RFL Purple Tears Steam Key Raffles

 

For anyone looking for a game at a discount, Team Purple Tears is doing a Steam key raffle fundraiser. Currently there are six games up to get tickets for, three of which today is their last day. 

 

Just a reminder that the March Purple Tears Steam Key Raffles are ending! Only 1 has any chances sold. Great odds to win!

Tickets are set at 1/10th the value of the game. Buy 4 chances and get a 5th one free!

Come on down to the Purple Tears HQ, raffles are in the back. 

 

 

The three games of which the raffle ends today are, Simulacra and Simulacra2, Hotel Renovator, and Settlement Survival. Three others, Resident Evil: Village, Bus Simulator 21, and Call of Duty: WW2, are available to buy tickets for until the end of April. 

 

Head to http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Choa%20Nu/184/171/37

 

Linden Lab Offering Premium Plus Without Stipend At Reduced Price

 

On Wednesday October 15, Linden Lab announced in the official blog it was offering Premium Plus accounts at a reduced price, the catch being it would be without the weekly stipend. 

 

We just launched something new in Second Life: Premium Plus at a fraction of the cost!

Think of it as Premium Plus’ cost-conscious sibling—all the perks, just without the weekly allowance. And it might be exactly what you’ve been waiting for.

 The Lab would remind people of the benefits of a Premium Plus account, being able to be in up to 150 groups, access to the larger Linden Homes, and more, "The only thing you won’t get is the weekly L$ stipend and signup bonus—which means you’re paying less for the same perks offered in our current Premium Plus tier.

 

The blog entry would say the price for Premium Plus was $20.75 USD a month, with the discounted plan without stipends at $11.99 USD a month. But this is done under annual billing. Under monthly billing the price is $29.99 USD a month for regular and $15.99 USD a month without the stipend. 

 

For more information, check the Linden blog (here). 

 

 Bixyl Shuftan

 

Valentines Day Shop And Hop Opens Today

 

Yesterday, Linden Lab announced that the Valentines Day themed "Shop and Hop" shopping event would be opening today, Friday January 31.

The 2025 Valentine Shop & Hop is almost here with 280 participating merchants across 14 shopping regions. All are offering their best to inspire your Valentine's fantasies from a romantic evening with your bae, to a party with your friends, and everything in between. You will definitely find something to suit you! 

 

As the announcement stated, there's fourteen sims with almost three hundred stores, with plenty of romantic-themed items. Each store has at least a 20 percent discount on it's wares, maybe more on some, and there's at least one free gift for shoppers whether or not they're in the store's shopping group, or a 300 Linden dollar gift certificate. 

For those wondering, all of the sims are rated Moderate. There is no separate area for adult-themed stored as there was in the recent past.

 

For a list of the sims, click here to check the Destination Guide page.

For a list of the stores, click here to check the Linden's blog post.

To just jump in, head here: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Snowflake/128/129/54  

Bixyl Shuftan

Holiday Shop and Hop Starts Today

 

 

 It's time for the biggest shopping event in Second Life this Christmas season, the Holiday Shop and Hop. Starting at 9AM Friday December 6 (today), residents can hop on over and shop away.

 

This is a huge shopping mall consisting of 16 sims, with 320 stores. Beside the shops, there's numerous decorations to give the place a festive feel. 

 

"Every store will have at least a 20% discount on all items and a free (non-group) gift for shoppers or a gift certificate valued at L$300 or above!"

 

And you'll never know just who you might run into.

For a list of the sims, check here in the Destination Guide.  For locations of each of the stores, they're on the bottom two-thirds of this post in the Linden Blog. Or just head straight in here:

 

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lavendar/126/125/54

 

The Shop & Hop lasts until January 6, 2025.

 

Bixyl Shuftan

 

"Dad's Birthday" Sale at Magician Productions

 My Dad turns 65 on July 20th. He was born in 1957. He was born on the same day man landed on the moon. And since my whole Aesthetic is space themed, I wish to honor my dad with a sale on all my in-world items. Because if it wasn't him encouraging me to make mods in the first place, I never would have been here on SL as long as I have been.

