I, Avatar: The Culture and Consequences of Having a Second Life, by Mark Stephen Meadows

Posted July 8th, 2008 by Taran

When I first saw this book on Amazon.com, it was hard to control myself. The name is an obvious rip-off of Asimov's 'I, Robot' - and yet the rest of the title did seem of worth. I sent off for it and have just finished reading it.

This was a difficult book for me to review. The author starts off explaining his own experiences in AOL chatrooms which, if they were not annoying to other users, were certainly bordering on trolling. Of course, he didn't call it that, but that's exactly what it was, at least to some degree. The whole Pighed persona seemed more like insight into troll behavior rather than any sort of early comparison to a virtual world. The bad news is that anyone who has been around in cyberspace long enough sort of knows that, but the audience of the book might think that the behavior of Pighed in the AOL context was socially acceptable. In that way, I thought it irresponsible and even a nice way of defending annoying behavior on the Internet.

But I read the rest of the book anyway.

Anyone who has read my own thoughts on Your2ndPlace.com would probably understand, after reading Meadows' book, that he and I don't agree on some things - but here's the funny thing. I found it to be a good book for people, other than the unashamed announcement of the author's roots in trolldom.

The book reeks of the Internet - albeit in some ways I find disagreeable - but it almost seemed as if one could turn a page and fall right into a video. The book is more of an experience than a collection of pages, and while I do not agree with some things the author wrote - I think for the most part he did get it right. But is it worth reading for someone interested in Second Life? I do not know. I think someone who is trying to understand the allure of Second Life could find the book useful, but I don't see it extending beyond that. There are no great truths I found revealed in the book, but then - I am a jaded virtual world user and even consultant. I am not the audience.

I give the book a KnowProSE.com 7 out of 10. While the book is short, well illustrated and full of what is very good writing - it lacks staying power. In retrospect, it is a well written blog of essays published as a book. And yes, there is a market for that - but how large, and was this book too late to ride the Second Life wave?

Time will post the final review.