ABSTRACT
A debate surrounding the recent growth in virtual worlds, and a concern this chapter explores, is how human presence is constructed through our avatar representation in virtual space. Many of us now regularly participate and interact in the virtual space of our computer screens through our avatar forms, whether it is organizing a raid in World of Warcraft, chatting with our friends in Habbo, or exploring an island in Second Life™ (SL). This chapter focuses, in particular, on the SL platform created by Linden Lab. Launched in 2003 with barely 1,000 users (Rymaszewski et al. 2007: 5), the number of SL users with an account has grown to over 16 million.1 Following the logic of the ‘real’ world, it follows most of the rules of our space, providing earth, sky, water, gravity, day and night, moon and sun within a three-dimensional networked grid. Experienced through an avatar, many users choose to represent themselves in human form, although other forms are readily available. The question of how we are now creating and living Second Lives as our new avatar selves, and indeed, how we are creating new virtual communities on these shared virtual platforms is the wider debate that surrounds the representation of the self in virtual-world space.
