entry into sl

[14:11] Tom Bukowski: I had always liked video games and simulations
[14:11] Tom Bukowski: and found out about The Sims Online, Second Life, and so on
[14:11] Tom Bukowski: so the idea I had was:
[14:11] Tom Bukowski: what if an anthropologist goes to a virtual world
[14:11] Tom Bukowski: which was a really new thing
[14:11] Tom Bukowski: esp back in 2002 or so
[14:12] Tom Bukowski: when Second Life had around 5000 accounts
[14:12] Tom Bukowski: and a normal max concurrency of around 200
[14:12] JJ Drinkwater wonders how long it took The Esteemed Anthropologist to learn to speak Avatar
[14:12] Tom Bukowski: what if an anthropologist goes to this new "place"
[14:12] Tom Bukowski: and tries to study it, just as an experiment, with the most "traditional" methods of anthropology
[14:12] Tom Bukowski: not really "traditional" of course
[14:12] Forelle Broek: "An anthropologist, a sociologist, and an economist walk into a virtual world ..."
[14:12] Tom Bukowski: but what would happen if I take Second Life seriously as a place of human culture
[14:12] Azul Draken snickers
[14:12] Tom Bukowski: and that's what I did, basically
[14:12] Tom Bukowski: and from the beginning I've loved Second Life
[14:13] Tom Bukowski: and found it just an amazing place to think about so much
[14:13] Tom Bukowski: identity, community, belief, commerce
[14:13] Tom Bukowski: intimacy
[14:13] Tom Bukowski: etc etc etc