MMOs as Third Places While the virtual worlds of MMOs continue to rise in popularity (Woodcock, 2006), civic culture in the physical, offline world appears to have decreased (Putnam, 2000)In his seminal text, Oldenburg (1999) documents the decline in brick-and-mortar "third places" in America where individuals can gather to socialize informally beyond the workplace and homeThe effects are negative for both individuals and communities: "The essential group experience is being replaced by the exaggerated self-consciousness of individuals.

 American lifestyles, for all the material acquisition and the seeking after comforts and pleasures, are plagued by boredom, loneliness, alienation" (Oldenburg, 1999, p13)Recent national survey data appear to corroborate this assertion, with census data indicating that television claims more than half of American leisure time, while only three-quarters of an hour per day is spent socializing in or outside of the home (Longley, 2004)

In what ways might MMOs function as new third places for informal sociability? By providing spaces for social interaction and relationships beyond the workplace (or school) and home, such virtual environments have the potential to function as new (albeit digitally mediated) third places similar to pubs, coffee shops, and other hangoutsMMOs are social environments in that successful play often requires collaboration, albeit not uniformly: Recent evidence suggests that some people enjoy playing alone or in a "pseudo-social" fashion (Ducheneaut, Yee, Nickell, & Moore, 2006)Therefore, in this section we analyze the structural form of MMOs that warrants this "third place" assertionWith this argument in place, we then unpack the function of such spaces in terms of social capital in the next sectionTo begin, we compare the properties of MMOs to Oldenburg's (1999) eight defining characteristics of third places (see Table 1), and discuss how such virtual spaces satisfy each of the eight criteria in turn