"Our Holiday Gift To You" Linden Lab Announces All Residents Get Six Months Free of Madpea Unlimited

 

Madpea has long been providing games for the residents of Second Life to play. Years ago, one could play them for free, such as Virtual Medical Doctor from 2011. In more recent times, they've been making more detailed and challenging games that they've been charging fees to play. They've operated independently from Linden Lab. But a few days ago, the Lab would announce they had made a deal with them, and the result being every resident from basic accounts to Premium Plus would be getting a free six month subscription to Madpea's Unlimited game package.

Get ready for an amazing treat, Second Life community! We’re thrilled to announce that all Second Life residents are receiving six months free access to MadPea Unlimited - the acclaimed and popular subscription service from MadPea Productions. Valued at an incredible L$12,000, this gift unlocks a world of engaging Second Life content and surprises including exciting story-driven games and hunts, exclusive gifts, and fun experiences to play alone or with friends. 

 

The Lab would go on to say that the free service doesn't start right away, but takes effect on Wednesday January 1st.  Also, residents don't need to do anything to activate it. 

For more information, check out the Lab's blog entry (here), and the page on the Madpea website:

https://madpeagames.com/unlimited-2025/

Bixyl Shuftan

 

Tokushi Avatars Closing, Offering All Items in Single Super-Package

There was some sad news this week. The owners of Tokushi Avatars announced they would no longer be able to continue designing new avatars, or repairing old ones as updates to the grid resulted in glitches, and so would be closing. The good news, they were offering everything they had made in one single package for the price of three to four avatars. And over time, they've made a large number of furry, feral, and tiny avatars, noted for "fantasy backgrounds and personal creations, as well as unique avatars of animals that people don’t usually consider."

Read more in Design.

"AX" Avatar Skybox Gone

One brand of furry avatar that was popular in the past was AnthroXtacy, often called "AX" for short. Designed and made by a team led by Tinintri Mistral, the line of avatars gained a large following, and AX had a two-sim area with their own shopping mall and a club, where DJs such as Grease Coakes performed. But in October 2013, the team shut down and the store and club closed, much to the sadness of fans. In their final days, the store had a couple packages with numerous avatars that one could pick up for free.

As it turned out, the two packages would be placed in one more location. High above the Northstar Polaris sim was a skybox where there were several AX avatar vendors that offered "fatpacks" or several colors of an avatar, for the old price of a single one. But there were also the two packages of free avatars. Among them were the AnthroXtacy Fox and the Shark.

Sadly, this location is no longer available. When yours truly tried going to the skybox yesterday, I found myself at a certain location in the ground. No matter where I would try teleporting to the sim at, I would always end up at the spot. Flying to the location, the skybox was gone.

As a precaution, I checked the mall at the Northstar sim, or rather what was left of it. In the past, the Northstar Mall was a huge two-story store that had a number of avatars and accessories, that stretched across two sims. But in more recent times, less than a third of the store remains, the part in the Northstar sim. The packages were not in their either.

While it's possible there may be another place where the AX free avatar packages are, if so the Newser does not know about it. As for AX Avatars, some remain for sale on Second Life Marketplace. This appears to be all that's left of the AnthroXtacy line.

Bixyl Shuftan

Eye on the Blog: Second Life on Amazon with Weekend Promotions

This weekend, it was announced on the Linden Blog that Second Life was doing promotions on Amazon.com.

It’s a new year, and we have news: Second Life is now available on Amazon! 

In addition to the standard Mac and PC versions, we’re offering several bundled packages for sale, which include vehicles to enjoy and L$ to spend inworld or on the Marketplace.

As a special promotion, this weekend only the Starter Vehicle Pack (usually $9.95), which includes a hoverboard and L$1000 will be available for FREE [limit one per customer].

If a friend of yours has been waiting to join Second Life, now is a great chance for them to head over to Amazon and get started with the free Starter Vehicle Pack. Spread the word!

Besides links to the Mac and PC official viewers, there were three offers listed. One was a Premium Vehicle Pack that consisted of a overboard, a sailboat, the dune buggy once available only to Premium members, and 4000 Lindens, for $25 US dollars. Then there was the Deluxe Vehicle Pack with the overboard and sailboat with 2000 Lindens for $15. Last was the Starter Vehicle Pack with the overboard and 1000 Lindens. The latter was not listed as free, but marked "Currently unavailable." Word was people were logging in with alts and when the Lab realized this they took it down. Later on, it was listed at ten dollars.

There have been a number of reactions from residents. There was a thread about it in the official forums, where most residents expressed skepticism. One called it "a fiasco that does further damage to SL's reputation."

Daniel Voyager thought it was a good idea overall, but noted in his comments after his post that those outside the United States couldn't benefit from the promotions. Someone commenting on his article thought it was a good idea, but not thought out very well.

Tateru Nino called the promotions "just plain embarrassing." She noted that Second Life was listed as a "game," a sticking point with her and other residents. The second part was because of the content bundles, which were of various vehicles, calling vehicles in general "the single, weakest, most unreliable aspect of Second Life," and likely to give newcomers a bad impression.

Inara Pey noted the items had been up on Amazon since December 10th, but only now being announced by Linden Lab to the residents. In a second post she felt Linden Lab should be let off about the "game" issue, considering public attitudes and Amazon's limited categories, but not about what she felt was the promotion being far short of it's potential, "the packages are indicative of thinking at the Lab, which is at worst simply lazy, or at best demonstrating an inability to think an idea through."

Probably the most enthusiastic about the promotion was Hamlet Au, who called it "a clever sales system" that could help make up for its declining land sales, "a pretty good idea for driving new revenue." He suggested that anyone who had an Amazon affiliate code add it in to a link to the promotions so they could get a small cut if someone makes a purchase. But many of those commenting on his article weren't so sure.