Previously in Second Life

It’s Galentine’s Day, and two of my favorite girls in Second Life just released the cutest stuff. The kind of things you gift to yourself and conveniently “accidentally” buy for your friends too.

First up is the Versailles Love Cup from Flair, which is definitely Gogo-approved. I love holdables, and I love them even more when there are options so I can match it to my outfit.

Sparkle Skye also just released the Fiona Collection for Gacha Arcana, so if gacha’s your thing, go play. The best part is you can mix and match all the pieces, which is dangerous for me because I’ll absolutely convince myself I need every variation.

I’m currently obsessed with the Fiona ring, which is a Vault item, but don’t ask me to explain how to play Gacha Arcana because I genuinely don’t know. Sparkle tried to explain it to me, and I nodded like I understood, but I wasn’t retaining any of it. I think it has something to do with getting rewarded for playing a lot. That’s all I’ve got.

After I put together today’s outfit, I realized it was giving equestrian vibe. Which is funny because I don’t plan outfits based on themes. I wear things based on whatever pops up on my radar.

Like this Stella top from Tres Blah, which popped up again because it’s on sale. I already owned it, so I just grabbed a redelivery for LaraX and suddenly it felt like I bought something new without spending money. I love when brands update older items for previous customers. It’s one of the few things in SL that still feels genuinely nice.

This new hat hairstyle is from Wings, and you can customize the logo area with your own text. I made it my name because the template was easy to use with clear instructions. I normally don’t customize anything because I’m lazy, but this one was worth the effort.

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While Gacha Arcana from MadPea is fresh on my mind, I want to say something as a resident and customer. I think there are way too many events in Second Life, and I’m saying that as someone whose main hobby in SL is literally shopping.

Even I only go to maybe one or two events a week, and when I go, I mean I teleport in, hit the brands I already know, buy what I came for, and leave. I’m not wandering. I’m not browsing. I’m in and out.

Meanwhile, every month, I watch event companies create even more events, and all it does is spread the same sales thinner and thinner for everyone.

And to be clear, I’m not personally calling out Gacha Arcana here. This applies to pretty much every event company over the past year that has not only created more monthly events on top of their existing ones, but also added marketplace counterparts, weekend sales counterparts, one-off holiday events, and even brought gacha back into the mix. At some point, all of this stops helping creators and starts hurting them.

Recently I heard that some creators participating in Gacha Arcana noticed the low traffic and lack of sales, so they brought it up with the organizer. The organizer blamed it on the real life economy affecting sales in SL. And yes, that’s true. The economy is weird right now. People are cautious. Disposable income is tighter.

But event organizers in SL also need to take some responsibility for the mess they’ve helped create. When you keep stacking events on top of events, you create an economic downward spiral. The user base isn’t big enough to support an endless stream of new events popping up just because organizers want to squeeze even more event fees out of creators for their own benefit.

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