The virtual and the physical initially seem like distinct and separate entities without any overlap.  We often explain the virtual as an essence not formally admitted to the physical world, and define the physical as the clear and visible reality of energy and matter.  Although these two worlds appear to clearly diverge as rigid binaries, “it is in being virtual that we are human: since it is human ‘nature’ to experience life through the prism of culture, human being has always been the virtual being” (Boellstorff 2008: 5).  The virtual is a third space in between two points of transmission and perception.  In this space, people are able to produce social interactions and social relations.  We recognize that the virtual is a dynamic and unstable world that cannot be bound to one definition.  This being said, a common thread between all varieties of virtual worlds is that they are “(1) places, (2) inhabited by persons, and (3) enabled by online technologies” (Boellstorff 2008: 17).  There is much intersection between the virtual and the physical.  

Even by playing video games, we enter a new world and to a certain extent virtually become the game through the social relations formed (Turkle 1984: 501).  In this case, the video game acts as a simulation of the physical.  We commonly view simulations as counterfeit imitations of the real, oftentimes with the intent to deceive.  As a result, we wrongly discount the significance and accuracy of simulations.  In reality, the concept of a simulation is even more perfect than the real. The real becomes a virtual approximation of the virtual work we are doing in our minds and through language.  

*Turkle, Sherry. “The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit.” Video Games and      Computer Holding Power (1984). The New Media Reader.      
*Boellstorff, Tom. Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the     Virtually Human. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008.