The JVWR, Volume 1, No. 3
Published: February 24, 2009
The editorial team for this issue includes:
Mark Bell, Telecommunications program, Indiana University, USA
Mia Consalvo, School of Media Arts & Studies, Ohio University, USA
This issue explores virtual worlds as contingent spaces. We examine them for their reliance on traditional cultural norms and practices, their challenges to such elements, and how they grow and evolve relative to the daily lives of their inhabitants. In every way, virtual worlds are constituted by multiple cultures, culture that is ordinary and everyday, culture that is evolving, confusing, challenging, and possibly dangerous and exhilarating as well. The JVWR aims to lead such study and offer vigorous, sustained discussions about how to best understand what we witness both online and offline in relation to virtual worlds.
Issue Editors’ Corner
Culture and virtual worlds: The not-quite-new experiences we study
Mark Bell, Mia Consalvo
Nick Yee, Liz Losh, Sarah Robbins-Bell
Peer-Reviewed Research Papers
Spectacular Interventions of Second Life: Goon Culture, Griefing, and Disruption in Virtual Spaces
Burcu S. Bakioglu
Delia Dumitrica, Georgia Gaden
Striking a Balance between Property and Personality: The Case of the Avatars
Norberto Nuno Gomes de Andrade
On the Dark Side: Gothic Play and Performance in a Virtual World
Mikael Johnson, Tanja Sihvonen
Analyzing Social Identity (Re) Production: Identity Liminal Events in MMORPGs
Javier A Salazar
The Gorean Community in Second Life: Rules of Sexual Inspired Role-Play
Tjarda Sixma
“Because it just looks cool!†– Fashion as character performance: The Case of WoW
Susana Tosca, Lisbeth Klastrup
The Constitution of Collective Memory in Virtual Game Worlds
Anthony Papargyris, Angeliki Poulymenakou
“Think Pieces”
Method and the Virtual: Anecdote, Analogy, Culture
Tom Boellstorff
Artistic Expression in Second Life: What can we learn from creative pioneers of new mediums?
John Lester / Pathfinder Linden
Culture and Practice: What We Do, Not Just Where We Are
Christopher A Paul
Assembled (rush to press papers)
Interconnecting Virtual Worlds
Leonel Morgado
