干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Thirteen gamelike virtual worlds illustrate issues that overlap social science and information science, because they embody rather clear theories of society and culture: World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, Dark Age of Camelot, Age of Conan, Pirates of the Burning Sea, A Tale in the Desert, Entropia Universe, Anarchy Online, The Matrix Online, Tabula Rasa, EVE Online, Star Trek Online, and Dungeons and Dragons Online. A fourteenth, Star Wars Galaxies, illustrates the possibility that not all virtual worlds embody clear theories. After describing the thirteen, this essay discusses their economic systems, social systems, communication challenges, and the ways in which autonomous agents and semi-autonomous secondary avatars enrich interactive complexity.