One of things I love about a mature, fully-evolved virtual world like Second Life is that I am constantly surprised and delighted at discovering a store on the grid that I hadn’t heard of before, or finding an event that I previously knew absolutely nothing about.
And such is the case with Monthly Midnight Madness, an event I learned about only through a recent video by SL vlogger Cassie Middles:
How Monthly Midnight Madness works is simple: participating stores will have a free item (limited to the first 1,500 avatars who slap the board), one released at midnight Pacific Time/Second Life Time (SLT), and another one released at noon SLT, twelve hours later. The purpose is to bring foot traffic into the stores (in much the same way as traditional Midnight Madness boards do), and I think it’s a great idea.
There are a couple of stipulations before you can pick up your freebies, however. First, you must join the Monthly Midnight Madness group for free. Second, your Avatar Rendering Complexity (ARC) has to be below 25,000 for you get into the stores taking part in this event, to reduce lag for everybody.
But once you have taken care of those two items, you are away to the races! Here’s one example of the lovely freebies available at midnight SLT at the Monthly Midnight Madness event, a turtleneck dress in a bold floral pattern courtesy of Belle Epoque, one of my favourite Second Life womenswear stores. The Alessandra dress comes in only one size, to fit the Maitreya Lara mesh body, but as you can see, it fits well on the Altamura Juliet mesh avatar I am wearing! (I have found that most clothing designed for the Maitreya Lara body fits Altamura mesh bodies with a minimum of fuss, although you might need to use the included alpha HUD to alpha out parts of your body like the arms and pelvis as I have done here.)
This avatar is wearing:
- Mesh Head and Body: Juliet by Altamura (former Valentine’s Day group gift; the Altamura group costs L$50 to join; Omega compatible with the separate Omega system kit)
- Omega Skin Applier: Flower by 7 Deadly S[k]ins (a box of Omega skin appliers was the June 2019 group gift)
- Hair: Kelsa by Firelight (a free Advent Calendar gift from last Christmas)
- Dress: Alessandra dress by Belle Epoque (free gift from the Monthly Midnight Madness; group is free to join)
- Shoes: part of a free set of women’s classic pumps by Marquesse, available from the excellent freebie store at Ajuda SL Brasil on the third floor (here’s the SLURL)
TOTAL COST FOR THIS AVATAR: Only L$149! (L$50 to join the Altamura group and L$99 for the Altamura Omega system kit, which is available at this exact SLURL).
UPDATE 2:28 p.m.: The noon SLT freebie from Belle Epoque is this beautiful Alessandra coat in orange, which fits perfectly over the earlier Alessandra dress gift:
Here is a complete list of midnight and noon freebies available at the November 2019 round of the Monthly Midnight Madness event. Happy freebie shopping!