So here's to you, Dad! Happy Birthday! 

 

And for the rest of you; a special sale for all my in-world products up to 30% off for the remainder of this week! Sale ends Friday~

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Montecito%20Bay/21/107/723 

 

Magician Productions is owned by Becky Nosferatu.
 

Furry Fashion Does Black Friday

 

FF Black Friday 50% Off Sale MAIN STORE ONLY
Nov 26- 29th ONLY
Purple Red & Blue Vendors ONLY!!!! 

 Furry (210,92,28)
 

Eye On the Blog: Winter Wonderland Open, "Go Premium For Less"

Xiola Linden made a couple announcements on the official Second Life blog a few days ago. She stated that Linden Lab's "Winter Wonderland" area was once again open.

Winter Wonderland is once again alive with the sights and sounds of holiday delights and snowball fights! To get there, stop by one of the portal parks, follow the trail to the Winter Wonderland teleport portal, and tumble into an enchanted land of breathtaking beauty.

 At the Winter Wonderland area one can find a winter snow track, an ice skate arena, a ferris wheel, an ice shack with presents for Premium members, and the snowball arena, where later today at Noon SL time, the "Snowball Showdown," previously called the Linden Snowball Fight will be taking place following the "Holiday Crawl."

One can access the Winter Wonderland at Portal Park 1 (175/118/52).

Also, Linden Lab was offering a 50 percent discount for residents upgrading their account to Premium, but only for the first quarter year. New Premium accounts would get a 1000 Linden dollar bonus, along with being able to join more groups, access to Premium-only sandboxes, and a "Premium Badge" that allowed them access to more at the Winter Wonderland area.

If you’re not a Premium member yet, now happens to be a great time to upgrade - for a limited time only, save 50% on your first quarter’s payment for a Premium Second Life Membership subscription.*  As a Premium member, you’ll enjoy rewards like exclusive gifts, access to special Premium Sandboxes, a L$1000 sign-up bonus, more group slots, and weekly L$ rewards to spend on the things that make your time in Second Life most enjoyable. Land is better than ever for Premium members and also includes your own inworld home (which just got a 49% prim upgrade), and access to acquire Mainland Regions which were recently upgraded to higher Land Impact limits

For the full details, including the terns and conditions of the 50 percent off discount, check the post in full here.

Madpea's "Unia" Game To End on July 31

It was about a year ago in which the Madpea gaming team and location released "Unia," an inworld horror game. The product of more than two years of development, Madpea was very proud of the game, and the public group chatter has been full of people playing and asking for hints for many months. But all good things, and scary things, come to an end, and earlier this week Madpea announced the game would be closing on July 31.

UNIA was a dream come true for us at MadPea but every dream has an ending and UNIA’s end is nigh! July 31st UNIA will close and the zombie chickens will be returned to their pens, the sandworms will bury themselves forever and the Dreamers will drift off to restful sleep forever more. UNIA was the biggest game to hit Second Life and has been keeping players captivated for over a year. Until the closure in July we have slashed the price of the gold hud to 500L$ and removed the Silver and Bronze options. Play UNIA from now until then with your friends before this piece of Second Life history is no more.

Those interested in playing, it's not for free but the full package is now cheaper. The Bronze and Silver HUDs, which were 400 and 750 Lindens respectively, have been discontinued while the Gold HUD, which has three colors of uniform, a "triple shield," and a lockpick for an axe and gun, is now 500L.

Madpea has a long history of making games within Second Life, going back several years, some of which the Newser has reported on. Their most recent game is "The Interview."

Instructions on how to play Unia

Madpea blog

Madpea website

Hat Tip: Inara Pey

Bixyl Shuftan

Eye On The Blog: Linden Lab Offering 50% Discount For Training on Virtual Clothing Maker

On Monday December 7, Linden Lab announced on the official Second Life blog that residents would receive a fifty percent discount for taking the training course by "CG Elves" for "Marvelous Designer," which was described as "an advanced tool for creating 3D mesh clothes." The offer was good only until December 30.

