Alright people, the final paper covering my area of research has been written and turned in. A copy of it is pasted below.
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Objects of Mass Amusement: Why are Objects Interesting?

Ryan C. Culp

Objects. They have been in many, many games that I have played in the past. Anywhere from the two dimensional games from the early 90s that got me started with games to the three dimensional games like World of Warcraft and Guild Wars. One of the easily most comedic and most important aspects of any digital “world” is the object. My interest in these things called objects got started in the Goblin series of games when I had to solve puzzles in comedic ways like bashing a large chicken with a sausage to get it to lay an egg to cook for a giant to get into the next room and the interest was renewed in my trial account of World of Warcraft when I had a mechanical squirrel follow me around and I had a shield that was the wheel of a ship.
This interest followed me into this research class in Second life. One might not get to bash chickens with poorly textured and rendered sausages, but it is possible to fly a land speeder from Star Wars or make rabbits appear out of nowhere and multiply like, well, rabbits. Since this is a research class, I would not be making or playing with these things as a focus, but rather find out why others are interested in creating objects. This will make me intrigued as to find out a possible reason why so many people in the past have created objects that have amused me. To get me started, I had to find out a way to get at people who were creating objects. That took a little while, but I found out a way. I just went to classes held to teach people how to make objects and talk to the people who showed up. Then I had, from the peoples’ responses, figure out what about objects amused them and why they wanted to create such objects.
Throughout this paper, I will show a typical place people go to learn how to create objects, even if what they learn is how to create the physical parts of the objects or how to make the objects do fun things through scripting. After that, I will describe how people go about where people go to do the creating of objects, which will be followed by the process I went through for my research. Then proceed onto a section on what I got out of informants and end with some of my findings.
The Site: Educational Classroom
Classes can be found using events tab in the search option in Second Life and setting the “Category” option to Education. The class events have a teleport option and some of them can take you to the place shown (also can be viewed at http://rculp.livejournal.com). This is the place I went to most often in my research as a place to find people who were interested in object building. As seen on the picture, there is a place that people will get teleported to shown as a red circle, but some people instant message the instructor and get teleported right to the class space. Then have to find out which of the three class areas the specific class is being held, generally by means of instant messaging the instructor and asking or overhearing a yell stating which “room” it is being held at, unless they were teleported by the instructor (or friend as the case may be) in which case they are already at the classroom. Getting to the class is generally done in the five minutes leading up to the start of the class. Some people may show up late due to other engagements, in which they generally excuses themselves and try not to interfere with the class flow as much as possible. Students are asked to give each other enough room to work in for the purposes of the class and from there on, stand or sit in place.. The class continues on as the instructor covers the material he or she prepared answering questions that may arise to the best they can and there generally are time at the end of the class that is open for questions. When the class is done, most people teleport out, but some wander around the area. The area along the top half of the right side are rented by people to sell items they have created and the rest of the map is used by the group that allowed the specific Second Life group of educators to teach on their land.
Membership
Everyone in Second Life is capable of being a creator, they just have to have the need to create. All of the basic needs are given to everyone by default. The build option allows one to create and adjust prims in ways to make objects, through the basic prims, assorted textures to make the prims look different and a few scripts to make the prims do something. Beyond that, people have to find more textures and scripts to get what they have in mind to make become into being.
As far as being a member of the various classes in Second Life, the classes are generally open and free to the public as long as there is room. This is just like building in the first place, one just needs to show up for the class. The groups that hold these classes even allow the students to join, for free, to receive notices of upcoming classes.
Methods of Research
To begin my research, I started with finding out some places that helped beginners with creating objects. That lead me to a few places, but I chose to attend classes hosted by a group that generally taught how to make objects at various levels of experience.
As I observed classes, I took down students’ names to interview them later about their reasons and interests in creating objects. A few of the times I had been given permission to just give a general short blurb asking the students, if they were interested, to instant message me to set up a time for me to interview them.
When I got to questioning the various students, they generally were helpful and answered the questions rather promptly. I would ask each person some questions I had prepared ahead of time and give them time to respond. There a few people that I had problems with for time, since they live in different time zones. In these cases the interview wasn’t face to face, but through sending instant messages.
All throughout researching, whenever I was going to use information from what I got or saw I gave everyone involved a note card. The note card included information about what I was doing research wise and covered ethical concerns as to how I used the information I gathered. After they reviewed the note card, I would ask if they would accept me using them as part of the research. This note card process was to make sure I did not use any information/data in ways that would result in harmful effects to those I researched.
Informants
I had interviewed a few informants, people who knew about the area I was researching but were not necessarily people I interviewed as subjects, during the research process. The informants were to help guide my research in a way to better optimize what, where and how I should be asking. Both have been using Second Life for quite some time and were familiar with creating. One was on the teacher side of it all while the other has taken classes and creates objects quite frequently.
Both informants had given me some information that my other research had led me to see already, but there was also information that was new.
The informant who hasn’t taught brought up some issues in building that creators tackle frequently, such as objects that create lag and that objects are more complicated than making it look right but the functionality of it all.
The informant who leads one of the teaching groups covered people who take classes to help further their ability to create objects. She mentioned that “even very experienced students can learn from being in the classroom, and just learning from the experience the others have.”
Overall, the informants helped me understand that no one builder is the same as another, even those who are on the same level of experience in building, and that there is a vast array of techniques at arriving at a finished object.
Subjects
I did not just interview informants during the research. There were subjects that gave me the information I was looking for. After the classes I attended and got their names, I would interview them. I had interviewed people of various experience levels, from those who just arrived in Second Life a matter of days before to those who have been creating objects at other places before Second Life had even existed.
There are people who didn’t create objects very much at all. Then there were people who created objects frequently, like one who had to say that he created “pretty much every day I am in Second Life.”
Observations
Through my research, I have seen a lot of objects created and come across lots of ideas. Even the newest person to creating objects can come up with something amazing.
From the people I interviewed, a majority of them had previous experience with prims and creating objects, even if it was small. They all attended the classes to learn more than they already knew.
On top of having previous experience, most of them weren’t creating objects to sell as a primary focus. There were a few who were working with objects for a profit, but tended to find or edit previously existing objects more than actually creating the object themselves. Those who don’t have selling as a primary motive tend to be the more creative ones, making things such as dresses and working on fairground rides.
As far as making categories from the research, I have made a few. The first one I decided on calling “new,” for people with a low level of experience people with prims (building blocks for objects) and objects themselves. They tended to get interested in objects because they had seen them all over. An opposite of a “new” person also came up. An “experienced” person has created many objects, many of which varied in what they do. Experienced people also have the knowledge, or know where to find the knowledge, to continue on to make complicated objects. Then there are categories of purpose for building (rather than a knowledge base). There is the “seller” who makes objects for specific people with a specific goal object in payment for completion or makes objects that are either generally practical or amusing enough for people to go to places that represent malls and similar selling places and just buy them for their own enjoyment. Then, on the other hand, there are the “self-interest” people (those who create an object that they think is great or a challenge and work until it is completed). Self-interest creators don’t have selling the object(s) as the primary goal, but may, in the end, sell them. Many of these types of creators do give out their objects for free or don’t let the objects out whatsoever since the main point for them was just the challenge of creating the object.
Conclusion
Overall, people who create objects tend to use imagination and creativity as a starting point and then work out the details of how to complete that object, on their own initially and then expand out to places that offer help such as classes and forums. Selling appears to be less of a primary aspect than actually making the object. Yes, people will sell objects they create, but the challenge of creating the object using creativity with the many options to edit is the main thrill.

