Day: October 25, 2019

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: A Free Zombie Outfit!

Time for another men’s Halloween outfit! And the best part is, the entire outfit, including the skin, is completely free! The mesh avatar I am using is the Altamura Romeo full-body mesh avatar, which requires a couple of additions to support Bakes on Mesh:

  • A Bakes on Mesh relay for Altamura mesh bodies (which is available for free to Altamura group members at this exact SLURL in the store; please note that this relay only works with full versions of Altamura bodies, including the Romeo body which was a Valentine’s Day group gift earlier this year)
  • You do have to buy and install the Omega system kit on the body before you can use the Altamura Bakes on Mesh relay (it’s for sale for L$99 at this exact SLURL)

Both the entire zombie outfit (including the bloody socks and brogue shoes) and the zombie skin are available for free from the Kauna menswear store (SLURL). Their Designer Zombie suit is just one of many free outfits you get when you click on this vendor panel in their store (be sure to click on the other panels too; everything is free here and there are literally dozens and dozens of menswear items, mostly formal wear and suits, but other men’s clothing, too):

This avatar is wearing:

  • Mesh Head and Body: Romeo mesh body by Altamura (a former Valentine’s Day group gift; Omega-compatible; more details here; the Altamura group costs L$50 to join and the Omega system kit for Altamura mesh bodies is L$99, which is required in order to be able wear a system skin on it)
  • System Skin: Zombie skin by Kauna (part of the Designer Zombie Suit package; I turned off the mesh fingernails on the Altamura Romeo body using the included HUD)
  • Hair: Zombie Ian hair from your existing Second Life inventory, under Library / Initial Outfits / Zombie Ian (Mesh)
  • Eyes: Zombie eyes by Insufferable Dastard (an old hunt gift; this store is no longer on the grid)
  • Outfit: Designer Zombie Suit from Kauna (the suit comes in navy or grey, with a blue or white shirt, plus socks and shoes, and there’s even a bloody handkerchief for your jacket pocket!)
  • Animation Override: Zombie AO by -RC- Cluster (also available for L$100 on the SL Marketplace; it even includes some guts for you to carry!)

TOTAL COST FOR THIS AVATAR: Only L$249!

Pictures taken at the ZOMBIE LAND (R) U.S. sim and the Kauna store.

P.S. If you have a male avatar and you haven’t visited the Kauna store yet, what are you waiting for? All the menswear is high quality and it’s all free! It’s easily one of the best deals in Second Life for men’s clothing.

Editorial: Do What Makes You Happy (And Why Second Life Makes Me Happy)

I do find it bemusing, looking back at the various twists and turns of this blogging journey which I started in July of 2017.

This is a blog that I originally created in order to cover Sansar, only to eventually branch out to write about many other social VR platforms and virtual worlds. I’ve even gained a following, and a bit of a reputation as an expert on the rapidly evolving world of social VR.

But it’s ironic that I once swore I would never become a Second Life blogger, when 80% of my most recent blogpost have been about SL! What can I say? I have been particularly inspired by the new creative possibilities offered by Bakes on Mesh, as well as the various Halloween hunts and events (probably the busiest time of year in Second Life).

Somebody posted a picture to the official Second Life community forums that I wanted to share with you:

And, quite simply, spending time in Second Life makes me happy. I have tried to analyze exactly why it makes me so happy. I do have a few possible reasons.

First, I’ll admit it; I’m a packrat. Although I tend to rein in my packrat tendencies in real life, I still tend to hold on to stuff longer that I should. My main Second Life avatar, Vanity Fair, has an inventory of over 240,000 items, and I like to think that SL lets me indulge in a bit of sheer reckless abandonment when it comes to shopping and buying (mostly freebies and bargains) without any real-life negative side effects, like having to find extra closet storage.

Second: I still get, after 13 years in SL, a great deal of personal satisfaction from creating and styling a complete avatar look, from head to toe. Second Life gives me an unparalleled creative outlet. Some people paint; some design websites. I like to create avatars! And right now, no other social VR platform or virtual world can match SL’s virtually limitless avatar customization options: hundreds of thousands of items of clothing, hair and accessories, tens of thousands of skins and eyes, endless customized avatar products to turn you into whoever or whatever you want to be, etc.

Third, I just love to go exploring! And, being a mature, fully-evolved virtual world, Second Life has no shortage of places to explore—24,457 sims at last count! No other virtual world or social VR platform can compare, except perhaps VRChat, which boasts 50,000 user-created worlds.

My favourite way to explore is to type in random search terms under Places in Search, and just seeing what pops up in the search results. For example, this past week I found a wonderful sci-fi themed, simwide artspace called Vegetal Planet, quite by accident! I also have a set of transferable random teleporter backpacks, and I have fun just randomly jumping from spot to spot on the grid. I almost always find somewhere interesting to wander around in and investigate, admiring the amazingly creative landscaping and building work of other avatars.

So, what about you? What brings you happiness in Second Life? Feel free to leave a comment below, or, as always, you are welcome to join the freewheeling conversations, arguments, and debates about social VR and virtual worlds taking place on the RyanSchultz.com Discord server, the first cross-worlds discussion forum! We’d love to see you there.