there are many actual worlds and (a variant of Pictionary). I wandered across the Second now many virtual worlds as well. I examined one of them Life landscape, flying, teleporting, or floating along in for what it could teach us about what it means to be virtu- my hot air balloon, stopping to investigate events, build- ally human. It is in the effort to bring together everyday ings, or people I happened to encounter. I also used the detail and broad pattern that anthropology has a special "events" list and notices in Second Life publications to contribution to make to the study of virtual worlds. learn of interesting spaces to visit. I joined many Second Unlike the network of relationships created on Life groups and participated in a range of activities. MySpace and Facebook, virtual worlds are places existing Ethnographic knowledge is situated and partial. online where social relationships abound. In this virtual cul- Just as most Indonesians have spent more time in Indone- ture, I could study the concepts of place and time; self, sia than I and know many things about Indonesia that I do gender, and race; social relationships including family, friend- not know, so many Second Life residents spent more time ships and community; material culture; economics and inworld than I, and every resident had some kind ofknowl- politics — all helping to contribute to a holistic anthropol- edge about the virtual world that I lacked. But I was struck ogy of virtual worlds. by how the idea of someone conducting ethnography (as My research was not just an experiment in meth- stated in my profile) made sense to residents. In fact, resi- odology but an experiment in the ethics of virtual anthro- dents often commented upon my seeming comfort with pology. I worked to avoid being identified with any par- Second Life, particularly my skills at building (an unexpected ticular subset of residents. My avatar took on different benefit of my growing up as a video gamer). One resident fashions and genders during my research as these were noted, "You seem so comfy in here—like you study it yet options open to all residents, but my default embodi- still live it." I found it remarkable the degree to which the ment—as Tom Bukowski— was both white and male, in challenges and joys of my research in Second Life re- line with my actual-world embodiment, and I was also sembled the challenges and joys of my research in Indone- openly gay. When debates or conflict broke out in my pres- sia. Perhaps the most surprising and significant finding from ence, I did not feign neutrality. I would, for instance, file an my research was that I needed to make only minor changes "Abuse Report" if I saw someone mistreating another resi- to my "traditional" methods to conduct research in Sec- dent, as others would likely have done. I gave my own ond Life. opinions in informal conversations, interviews, and focus In my earlier fieldwork in Indonesia, I comple- groups, but I did work to interact with residents whose mented participant observation with interviews, archival political and personal views might not reflect my own/ research, text analysis, and focus groups. I found all of A common tactic in writing on virtual worlds is to these ancillary methods helpful for my research in Second emphasize the sensational: men participating as women and Life. For example, I conducted about 30 formal interviews, vice versa, humans participating as animals and so on. Look- each one preceded by the signing of a consent form. Eth- ing to the unusual to tell us about cultures, however, is of nographers often face the challenge offiltering huge amounts limited use. If in the actual world we were to do nothing of data.

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