The class events found in the search in world have a teleport option and some of them can take you to the place shown. This is the place I went to most often in my research as a place to find people who were interested in object building. As seen on the picture, there is a place that people will get teleported to shown as a red circle, but some people instant message the instructor and get teleported right to the class space. Then have to find out which of the three class areas the specific class is being held, generally by means of instant messaging the instructor and asking or overhearing a yell stating which “room” it is being held at, unless they were teleported by the instructor (or friend as the case may be) in which case they are already at the classroom. Getting to the class is generally done in the five minutes leading up to the start of the class. Some people may show up late due to other engagements, in which they generally excuses themselves and try not to interfere with the class flow as much as possible. Students are asked to give each other enough room to work in for the purposes of the class and from there on, stand or sit in place. The class continues on as the instructor covers the material he or she prepared answering questions that may arise to the best they can and there generally are time at the end of the class that is open for questions. When the class is done, most people teleport out, but some wander around the area. The area along the top half of the right side are rented by people to sell items they have created and the rest of the map is used by the group that allowed the specific Second Life group of educators to teach on their land.

I think the interview with my informant went well. She was able to give 30 minutes of her time to answer some questions I had about how classes and people who took classes. The answers were, in part, on par with what I had expected like the students coming from different levels of experience from beginner to those who are just looking for a specific aspect of object creation but otherwise know just about everything there is to know to build good items to those people who want to eventually teach those types of classes. There was some information that was good to get, such as some of what ASL thinks the students get out of their classes like the "freedom that comes from becoming more familiar with the technical aspects of building, and also the creative freedom to design their own builds and make something unique."

For the classes that I have observed, the map above shows the map of the area in which they were held. The boxes in the lower right area show the class area and the purple square is where people would be teleported to from the class description in the search option in world. People would show up for the class typically within 5 minutes of the class starting and, once they were informed of which classroom space (issued numbers from 1 to 3) it was to be held, went to the class room. They would find out through either IMing the instructor or someone, typically the instructor, shouting which class room it is. The students would find a place to stand or sit within the class room space with room around them to work along with the class instructions. Classes tend to be between 45 minutes to an hour. After the class ended, some people would take off to their own things, some would ask more questions of the instructor depending on if the class space was going to be used shortly afterwards or not and if the instructor had extra time.

