Zuckerberg’s conviction in a single identity led him to require real names on Facebook. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, online identity was pseudonymous: on AOL Instant Messenger, you were soccergirl7 or doglover42. (I’m sorry to say that I was sexyrexy3617—a friend convinced me that it would be both funny and cool. It was neither.) By mandating... See more

To play an alternate reality game is to be drawn into a collaborative project of explaining the world. It is to lose, even fleetingly, one’s commitment to what is most true in the service of what is most compelling, what most advances a narrative one deeply believes.

More people, increasingly dissatisfied by these corporate offerings, are compelled into creating their own virtual worlds. The future of the internet, as some have theorized, might consist of micro-communities, enclosed worlds with fewer but more engaged members. Through video games like Minecraft and collaborative worldbuilding projects, which are... See more