Representations of Virtual Worlds in International Pop Culture

As I mentioned in an early post, one of the goals here at the project has been the creation of databases that can serve as depositories of knowledge about virtual worlds. In the earlier post, we provided links for a library of research articles, and a list of all known virtual worlds.

In this post, we are providing a list of all known representations of virtual worlds and related technologies and concepts in pop culture from around the world. By virtual worlds and related technologies and concepts, we mean any time the content of a film, television series or episode, novel, comic book or digital game deals with issues of: virtual worlds, virtual reality, digital games, and augmented reality due to technology. Whether or not we should include all of these representations as relating to virtual worlds is something I hope this list will help us discuss.

There are currently 240 items on the list, going all the way back to an episode of the British television series The Prisoner in 1968.

As with our other depositories, if you have any suggestions for changes or additions, then please let us know. Also, feel free to spread this list around, and to use it as you see fit.

I see this list as a way for potentially understanding out the general public makes sense of this emergent technology. I am thinking of an analysis that compares three historical trajectories: 1) the development of virtual worlds technology; 2) the journalistic coverage of this development; and 3) the representation of virtual worlds in pop culture. If anyone is interested in this analysis, then please let me know.