This is a step that can take place at any given time during in-game building, ranging from small actions (such as the placement of a singular block) to the creation and integration of entire decorative elements. Builders go through the evaluation stage in order to establish whether the additions they are making to the piece they are working on match the specifications of the overall build. This section expands on how evaluating is accomplished in-game by looking into the
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mechanical actions involved in doing it (Figure 41), as well as teasing out the practical reasoning involved in one specific instance of evaluation (Vignette 11) and the reparatory actions towards fixing the error (Vignette 12).
5.4.3.1 Mechanical actions in evaluating
One of the most routinely conducted actions during evaluation is for the builder to distance themselves from the piece they are working on after making an addition to it. As is depicted in the following picture (Figure 41), the builder is working on the roof of a castle. Upon placing the last block on the roof (Figure 41 – left), he distances himself from the build and stays mid-air for a few seconds, looking towards the addition (Figure 41 – centre). He then returns to the build and continues working on it (in this case, by adding more blocks on the roof) (Figure 41 – right). Whilst, in this case, the builder did not destroy any of the previously placed blocks (which hints at the fact that he was satisfied with the work he had conducted), multiple occasions where builders had to carry out reparatory actions to fix flaws on the piece under construction were witnessed during the fieldwork.
Figure 41 Taking distance from the build in order to evaluate it
This mechanical action becomes a necessity due to the game’s first-person camera. Builders’ perspective of the in-game world depends on their proximity to any given area, build or building block. By working so close to a particular build, their field of view is limited only to what they have directly in front of them, resulting in a constrained understanding of how their actions and additions to any given build relate to the rest of the elements the build constitutes of (e.g. its decorative elements, the colours of adjacent blocks, its size, etc.). By distancing themselves from the build, they manage to get a holistic view of their work, understand how individual blocks stand in
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comparison to each other and make the necessary changes if they do not like what they see.
Max: “It’s good to just stand back and see you are doing. Art
in general is always good from the distance.” [Observation material.]
5.4.3.2 Spotting an error
Whilst this is the most mundane of actions involved in evaluating, it is deemed necessary to present how builders spot errors in their work. What is demonstrated in the following vignette (Vignette 11) is the placement of two building blocks (two pillars) on top of a gate, which was the part of the build the builder was working on in that particular moment. This extract (alongside the one presented in Vignette 12) constitutes a continuation of the same building session as in Vignette 10. The succeeding analysis elaborates on the reasoning behind the builder’s evaluation of his work.
Vignette 11 Placing and fixing a building block
Georg: “So I am just now trying to focus on the piece that I just added
above the gate and trying to see if I am enjoying what I see or if I am not enjoying what I see. I have a feeling that it is not a bad direction we are going.”
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Georg: “But we need to fix one thing, which is that this piece [the right
pillar] needs to be moved a little bit on the left. A reason why I want to move it a little bit on the right is because I want to preserve the edge of the roof a little bit better.”
What the builder is trying to achieve here is to check whether the two pillars sit nicely on top of the wall’s roof. He elaborates on the fact that “it is not a bad direction we are going,” which means that he likes these two building blocks as additions to the gate and is going to stick with them. However, he then proceeds to delete them, as he acknowledges that they need to be placed closer to the centre of the gate. The reasoning behind this is he wants to retain the existing details at “the edge of the roof,” which were lost by the pillars’ initial placement (Figure 42).
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5.4.3.3 Repairing and error
The following vignette (Vignette 12) is the continuation of the previous example, where the builder (Georg) performs a number of actions towards repairing the error (the misplacement of the pillars). As revealed through the vignette, repairing a misplacement draws upon performing a sequential number of mechanical actions, which are paired to the builders’ reasoning of placing the pillars closer to the bridge’s centre in order to “preserve the edge of the roof.”
Vignette 12 Example of repairing a misplaced building block
Georg: “You can see that I have the white blocks above it and those are
reference points. And those reference points are very important because without these reference points you will have a hard time copy-pasting and redoing everything 20 times.”
Georg: Creates a new reference point for placing the pillar that is 6
blocks on the left from the original one.
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Georg: Performs the same procedure for placing the right pillar.
Repairing a misplaced building is achieved through the combined use of the copying-pasting technique (via the use of World Edit) and reference points. Georg is placing 6 glass blocks on the right side of another glass block. This mechanical action is of significance in performing the reparatory action of changing the original position of the pillars; the first glass block is the reference point used for placing the left pillar in its original position. Furthermore, the number of blocks and their direction correspond to the exact new position of the new pillar (in this case, the left pillar is going to be placed 6 blocks on the right of its original position).
It needs to be noted that these glass blocks are not part of the build but rather temporary blocks that are placed on the building site for the sole purpose of facilitating copying and pasting.