Marvelous Designer is an advanced tool for creating 3D mesh clothes, and for a limited time, Second Life creators can save 50% on an online training course from CG Elves that will teach you how to use this software.

Visit the CG Elves site through this link, opt in to the “Mastering Marvelous Designer: Beginners Course & Advanced Workshops,”  select any add-ons you may want, then use secondlife-special in the coupon code section of the checkout cart to receive your discount.
This offer is only good until December 30th, 2015 - so find out more about the training course and if it’s right for you by visiting the CG ELves website today!

Is Linden Lab trying to encourage residents to take up making mesh goods? Ciaran Laval called it "a step in the right direction," noting it had a resume with some impressive names, such as being used in the "Assassins Creed" game series, and one of "The Hobbit" movies. Inara Pey wasn't sure what to make of this "unusual promotion ... to be honest, I’m scratching my head a little over it." She noted that although it came with a fifteen day free trial, Marvelous Designer wasn't cheap, with a $59 monthly subscription fee, a $360 yearly subscription, which could be discounted up to fifty percent to $180, and a lifetime one time cost of $550. The training program itself was $399 before the discount, of which the limited offer cut down to $199.50. She also brought up Project Sansar, wondering if this was some "vague pointer" the upcoming virtual world would support this designer's tool.

Hamlet Au hasn't written about the training course discount yet. Instead, he responded to a comment made by one of his readers, about how the "Prim-Based Era" of 2007/2008 was Second Life's "golden years" of content creation, as prims made it relatively easy to build and create, comparing it to "Minecraft" in which although limited to blocks, people were capable of building some amazing things there (such as actual working cell phones). But mesh "completely broke the whole 'easy to make' part of the content creation. If nowadays a new player came to me and was like 'HEY, that looks nice, how do I build something like that?' I would go 'Sigh... you study modeling, unwrapping, rendering, texturing, animation and programming for 5 years and who knows, you might get there...'"

For the Linden Lab blog post, Click Here.

Eye on the Blog: Limited-Time Sale on Premium Membership

Once again, Linden Lab is offering a limited discount for signing up for Premium membership. This time, it comes after the Lab added a small perk for pais accounts.

Being a Premium Second Life subscriber carries many benefits - from weekly L$ stipends, to your own Linden Home, expanded live customer support options, exclusive gifts, and more. Just last week, we added a new perk for Premium subscribers, and we’ll be adding even more benefits and features for Premium members throughout the year.

If you’ve been waiting to upgrade to a Premium account, now is a great time, because today we’re kicking off a great new sale: from today until April 13, 2015, you can upgrade to Premium subscription for less than $5 for your first month! That’s a 50% discount off the regular rate, and this offer won’t last long. Upgrade today and start enjoying Premium benefits at our lowest-ever monthly rate.

So what is the new perk? Linden Lab has stated they've increased the number of IMs made to someone when they're logged out able to be stored instead of lost, raising the number to fifty.

Previously, if IMs were sent to your account while you were offline, you could access up to 25 messages when you next log in. That remains the case for free account holders, but starting today, Premium Members can access up to 50 missed IMs. That means fewer notecards filling up your inventory and fewer missed messages from friends, colleagues, and customers.

So how useful is this perk? Perhaps not as much as it suggests as there is an option for messages made to you while offline could be sent to your email.

I've heard various comments about how the various rewards for premium membership are just tiny perks of limited value. One blogger recently commented with SL Go, there was an opportunity for a real bonus: make SL Go available for free to premium subscribers. Since the client made SL playable from a portable tablet and older machines, this would be a real benefit, not just a perk. But with SL Go slated to be discontinued after the company offering it was bought, that opportunity is gone.

Do you the readers have an idea for Linden Lab? What could they offer that would get you to sign up for Premium membership?

