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Reviews
Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human by Tom Boellstorff
chairmanbernanke's review against another edition
3.0
An interesting anthropological exploration of Second Life and its inhabitants.
sigo's review against another edition
4.0
This is a really fascinating book because the topic is not something that you would expect to read an anthropological analysis of. I had to read it for my anthropology class Material Culture. The author did all of his fieldwork inside of Second Life, a virtual reality MMO where players can create virtual versions of themselves. I was really impressed by his discussion of the history of virtual worlds, which started long before computers. He expertly discusses different issues in virtual worlds, such as gender, intimacy, and balancing the "real world" with the virtual one. The only thing that I annoyed me with this book is that I felt that he spent a lot of time justifying why he was studying this, and explaining the mechanics of Second Life, which meant that there was a lot of information that you had to slough through before getting to any ethnography. Admittedly, the information would be very useful to people who are not very familiar with the inner workings of MMOs, but as a 19 year old, it was difficult to read through pages and pages describing what afk meant, how people can respond to different things in group chats, and how one person can hold a conversation in a group chat and a private chat. These are all things that are part of my daily life, so it was tedious to read about what can intuitively to me. Otherwise, I found the book very interesting and informative and it would make a good read for anyone interested in anthropology or virtual reality.
dunehead's review
4.0
A great and exhaustive (sometimes overly pedantic) introduction to a nonexistent book.
georgia1802's review
4.0
I didn't think i would ever give an academic book more than like a 2 stars lol but this was rlly great (within the context of being an academic book, not books in general)
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