Back in April, I became a Premium member for the first time in my 12 years in SL. I landed on a charming little waterfront home and decided to keep it. I knew my luck would not be better if I kept re-rolling for new homes.
Here we are, 3 months later, and so much has changed with how Linden Lab launches new sims. Instead of launching hundreds of sims at once, like they did initially, now only one or two sims are launched every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. At this rate, eventually everyone who wants a home would get a home, but not at a rate that’s fast enough to satisfy them. As you can see by this vent thread on the forum, they are more than a little upset. In fact, if you read the entire Linden Homes forum, it’s so overwhelmingly NEGATIVE.
It’s absolutely possible to get an anime-inspired eye without resorting to looking like a parody of an Asian person, or supporting a certain mesh head designer who’s known for bullying others. Let’s check out how the look is done.
“I’m a fiend, I’m a killer, only pledge allegiance to the highest bidder. In a world with no morals and a life with no meaning, there is no such thing as a sinner.” – Ghostwerk, Corporate Assassin (Netrun)
If you love cyberpunk everything like I do, you love any themed event of such that comes along and lets you shop for all the gear you’ll need for a futuristic look. Imagine my thrill at the Cyber/Punk event happening, especially its Psycho Byts gacha. I was able to get a pair of amazing cyber bento arms from it–a rare with just a few plays! Plus, some boots, a headset, and a dope-looking bodysuit.
I mixed up my look in the picture to show the average cyberpunk berzerker and how they might look if you encountered one.
Alright, so you go shopping for all this stuff and then you say to yourself, “Where can I go roleplay as a cool cyberpunker?” And to that I tell you… yeah, sorry, those opportunities are dwindling in SL. Roleplay in SL is dwindling. Should we talk about that?
I can be pretty hot when I wear a realistic skin, right? Don’t fault me for being the quirky sort that likes hand-drawn skins, though–I’m a painted skin appreciator! I love to collect them. But with this new LOGO mesh head release, I’m leaning towards photo-realism to bring out the product’s best aspects.
This is LOGO Mae, the versatile new mesh head available at Uber right now for about 500L. The product bundle comes with the head itself, several basic skins and makeups, and an animation and customization HUD. The matching body skin is sold separately for about the same price the head bundle goes for. You can basically get a new look for a bit more than 1000L right now.
This is a long and kinda technical review, so let’s dive in!
Juicy sim will go offline on April 26th, thank you to my friends for the best 12 years of sim ownership in SL! Visit my little corner of Juicy if you want to see it for the last time.
Times are changing, and with the popularity of Linden Homes, I foresee a change in how people rent land as well. I have thought about taking a break from the rental business for quite some time, and with the recent launch of Bellisseria, it reaffirms that this is the right decision.
Once I found a buyer for Juicy sim, I upgraded my account to Premium to acquire a Linden home. I wanted to move into the same sim block with all of my friends, but the homes are randomly assigned. Aemeth got a home several sims away, and she did an amazing job decorating it.
I wanted a waterfront parcel, and after abandoning the first home that was inland, I scored this little charming home on my second try:
It’s near water, it has a (blocked by houseboats) view of the ocean, and my own little private beach! I’ve always had an unlimited amount of prims to myself, so it will be a challenge to decorate this home and landscape while staying within the 351-prims limit.
If you figure out where I live… sail on by!
I’m enamored by my little Linden home and community living with so many perks. This premium slice of waterfront land, which would normally cost several thousand lindens, is free with premium membership! I love having roads I didn’t have to build, and going to community areas (pools) that I also didn’t have to build!
How much does Premium Membership cost? I paid $72USD/year for my membership. I receive a bonus $1,000L cos I’m a first-time subscriber, and I will receive a $300L weekly stipend. That’s $15,600L in yearly stipend plus my $1,000L bonus = $16,600L (or $66USD) I get back from Linden Lab. My total cost for my home is only $6USD a year!
