Mike's POV

Is it possible to study Second Life and not be a participant-observer? Why or why not?

First off I considedr a participant-observerer one is is actively involved in the game. This is what I consider our class. We are members of the game who are learning all we can about the game, while at the same time we are collecting data. We do not seperate ourselves from the games, but instead we do our best to become a productive member of the game.
A passive-obserrver would be someone who has never been invovled with the game, similiar to many of us in the begining of the semester. A person who has never interacted with the game, and only knows stuff about the game through readings weither online or in a book. A passive oberserver has no interaction with the players, they collect data through surverys and video or visual obersvations. They look at the game through a glass wall.

I believe that the only way you can study Second Life is as a participant-observer. From my interactions in the game thus far, I have learned enormous amounts from the Second Life community. This knowledge is not something that could have been read through a book or an online article. This knowledge could only be formed through personal expereinces in the game. Without such knowledge an observatiosn could not be fully understood Second Life and the obdservations that you are making. By being an active member in Second Life and a participant observer you can fully understand Second Life and you will then be able to make better notes and observations on the game and the other participants.

Also, in the mater of collecting information and data, it is important that one be a member of the game to collect such data. There is no other logical way to collect Second Life data than to be a participant observer who can talk to anyone who is in the game. There are onyl two other logical ways to think of collecting data. You could walk through Second Life and not talk to any other people in the game. You could just observe the actions of the other members of the community. However, since you would not be invisible others could try to interact with you. While you could simply avoid suchs occurances, once one of these occurances has occured are you still just an oberserver, or have you now turned into a participant obers. Another way I thought of too colklect data would be a website or blod where users posted and updated on events and activities that they were involved in in the game. This however, would not a very reliable source because you would not get opinions from all users. And you may get a few users updating alot thus giving you inaccurate results.

These are just my ideas sorry if they suck. You guys should post your own so I can comment and get some credit