Ethnography and Virtual Worlds: A Handbook of Method

Ethnography and Virtual Worlds is the only book of its kind--a concise, comprehensive, and practical guide for students, teachers, designers, and scholars interested in using ethnographic methods to study online virtual worlds, including both game and nongame environments. Written by leading ethnographers of virtual worlds, and focusing on the key method of participant observation, the book provides invaluable advice, tips, guidelines, and principles to aid researchers through every stage of a project, from choosing an online fieldsite to writing and publishing the results. Provides practical and detailed techniques for ethnographic research customized to reflect the specific issues of online virtual worlds, both game and nongame Draws on research in a range of virtual worlds, including Everquest, Second Life, There.com, and World of Warcraft Provides suggestions for dealing with institutional review boards, human subjects protocols, and ethical issues Guides the reader through the full trajectory of ethnographic research, from research design to data collection, data analysis, and writing up and publishing research results Addresses myths and misunderstandings about ethnographic research, and argues for the scientific value of ethnography

Cover -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Foreword -- CHAPTER 1. WHY THIS HANDBOOK? -- 1.1 Beginnings -- 1.2 Why ethnographic methods and why virtual worlds? -- 1.3 Why a handbook? -- 1.4 An orientation to the virtual worlds we studied -- CHAPTER 2. THREE BRIEF HISTORIES -- 2.1 A brief history of ethnographic methods -- 2.2 A brief history of virtual worlds -- 2.3 A brief history of research on virtual world cultures -- 2.4 The uses of history -- CHAPTER 3. TEN MYTHS ABOUT ETHNOGRAPHY -- 3.1 Ethnography is unscientific -- 3.2 Ethnography is less valid than quantitative research -- 3.3 Ethnography is simply anecdotal -- 3.4 Ethnography is undermined by subjectivity -- 3.5 Ethnography is merely intuitive -- 3.6 Ethnography is writing about your personal experience -- 3.7 Ethnographers contaminate fieldsites by their very presence -- 3.8 Ethnography is the same as grounded theory -- 3.9 Ethnography is the same as ethnomethodology -- 3.10 Ethnography will become obsolete -- CHAPTER 4. RESEARCH DESIGN AND PREPARATION -- 4.1 Research questions: emergence, relevance, and personal interest -- 4.2 Selecting a group or activity to study -- 4.3 Scope of the fieldsite -- 4.4 Attending to offline contexts -- CHAPTER 5. PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION IN VIRTUAL WORLDS -- 5.1 Participant observation in context -- 5.2 Participant observation in practice -- 5.3 Preparing the researching self -- 5.4 Taking care in initiating relationships with informants -- 5.5 Making mistakes -- 5.6 Taking extensive fieldnotes -- 5.7 Keeping data organized -- 5.8 Participant observation and ethnographic knowledge -- 5.9 The timing and duration of participant observation -- 5.10 The experimenting attitude -- CHAPTER 6. INTERVIEWS AND VIRTUAL WORLDS RESEARCH -- 6.1 The value of interviews in ethnographic research -- 6.2 Effective interviewing.