I predict that by the end of this year, Linden Lab will make several more land announcements that will increase premium membership subscriptions and also affect sim owners. My predictions are:
Linden homes with larger parcels options
Commercial themed sims, with various parcel sizes
Lowered tier prices on all sims, ending the distinction between grandfathered sims and regular sims
Allowing residents to own a homestead sim without owning a full sim
Did you get a Linden home this week? Do you think any of my predictions will come true? Let me know in the comments!
EDIT: 9/26/2019 – I have moved out of my first Bellisseria home! My friend lives there now.
“Hey Cake! Where’ve you been?” Drawing comics for money and enjoying life. I’m working on a comic book for a mainstream company now, so I’m pretty excited! That series will be released in August. Nationwide. I’m a pro now!
But that’s not why I’m writing this, right? Let’s talk about Linden Homes!
I managed to check these out when the Home and Garden Expo was running, and the preview was pretty cool. So when they were released, I hopped on the chance to snag one. Gogo and I registered around the same time, so I was hoping to get one on the waterfront like she did. Just so you know–homes are randomly assigned! BUT, all of these houses are landscaped very nicely. I didn’t get one on the waterfront, but I still love my house anyway.
In every artists’ life, there’s a slew of grant and residency applications we apply for. Many of those applications face rejections. It’s the game of numbers you run when applying for one seat and a crowd of people who want the position! You can’t always contact the judge before you submit either, so you might not know how to put your best foot forward when pitching a project.
In real life, there are sometimes informational meetings to clear up confusion and allow grant applicants to understand what the judges are looking for. I figure in this case, a blog post might help.
So here’s my advice. I’m separating this into bullet points for do’s and don’ts.
EDIT: These horses are limited availability for now, so only about 40 of them are released to beta testers. You must wear the Water Horse group tag to purchase the horse. Water Horse will sell horses freely again when they iron out the bento head deformity bug.
Bento has been pretty fun so far! I’ve purchased a few things, such as the Medhue Elephant and Red Remora’s Fennec Fox avs. Both are Bento-enabled and add a lot of fun to playing SL.
So, here’s a new creation to add to this list: Water Horse has released their Riding Horse for beta testing. It’s a wearable vehicle but uses Bento bones to animate the mesh. No more claymation texture cycling! Your avatar will look like it’s riding a real horse in-game.
Seriously. This exists in SL now. And currently, the horse is going for about 3500L. Less than a mesh head! That’s a steal.
A few caveats if you buy the horse: it’s still in beta so there are bugs. They’re currently fixing a bug that deforms Bento heads when you ride the horse. They’re also looking for users to report anything else that’s wrong so the devs can fix it.
Have you ever felt more in touch with yourself when embracing your culture’s garb? I felt pretty awesome today donning a virtual recreation of Mardi Gras Indian Queen headwear (that I made myself) for the Avatars Against Trump challenge. Behind me is a combined veve that represents the voodoo loas of Baron Samedi and Maman-Brigitte.
These two ancient spirit-gods represent love and death. Death, in tarot, doesn’t just mean the literal interpretation of someone’s life ending. It also means change. Anything that dies and isn’t a person but is a thing (a project, a relationship, a sim) will end, but will possibly change into something else.
If you approach the gods and ask for death or change, don’t do it lightly. Ask for justice and let the gods do as they will. Otherwise, you might not get the change you’re looking for.
In this picture, I ask for the Baron not to dig America’s grave. Remember, what is not a person and “dies” will undergo a change… and I very much feel the change the country undergoes will not be good if current events continue.
Where the Baron either admits or denies a soul to proceed to the next world, Maman-Brigitte is a healer and loa of love. I must say that with our country being as torn as it is now, we have a lot of love to employ and healing to do.
Hey, Linden Labs! I know you’re working hard on two different projects right now, and that’s great. I also know you’ve mentioned being forced to do so because if you didn’t, someone else would replace the virtual worlds you’ve worked hard to build up. Right?
It’s 2017. Here are your rivals. There’s more than one:
