Star Worlds explores the future-oriented universe of online virtualworlds connected with popular science fiction—specifically, with StarWars and Star Trek—that have been inhabited for over a decade bycomputer gamers. The Star Wars and Star Trek franchises, both of whichhave shaped the dominant science fiction mythologies of the last halfcentury,offer profound conceptions of the tension between freedomand control in human economic, political, and social interactions.Bainbridge investigates the human and technological dynamics of fouronline virtual worlds based on these two very different traditions: themassive multiplayer online games Star Wars Galaxies; Star Wars: The OldRepublic; Star Trek Online; and the Star Trek community in the non-game,user-created virtual environment, Second Life.

The four “star worlds” explored in this book illustrate the dilemmasconcerning the role of technology as liberator or oppressor in ourpost-industrial society, and represent computer simulations of futurepossibilities of human experience. Bainbridge considers the relationshipbetween a real person and the role that person plays, the relationshipof an individual to society, and the relationship of human beings tocomputing technology. In addition to collecting ethnographic andquantitative data about the social behavior of other players, he hasimmersed himself in each of these worlds, role-playing 14 avatars withdifferent skills and goals to gain new insights into the variety of playerexperience from a personal perspective.