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Exodus to the Virtual World
 
 

Exodus to the Virtual World (Hardcover)

by Edward Castronova (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (1 Jan 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1403984123
  • ISBN-13: 978-1403984128
  • Product Dimensions: 23.8 x 16.2 x 2.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 240,469 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #13 in  Books > Computing & Internet > PC & Video Games > Programming > Virtual Reality
    #25 in  Books > Computing & Internet > Web Development > Web Design > Virtual Reality

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Product Description

Review
"Edward Castronova has again charted new waters to the virtual worlds emerging as the next frontier. He has proven himself as the oracle of the virtual world revolution."--Christian Renaud, Networked Virtual Environments, Cisco "A book full of insights about our online present and a hopeful look at the future where politics and economics will be increasingly governed by the rules of video games."--John Beck, President of The AttentionCompany and co-author of "The Kids are Alright""" "As virtual worlds rise in popularity, they are bound to have effects on the way we live our real world lives. Dr. Castronova has put together a persuasive case that the real world may begin to model its institutions on games simply because the general populace finds them more fun. It's an eye-opening tour through how virtual worlds are run, and why practical, enjoyable governance is very different from the systems employed today."--Raph Koster, virtual world designer


Synopsis
Surveys the growing popularity of virtual reality worlds as represented by such online games as World of Warcraft and Second Life, explaining how virtual arenas have become representative of new social, political, and economic orders that have captured the attention of millions of everyday people. 20,000 first printing.

Inside This Book (Learn More)
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Attention Migration, 22 Aug 2008
By Markus Gossas "Markus Gossas" (Stockholm, Sweden) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
The central theme of Exodus is the concept of "attention migration". That is: that more and more people choose to immerse themselves in synthetic worlds (Castronova's word instead of "virtual worlds") - MMOGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Games), like Second Life and World of Warcraft. Today they have at least 16 million registered users, and the number is increasing quickly. Also, some of these synthetic worlds function like alternate societies with their own norms of conduct, citizenships, economies, codes and policies and so on. In a information society where attention is central, the increasing attention spent on synthetic worlds will (according to Castronova) create a "atmospeheric event"...
Castronova writes well and he discusses this social phenomenon and it's probable future impact in an interesting way. Though at times I think the discussion becomes a little repetitive, and I can't totally agree that "real" societies will have to become more "fun" and gamelike to compete with the synthetic counterparts. But it is a fascinating thought.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as Synthetic Worlds, 28 Feb 2009
By Minh Tran (Milton Keynes, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This is a decent book about the virtues of virtual worlds, but Castronova's first book Synthetic Worlds is much more substantive and convincing. If you haven't read his first book yet, then buy that one instead of this.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Eye-opening, 6 Jun 2009
By Mikkel Christoffersen "Mikkel" (Denmark) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Castranova has a rare gift. He can take basic assumptions and completely turn them on their heads in a few seconds. This is why you need this book. It contains answers to questions you never thought of asking. He sets out to demonstrate how the pervasive economic discourse of Western society falls flat on its butt when it tries to describe good old-fashioned fun. Fun is an anomaly in the mental structure of rational man. However, following economical thinking to its bitter end is no better; we'd have to conclude that more and more people spend more and more time in synthetic worlds. These worlds seem to posses an ever-increasing competitive advantage over the real world. The conclusion is that the real world needs to get its act together and become more attractive to lure back its customers. After all, if you could go somewhere and become whoever or whatever you always wanted to be, why wouldn't you? I'm grossly simplifying some of the discussions in Castranova's work, but I will say this. I've used this work along with Boellstorff's "Coming of Age in Second Life" as part of university courses I've taught. The ensuing discussion really engaged the students like nothing ever before. One half was on fire with that surge of germinal energy you feel after you've read something that changes the very way you think about things, and the other half was rolling their eyes, insisting that "it's just a game for goodness' sake!" Social interaction, memory, language, culture ... Castranova will have you re-evaluating all these things. Enjoy!
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