Pointed out by Sulka, this essay: http://virtual-economy.org/files/Lehdonvirta-VWDE.pdf
I suggest that researchers ask themselves the following questions to ensure their work is relevant to their aims:
1) Out of all social world sites and technologies, why am I focusing on MMOs?
2) Out of all possible interaction modalities, am I justified in limiting my
observations to the MMO server?
3) Do my results concern MMOs in general, a specific MMO, or some completely
different category?There are plenty of good answers to all three questions, but “MMOs are like virtual
versions of the real world” is not among them.