A starting point for some people are buildings that are setup in such a way as to guide people through the object creation by having numerous stations (setup to be followed in a specific order) that show the different parts of prim editing along with giving out note cards to explain what is happening at these stations. These buildings are intended to give people more control on the pace they learn these aspects of object creation. There are some things that the note cards lack where just testing how the editing works for oneself or having a live person there informing you on the spot doesn't, such as being able to respond to direct questions that may arise from an explanation (like many people don't see where a certain option is right away where a person can point out quickly while the building setup would have to foresee such problems and make a picture). As the people work through the basic steps that the locations and note cards try to explain, they get experience on how to do more advanced techniques that will help them create interesting and intriguing objects like R2D2 or a fireplace. Many people on Second Life who make objects tend to work solo later on, but use the boards to get help with things in which they are unfamiliar or unsure of (such as scripts). Also, there are numerous classes held weekly by many people who cover from the basics of prims to more advanced aspects of objects such as the coding process and detailed textures. The classes may be faster than some people may like, but the instructors may offer assistance outside of class and often have a question section (typically at the end).

Below is a document I (and other classmates will as well with some modifications) will hand out to people I will be researching so that they understand what I am doing. I am covering an aspect related to people creating objects within Second Life.

My name is Ryan Culp and I am an undergraduate student enrolled in a research methods class (Multimedia 490: Field Research In Second Life) at Bradley University in Peoria Il, USA, that is being conducted in Second Life.

Our projects feature observation of a "community of practice," that is, a group of people doing similar things in a cultural setting. I am observing "Gronald" at this time.

My observations are merely descriptive: I’ll take notes about what I see and I may summarize those notes in my paper, in class presentations to my classmates, or on my web-blog about this research. The blog is found at: <http://rculp.livejournal.com/>.

I will not record or publish either the SL or RL name of any avatar/person. Any observations about avatars or recording of their talk transcripts would take place only after having obtained the explicit permission of that avatar/person and would only happen after the name of the avatar had been changed via secret coding scheme. I will ask you if I can have your permission to use your talk as research data. Any pictures taken in SL, that serve as explanatory data and which might include avatars, will be modified so that avatar names and identifying characteristics are blurred/blocked unless you give me explicit permission to use your avatar likeness without modification.

We will also interview informants about the communities of practice that we are studying.
These conversations are, again, voluntary and only with the informed permission of the avatar/person/informant. To avoid linking you personally to your responses with a written consent your completing the interview (survey) will imply consent. We may copy out the chat transcript from our conversations/interviews. When we do, we will change/code your name so that there is no recorded connection between you/your avatar and the data.

You may choose to withdraw from any aspect of this study, at any time, without penalty by simply telling me you wish to stop.

This study has been certified as exempt for full committee review by the chair of the Bradley University Committee on the Use of Human Subjects in Research (CUHSR) and has been cleared by signed agreement with Linden Lab (via their “research procedures” ). Documentation for both is on file and available on request.

You may follow the progress of all of the studies in the class, including this one at:
<http://slane.bradley.edu/com/faculty/lamoureux/website2/490/bloglinks.html>. Presentation of the findings from the study serve as our gift to the communities of practice who share time and knowledge with us; perhaps our perspectives will help residents more fully understand and appreciate their activities.

If you have questions regarding the study, you can contact the Chairperson of CUHSR at 309 677-2550 or me, in world or out of world via email at <rculp@bradley.edu>, or my teacher, Professor Beliveau in world or out of world as Ed Lamoureux at ell@bradley.edu, 309-677-2378.

Do you have any questions?
Do you agree that I may:
-use your conversation in my study?
-Use your avatar likeness without modification (other than the coding of your avatar’s name)?
-publish a transcript of talk that includes words associated with your avatar (using
the coded name)?

Tags: second life

As far as the second assignment goes, the area in which the free objects are is posted in the gallery area. Pretty much it's just a warehouse with crates holding bunches of items of similar kinds that have been created by, if not all, mostly the same person. There are levels of the open building with a rather open area on the first floor in which people who teleport in teleport to. Other people just fly in from the surrounding areas that include what practically is a mall of items for sale. The second picture shows an area in which there is a building that a group of builders join at and teach others how to create objects.

Tags: second life

There is an area in Second Life that has a lot of free things available and people come to receive these free objects around the clock. I have been unable to locate a creator of any of these items personally, since all of the creators I had searched for were offline when I was searching. I am unsure how cooperative these people will be when I do get access to them, but the location does support numerous peoples' free objects.