Bixyl Shuftan

Eye On The Blog: The Linden Snowball Fight Returns

Longtime residents of Second Life will remember the Linden Snowball Fights. These were events organized by Linden Lab as part of "Winterfest." While the Lindens weren't there all the time, it was a chance for ordinary residents to lob a snowball at the Lindens either out of fun or a kind of revenge for all those glitches and bugs throughout the year. The last one took place in 2010. After that, like other events in which residents and Lindens interacted, they came to an end as part of the Lab's policies discouraging the staff from interacting with the residents.

Well, the Lindens have been a bit more willing to interact with the residents once again, and the Linden Snowball Fight is back. On Friday February 6, the first one in over four years will take place.

Come pelt some Lindens and fellow Residents with snowballs in a frozen field free-for-all at Winter Wonderland. That’s right - between 10 AM SLT and noon SLT on Friday, February 6th, we’re holding a meetup inworld at the Snowball Warzone. Get your free snow launching weapon, gather your posse, and prepare to say hello to some Linden friends for a full on flurry of snow-slinging fun.

Premium account residents, according to official bulletins, will have access to a special snowball bazooka, "this Premium snowball launcher fires a giant snowball that can trap even the strongest foes," promising wielders they'll have an advantage over the opposition. No work yet on how well the weapons older residents have from previous snowball fights will work.

Gemma Cleanslate wrote earlier about the Winter Wonderland area. Besides the snowball fight, Linden Lab is offering free gifts there, including a snowmobile, snowglobes, snowboards, and jewelry.

Besides the snowball fight, there's currently a limited time offer to get a 50% discount when signing up for a Premium account. The catch is it applies only to the Quarterly billing plan, and only for the first quarter you sign  up. The offer ends Monday February 16.

There's also a Photo Booth Contest, "Share your silly photo booth style pictures with us for a chance to win L$10,000, L$5,000, L$3,000, or L$1,000 for your snapshot! Props encouraged! Winners will be selected by a panel consisting of both Lindens and Residents." The contest is open to entries until March 4.

Steam Summer Sales

One of the more popular gaming places out on the internet, if not the most popular, is Steam. Developed by the Valve corporation, the makers of games such as Half Life, Team Fortress, and Portal, it's evolved over the years to become a digital distribution platform with client software that allows for ease in purchases and playing, in addtion to chatting with friends. To further encourage purchases, there's often a number of games on sale, occasionally one up for free. In her article today, Nydia has a few words about Steam, and the fun it's provided.

See Nydia's commentary in Other Grids and MMOs.

Greed in Stores

For some in Second Life, shopping is a fun experience, and they take plenty of time to go about and see what places have what item for how much. While there's no shortage of customer-friendly stores and malls on the Grid, not everyone it seems has the buyer's interests at heart. Theonlyjohnny Resident writes about two places he came across which to him were charging a lot for just a little.

Read Theonlyjohnny's article in Extra.

Linden Lab Offering Half-Off on Premium Account Upgrades, With a Catch

Just after Linden Lab brought back the return of it's 50% off for educational and nonprofit sims, they're offering another discount as well. The Lab is offering a 50% reduction in the price for upgrading a free basic account to a paying Premium one. There are announcements on the Second Life website, and according to Daniel Voyager through emails.

However, there's a catch. First, the discount is only available "for a limited time." Also, it's limited to those choosing the quarterly billing plan. And the discount only takes place for the first quarter you signed up for. On your second quarter under premium, you would be charged $22.50 US dollars instead of $11.25.

Hamlet Au thought this was a sign of Linden Lab taking the initiative on attracting more revenue. Others felt differently. One posted in the official forums the discount was misleading. Hamlet Au's article had a few commentators who felt the Premium account itself was misleading in that it's benefits were few.

There is no word on how long the discount will last.

