Have you ever wondered about the virtual worlds that seem to be popping up all around us? Completely invisible to the ignorant, yet omnipresent to the insiders, virtual worlds are no longer a figment of science fiction. There are many for whom a significant part of their lives, or sometimes even their entire lives, revolves around virtual worlds--worlds with their own societies, cultures, governments, and economies. As outsiders, we are kept at an arm’s distance, always wondering what really drives these worlds. Why would someone spend hours in front of his computer playing a game? Do people really make millions of dollars selling virtual goods and, if yes, how? Dibbell answers these questions, and many more, in this book.

One of the pioneering books in a field that is as of yet a mystery to many, Dibbell gives excellent insights into the phenomenon of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMPORGs), which is a genre of graphics-driven online games run on many servers where thousands of players from around the physical world interact with each other in a virtual world.

If a year traveling the landscape of virtual worlds could be called a journey, then this is a splendid travelogue. It all starts with Dibbell’s announcement that he is embarking on a new profession: “start a business selling make-believe commodities, and ... get rich doing it.” Through the course of the book, we see Dibbell going from an amateur “Noob,” where he is awed by the intricacies of the game, to an insider with significant clout in the virtual world he inhabits. As he gets into the thick of the game, he sets a target to earn in one month more than what he ever earned as a freelance writer, as well as enough to file taxes with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as a trader of virtual goods. As we follow Dibbell on the path to reaching his targets, we are treated to many interesting views of the virtual landscape, as well as to sweet nuggets of intellectual digression.

The book examines a wide range of aspects of the virtual world--from buying virtual real estate, to sweatshops where thousands of workers in a developing country may be relentlessly tapping away at their keyboards to generate virtual goods that may then be resold. In between his quest, Dibbell takes us along on his detours, into the realms of philosophy, economics, psychology, and even evolution. Some of the more interesting discourses are examinations of the similarities between real-world and virtual economies, starting with the basic definitions of economics. Dibbell tries to understand why human beings, be it in the virtual or real world, always choose a constrained economy over one that knows no bounds. At one point in the book, Dibbell is consumed by an obsession with games. He delves into the history of play; the social acceptance, or rather the nonacceptance, of play; and how play for the sake of itself was pushed into the background when the “people’s republic of recess” was conquered by capitalism. He also discusses some academic studies on play, to understand the interplay between work and play in the virtual world.

As he accumulates more money online, he is faced with the business decision of whether to take money out into the real world or to reinvest it. This turns out to be a good juncture to try and convince his readers, through the use of appropriate, albeit predictable, analogies, that virtual money is not as surreal or delusional as one might be inclined to believe.

All in all, the book is a wonderful read, even for those uninitiated into the world of online gaming. Dibbell’s unique ability to enter the skin of his subjects, feel their emotions, and even speak and write like them draws the reader into the book. If you are looking to this book for tips on how to make a million dollars trading virtual loot, you might be a bit disappointed; this is not a how-to-guide on the topic. Rather, this is an interesting examination of the various facets of the virtual world, in a unique and very successful attempt to make sense of this newly emerging phenomenon. Written in a fluid, flowing fashion, the book is a delightful read, which maintains just the right balance between being informative and entertaining. Anyone even remotely interested in the area would not regret picking this up.