Chapter Five

Virtual People

FIRST DAY OF WORK: 2010

It’s Mike’s first day at his first job, his recent undergraduate business degree a fading memory. He’ll eventually get his desk assignment in the downtown office, but for orientation tomorrow he’s been asked to log into a virtual world using his home computer. The company doesn’t expect to do a lot of hand-holding on this task—they’ve asked him to just jump into the world, create a personal avatar, and teleport to http://slurl.com/secondlife/Campus/150/100.

Fortunately, Mike’s had plenty of newbie experiences in virtual worlds (he plays at least a dozen different avatars in various games). When he reads the assignment from his new employer, his first thoughts are “I can do this,”“My new company ...

Get Total Engagement now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.