Sources: Daniel Voyager, New World Notes, Second Life forums, 

Bixyl Shuftan

Linden Lab Brings Back Educational & Nonprofits Discount

Yesterday on July 24, Linden Lab announced on it's blog "an update to Second Life pricing for educational and nonprofit institutions." To educational institutions and nonprofit charities that qualify, the Lab is offering a 50% discount to setting up private sims and maintaining them.


Effective immediately, any accredited educational institution or any organization with a 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit tax status (or equivalent) is eligible for a 50% discount on private region set-up costs and a 50% discount on private region maintenance costs.

Longtime users will remember the half-off price and tier was standard operating procedure with education and nonprofit groups in Second Life until October 2010, in which it was announced they would be paying full price in January 1, 2011. After that, a number of sims owned by such groups shut down, such as ISTE Island. Hamlet Au put the number of closings at "hundreds if not thousands." In Spring of this year, Linden Lab began quietly offering "a select number of nonprofit and educational" groups that let sims go the return of the discount if they returned. Now, the discount is back for all.

The response seems to be a varied one. At the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference, which opened that day, those I overheard talking about the announcement were pleased, considering the announcement timed with their conference. Daniel Voyager considered this development great news. Hamlet Au, not so much. He felt in the years since the discount's end, education and nonprofit groups have moved on to other places online that are much less expensive. Readers commenting to Hamlet's article had mixed opinions. Some called it good news, or at least a step in the right direction. Others felt Linden Lab's move had ruined the trust education and nonprofit groups once had in them, "it's not just about price, it's about trust and stability," and saw the move was too little too late on bringing back the groups which had left the Grid. In the SL Universe Forum thread on the topic, some posters wondered if the abuses of a few had helped contribute to the discount's end.

But for education and nonprofits that remained in Second Life, such as Virtual Ability and the Relay for Life, this move is good news and will help ensure they stay.

Sources: Linden Blog, Daniel Voyager, New World Notes, SL Universe Forums  

Bixyl Shuftan

Breaking News: Linden Lab Offering 50% Discounts to Limited Number of Nonprofit Groups To Renew Expired Sims.

By Bixyl Shuftan

According to an article by Hamlet Au, Linden Lab spokesman Peter Gray has confirmed that the company has been "quietly contacting a select number of non-profit and educational" groups who have let their sims in Second Life expire in the past few years, offering 50% off land payments if they renew.

Before October 2010, it was standard practice for Linden Lab to offer half tier for nonprofit and educational sims. Then the discount was stopped. Gray's announcement means a partial reversal of this decision.

Gray wouldn't say how many groups would be given the offer, only "that we've extended this special offer to a targeted number." There is no process for nonprofit and educational groups, whether they still have their land or not, to ask for the 50% reduction, "There isn't currently a way to apply for this; it's a special offer … as part of our customer win-back efforts."

Hamlet called this development exciting news, as it could mean the return of some popular places that faded away due in part to the end of the discount. His enthusiasm wasn't shared by those commenting on his article. At best, people called it "a step in the right direction." Some however had some bitter comments, "will Linden Lab also (pay) for our teeth they kicked out, the surgery required to remove the knife from our back, and the trip to the eye doctor for the dirt they kicked in our face?" A thread started in the SL Universe forums, but as of the publishing on this article, there were just a few entries.

So what do you the readers have to say? Please enter comments below.

Source: New World Notes


Bixyl Shuftan

Linden Lab Offering 50% Discount on Premium Account Signups

It seems Linden Lab is resorting to a sale in order to get more Premium accounts.

Become a Second Life Premium Member. Save 50% on your membership when you sign up for a Premium account. This is a limited-time offer!

The details are Here, though there is nothing listed on how long this "limited time offer" lasts.

*Addition* Tateru Nino had a comment about the discount as well, suggesting it was a sign the Lab plans no new perks for Premium accounts in the near future.

“Universal Art” Waterfront Shop

Readers of Second Life Newser are most familiar with the Terric sim through Netera Landar’s Coffee Lounge, which will be hosting a couple interviews tomorrow on Saturday at 10 AM. But the sim is home to a number of shops. Among them, the “Universal Art” store at the waterfront area on the northeast corner of the sim. From the coffee lounge, one goes east until the reach the shops, then turn left.

