Well! I have to say. I apologise if I've offended anyone here. I came here with respect but I have to say the 'professor' did test my nerve. If I wanted advice on how to conduct fieldwork, I'm certainly not going to be coming here or any online forum for that matter. That just doesn't make any sense. I guess my original post may have lacked some detail, I was trying to keep it simple and just start a friendly discussion with anyone willing to take part.
Just to clear a few things up...
With regards to the immersive aspect of anthropology. Yes, it's the cornerstone of anthropological method, participant-observation. It involves both participating in and observing in a place/culture/issue. It takes years to complete, months to plan, months to gain the trust and access you need from informants. The product of this us usually a book called an ethnography. These are somewhat dying out now in favor of the journal article sadly. Now I was working on a piece of coursework, there were set questions, I picked one which was (ironically!) about anthropological methods and how to apply them to virtual worlds (such as SL). Now due to the nature of researching and writing a piece of coursework, it would be impossible to even attempt some kind of participant observation. There simply isn't time. Instead there are hundreds of other things anthropologists do as well as PO such as... Interviews, surveys, photography, use of video, online research such as forums, blogs etc. Which is exactly what I was doing here.
Anyway, I hope that's cleared a few things up. And again, thank you for the feedback and input, I really do appreciate it, it has certainly been interesting!
Nemia (girl!)