Why Virtual Worlds Can Matter [ Source: University of Southern California ]
January 2008- Virtual worlds are persistent, avatar-based social spaces that provide players or participants with the ability to engage in long-term, joint coordinated action. This paper is an effort to outline some of the things happening in and around virtual worlds which make them more than ""just games"" and which may in fact point in the direction of new forms of knowing and acting in virtual spaces and give insight into what new, technologically mediated worlds may ....