{"product_id":"second-lives-a-journey-through-virtual-worlds-9781400065356","title":"Second Lives: A Journey Through Virtual Worlds","description":"\u003cp\u003eWeve always dreamed of perfect places: Eden  heaven  Utopia. Imagine gambling without loss  love without heartbreak  sex without exposure  experience without risk. Welcome to the fascinating world of online virtual reality  the land of invented places and populations that is entered and inhabited every week by nearly fifty million people worldwide. Each participant creates a virtual body  works at virtual jobs  and makes virtual friends and family. In Second Lives  Tim Guest  an internationally acclaimed young journalist  takes us on a revelatory journey through the electronic looking glass as he investigates one of the most bizarre phenomena of the twenty-first century.  From Second Life to EverQuest and beyond  here are the computer-generated environments and characters that can easily become more engrossing and fulfilling than earthly existence. With the click of a mouse you can select eye color  face shape  heightyou can even give yourself wings. Your character  or avatar  can build houses  make and sell works of art  earn money  get married and divorced.  In this fascinating and groundbreaking book  Guest meets people who found meaningful love and friendship despite never having met in person  catches up with the companies that have used virtual worlds to make big money  investigates the U.S. militarys massive online global model that trains soldiers to fight anyone anywhere  and travels all the way to gaming-crazed Korea to get a taste for just how big this phenomenon really is.  At first glance  these new computer-generated places seem free from trouble and sorrow. But Guest examines the dark side of this technology too  including the online criminals who plague imaginary worlds  from cyber mafiosos and prostitutes to real hackers and terrorists. It seems that one cannot escape greed  corruption  and human weaknesseven inside a computer screen. Are these virtual worlds a way to enhance life or to escape it? Guest explores this question personally as he lets himself be transported into myriad parallel universes. By turns provocative  inspiring  and disturbing  Second Lives is a crucial book for this millennium. After all  real life is so twentieth century.  Advance praise for Second Lives Tim Guest is a young writer with the literary goods. My Life in Orange  his hit memoir of growing up in a commune  looked at his past; his riveting new book  Second Lives  looks at our future: the world of virtual reality and the spellbound people who inhabit it. The book is some kind of revelationby turns compelling  chilling  and illuminating. Curious  intelligent  offbeat  and artful  Guest is at the beginning of a big career. John Lahr  senior drama critic  The New Yorker  author of Prick Up Your Ears: The Biography of Joe Orton  Praise from England for Second Lives An anthropological adventure but also Guests personal voyage . . . a fascinating portrait of rainbow landscapes and their inhabitants. Time Out London  Rich and colourful . . . an important mapping of a new social frontier. The Guardian  Remarkably timely. The Sunday Telegraph  Astonishing. The Sunday Times\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67948223070261,"sku":"ByrdShop_1400065356","price":90.87,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/second-lives-a-journey-through-virtual-worlds-9781400065356","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}