The store is owned by Netera’s commercial neighbor Fatboy21007 Resident. What I noticed about the store is that the prices are quite small, “Frame and picture is 30L, special requests is 35, all other art is 25L.” But he doesn’t refer to Universal Art as a discount art shop, “I just sell them cheap. Something that takes 10L to upload should not cost a person 400 Lindens. I make 15L off each picture, this allows for practically anyone ingame to buy the pictures.”

But before noticing the price, one quickly sees a common theme in the pictures: space. There are various pictures of planets, nebulae, galaxies, stars, and fantastic night skies over alien and fantasy worlds. “We will eventually do all forms of art,” Fatboy explained, “but I love Universe pictures. So I thought I’d start with what I love the most.” But Fatboy is open to new ideas, “If any one has a suggestion, please feel free to IM me.”

“Universal Art” is at Terric (228, 215, 26)

“Have a nice day.”

Bixyl Shuftan

Eye on the Blog: "Dash Deals," bargins on SL Marketplace Through Facebook and Twitter

Last week, Brooke Linden announced on the Official Blog that Second Life Marketplace was introducing an experimental program they called “Dash Deals.”


Everyone loves a great deal, right? So, we’re introducing a new test program called “Dash Deals.” During this test, we will be running one Dash Deal per week, for the next five weeks. Dash Deals will provide Second Life Marketplace shoppers with the opportunity to purchase a specific virtual item for 24 hours at a 50% discount or more. Hand-picked by the Linden team from Merchant submissions, these products highlight the creativity and variety of products available to Marketplace shoppers. We hope that you enjoy our selections and take advantage of the deals! And, if the test goes well, then you can expect to see more Dash Deals beyond the test period. Here’s How to Score a Dash Deal: We’ll alert Second Life shoppers when the Dash Deal is available on Facebook, Twitter, and in a weekly email. Just click on the SL Marketplace link provided, take a look at the Dash Deal item, and snap it up while it’s still available.


This is the latest in a number of ways Second Life has been trying to use the highly popular social media sites of Facebook and Twitter. In this case, using it to encourage the use of its SL Marketplace site (and buy more Lindens to use in purchasing items there. In my opinion, it has potential. Taking a look at the “Dash Deal” thread on the forums, some of the posters expresed skepticism about it, saying the email option would be no good to some as the first Dash Deal was good only for 24 hours, and some people didn’t get emails from Linden Labs until more time than that expired.

One poster, Shockwave Yareach, brought up this might do nothing more than annoy some residents, “Do most customers Like, Dislike, or have no opinion about being prodded over and over about sales, new products and the like? I personally do not have any sort of advertising for the simple reason that I'm in SL to get away from things like that which permeate every second of RL. I thus assume my customers likewise don't want to be bothered -- just sell them their gizmodo and let them have fun with it.”

In New World Notes, Hamlet Au had his own opinion, calling it a “Groupon-style offer (a deal-of-the day website)” that reflected “the current Silicon Valley craze for anything which looks even remotely Grouponic. It's a good move to better monetize Second Life's ecommerce site as the company moves away from its unsustainable land revenue model, but I definitely think it could be improved.” His idea of improvement, have people contact a number of friends to reach a minimum number set before the deal becomes active.

This reminds me of something I’ve seen in Second Life for a while. Many Residents have seen those boards in stores (the name escapes me) which promise a free item if a set number of people (one common number is 25, though may be more at popular places) click on it. I myself have been asked by a few lady friends to port over to one of these boards to click on it so they can get an item of clothing they feel is must-have. A tad annoying at times when you don't want to be bothered, but no arguing it draws shoppers, and money, to stores. I can see Linden Labs doing something similar, but on Facebook and/or Twittter instead of Inworld.

Sources: Second Life Blog, Second Life Forums, New World Notes

Bixyl Shuftan