Four years of work, and play, in virtual worlds 

T.L. Taylor spent four years observing life in the virtual game world EverQuest and from that experience wrote the first ethnography about these incredibly popular game spaces. What is happening in these worlds gives us important insights not only into the nature of play, but also connects with larger societal discussions on a variety of topics.

T. L. Taylor er lektor på IT-Universitetet og uddannet sociolog. Hun har arbejdet med socialiseringsprincipper i online-spillet Everquest.

Games are social
With her book Play Between Worlds. Exploring Online Game Culture published by the MIT Press T.L. Taylor has challenged the stereotype image of computer players as isolated, lonely and nerdy teenage boys.

“Forget all about that”, she says. “The world of online gaming has a much broader fan base then we typically think when we imagine the stereotypical computer game player. Women & girls, families, friends, and co-workers playing together, and adults of all ages make up the world of these games. And while taking on and killing challenging monsters and opponents is a big part of these games, there is a lot of social activity going on at the same time.”

The complex, dynamic processes in games descend from social interaction between the players and their engagement with a game world and each other. MMOGs are social game spaces that give players opportunities to do everything from participate in team activities to exploring the possibilities of the virtual world and one’s own identity.

Games as a professional branch of sport

Today online games are highly sophisticated and offer considerable opportunities for casual play, experimenting with identities, or just exploring a new virtual geography. At the same time, some players emerge who take the games very seriously. Often known as “powergamers”, these players hold a style of engagement that often looks a lot more like work than play to outsiders.

Based on her experience with interviewing powergamers in EQ, T.L. is now doing research on how computer games are becoming highly profiled sport events, complete with professional players that compete for money. In her current project she attends professional computer game tournaments, interviews the variety of people involved in developing this “new sport” (players, referees, agents, organizers, etc.), and is tracking this emerging scene in the computer game world.


Massively multiplayer online games (MMOG) are huge internet-based virtual environments capable of supporting thousands of players simultaneously. EverQuest and World of Warcraft (which T.L has also published on) are examples of virtual play worlds that never close, even if the players go to sleep. Using avatars, digital representations of the player, people roam through the game world meeting other people in real-time, killing monsters, exploring the vast space, and building game communities.

Award to a female role model

T.L. Taylor is a pioneer within her field of research. She has been working in the field of internet studies for over 15 years, exploring virtual and game worlds. The research for her book on EverQuest is based on interviews and extensive participation with the gamers in their virtual worlds, where she plays and observes.

This form of ethnographic research is quite time consuming but it pays off in the form of a profound and valuable understanding of these virtual worlds. Taylor’s work was therefore elected the best research contribution at the IT University in the year 2007.

Every year the IT University recognizes an exceptionally good piece of research that contributes to new knowledge and concrete reflection on how this new insight can be used. “T.L. Taylor has given an outstanding contribution to the exploration into game culture,” says Provost Jørgen Staunstrup.


Facts about T.L. Taylor
T.L. is American and lives in Sweden. She has been employed at the IT University for approximately 5 years and is head of the M.Sc. programme in Media Technology and Games. She is also a member of the universities Center for Computer Games Research.She is one of the IT Universities most visible and engaged women researchers. She is an active member of a variety of academic and professional organizations IGDA, AoIR, DIGRA, and 4S and is a founding editorial board member of the peer-review journal Games and Culture.

She holds degrees in sociology (B.A. University of California Berkeley, M.A. and Ph.D. Brandeis University) and she researches, writes, and lectures on virtual worlds and multiplayer online games (MMOGs), software and values, gender and games, computer mediated communication, sociological and cultural angles on technology, and professional computer gaming. For more information: http://www.itu.dk/~tltaylor/

- By Pia Svejgaard Pedersen pias@itu.dk