Ethnography Results, Week 4

Goal:

Until now I have been discovering new places on Second Life and getting familiar with how different features work. Having acquired that preliminary knowledge, my aim this week was to actually interact with people, rather than simply observing their behavior. This week, I wanted to make friends on Second Life.

Methods of Study:

• Teleport to already visited or some new locations.
• Observe the general behavior of the people.
• Start conversations with different people and get an idea of their general attitude towards newbies.
• Try to make new friends on Second Life.

Locations:

I have set Texas A&M University campus as my default location, so I always start my Second Life session with the Texas A&M Campus. However, so far I have always found the Texas A&M campus empty. Next I teleported to the Standford Campus, then to the IEEE society but all these places were empty.

It was my observation that people mostly sign up for second life for relaxation and to make friends rather than going to universities and libraries, which is why I found all the libraries and college campuses I have visited so far to be empty. People tend to be at places like clubs and beaches where they could hang out with their friends.

So finally, I teleported to one of the places I had visited before and knew that I would find lot of people there. The place was - The Help Island. I have talked about this place in my week 2 results.

Screenshot: The Help Island

Like I had expected, I did find a lot of people here. I did start talking to some people and told them that I was a noob. I asked them about what they usually do on second life, what interests them about second life, what are the places that are worth visiting and questions like these. Following are some of the conversations I recored:

Conversation with AF: (I won't be disclosing names to maintain player's privacy).

Jaideep Balekar: Hi, could you tell me about some interesting places I could visit on SL?

AF: there u go hun thats a load of places u can go

JaideepBalekar: thanks so much!

AF: do u need places to get cloths as well? and that is a place to get free stuff

JaideepBalekar: sure, i am a noob and my clothes are pretty dorky :)

JaideepBalekar: i love free stuff..!

AF: lol well that is a folder of a whole bunch of free stuff

JaideepBalekar: thanks !

JaideepBalekar: btw where are you from?

JaideepBalekar: are there any do and donts I should know about SL?

AF: not really just have fun

JaideepBalekar: alright, thanks a lot AF!

AF: yw

My short conversation with Arc:

JaideepBalekar: hey wats up arc?

Arc: fine how about u ?

Arc: ur quiet new to SL

JaideepBalekar: yes, very new :) what about you?

Arc: i am five months old

JaideepBalekar: so, what made you sign up ?

Arc: brb RL call

Arc: ok jai i was surfing net around august of last year then i saw this website and i like it better than other chatting webs

JaideepBalekar: hmmm, i got here because of a class project and i'm actually liking it here

Arc: but dont become addict to this game ok:)

JaideepBalekar: well, i'll try not to :)

JaideepBalekar: actually, i have to run to my next class. It was nice talking to you. Can I add you as a friend?

Arc: yeah of course

Arc: but i usually come once a month or twice

Friendship offer accepted.

JaideepBalekar: alright bud, ttyl. hope to c u online sometime

Arc: ok bye take care

Finally, I had another conversion with yet another player on Second Life. I'll abbreviate her name as GM. She is from Australia. The conversation was very long and verbose, so I'll summarize it instead. This person told me about some nice places on SL where I can find nice people to hang out with. We asked each other about our interests and got introduced. During the conversation, she told be that she is disabled in real life and that made it very challenging for her to engage in any kind of work in real life. Instead, she run a furniture and resale business on SL and earns real money through this business. I thought this was a really interesting notion. She spends 6 hours a day on second life selling her stuff, so it's pretty much like a job for her.

During night though, she works at a night club as a dancer. It was interesting to know that a person who is disabled in real life can cross the limits and discover new horizons in second life. She also left me a piece of advice - she told me that some people on SL aren't nice and that they can actually trick you into getting your money (linden dollars, which can be converted into USD). Then she invited me to her place in Australia and introduced me to her husband. She had her shop at her place and a rest area for visitors. She told me about how people buy land, houses and other stuff on SL and pay USD for it. People have their businesses and do jobs on second life. Then, I had to end my conversation because I was getting late for the class. However, it was wonderful to talk to these people and get better insight into Second Life.

Screenshot: GM's house and guest area

Overall Experience:

I enjoyed the overall experience this week since I got to talk to people and make friends. During the first two weeks, I was wondering what people really do on second life. Second life can get pretty boring if there is no human interaction. Making new friends and hangings out with them takes the notion of pen friends to a new level. The general attitude of the three persons I talked to was very amiable. They were very helpful and also provided me with some useful advice.