In a virtual world where you can be anybody (or anything) you want, Halloween is a bigger holiday than Christmas in Second Life! Today I will be giving a quick rundown of many of the events taking place across the grid.
First, if you haven’t done so yet, be sure to visit the Halloween Shop and Hop event before Nov. 1st, 2021 to pick up some fabulous free gifts, including free store credit for a variety of stores! Here’s my blogpost showing just a few of the gifts available.
There’s also numerous Halloween-and-fall-themed hunts! You can get further information on seasonal hunts posted on the HuntSL and SL Hunts websites (two places with all the latest up-to-date information on hunts in Second Life).
SL’s Top Haunted Places Tour and Hunt is something I try to go and do every year! Starting at Shady Manor, click on the large sign to receive a folder containing five notecards with SLURLs to no less than 83 different scary and spooky places to explore! Many have at least one free gift for you to find, several spots have several, and some of them are quite nice!
For example, among the free gifts from the Crazy Cajun Hallowe’en Hangout is a mini-cauldron Mystery Brew drink, complete with a Bento drinking animation!
Second Life has posted a blogpost listing a number of official Halloween events you might be interested in. Among them are:
A trick-or-treat on the Linden Homes continent of Bellisseria (more details here);
Many SL clubs will also be holding events on October 31st! Do a keyword search for “halloween” under the Events tab in Search in your Second Life viewer to find out what’s going on, where and when.
This avatar is wearing:
Mesh Head: Cleo by Akeruka (a previous group gift; the Akeruka group costs L$150 to join)
Mesh Body: Juliet by Altamura (a previous group gift; the Altamura group costs L$100 to join)
Hair: Que Bella in abyss black from Hairoin (a store which is unfortunately no longer in Second Life; I bought this many years ago and I forget what I paid for this)
Dress: black Karla harness dress (one of many free group gifts from DM Design; the DM Design group is free to join)
Don’t forget the Fireside Chat with Matthew Ball about the Metaverse Road Map, coming up in Breakroom on Thursday, October 21st, 2021…more details here.
Your Zombie Ball hosts, Mimi Marie and Spiral Silverstar
Beware! The Undead have awoken! Come celebrate with us zombie style in the virtual world of Sinespace. Come hungry for blood and for brains! Can you find the only cure for the zombie infection?
There will be dancing to Halloween music provided by DJ Spiral, costume contests (including an ugliest zombie contest!), a mirror photo booth, giveaways of Gold (Sinespace’s currency), plus random gifts from no less than 14 generous Sinespace creator sponsors!
The Sun Temple Crypt (site of the Zombie Ball)
The uprising begins at 5:00 p.m. PST/8:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday, October 20th, 2021, at the Sun Temple Crypt on Island Fun in Sinespace (just click the Explore button in the Sinespace client software, and search for ‘island fun”, as shown below:
Here are a couple of videos (no sound) of the specially-created venue for the event, to give you a taste of what to expect:
If you have never visited Sinespace before, this is the perfect starting point for your journey—an opportunity to meet the wonderful community of people who make Sinespace such a friendly and welcoming place! Here are step-by-step instructions on how to get started. And, if you’re looking for something to wear (or perhaps a full zombie avatar), may I suggest the Sinespace Shop? But even if you don’t want to get dressed up, come anyways—we’d love to see you! Happy Hallowe’en!!
This blogpost is sponsored by Sinespace, and was written in my role as an embedded reporter for this virtual world (more details here).
Have you joined the RyanSchultz.com Steals, Deals & Freebies group yet? I will be posting EVEN MORE news and tips on finding fabulous freebies and bargains in Second Life than I post here on the blog! More information on this brand new SL group here.
There’s no less than 14 shopping sims at this year’s Halloween Shop and Hop event in Second Life! At every merchant booth, there is a free gift for you—many are Halloween-themed, but others are not. Below, Vanity Fair models a selection of gifts which I think you’ll enjoy.
Once I saw the generous Shop and Hop gifts from Sintiklia and AtaMe, I knew that I would be taking this picture! The Yasmine hair from Sintiklia comes in a fatpack of regular and Halloween shades, with styling options for both normal and windswept looks! And the stunning Lilly gown fatpack by AtaMe includes a HUD to change the texture of the bodice to five different metals, as well as select both the colour (6 shades) and the transparency (4 levels) of the swirling skirts. The Lilly gown comes in sizes to fit Maitreya, Legacy, and Kupra mesh bodies.
Strike a pose! The Lilly gown by AtaMe and Yasmine hair by Sintiklia
There’s several beautiful ballgowns at the Halloween Shop and Hop for you to pick up! From the SOFIA booth comes this sexy red Anne Star gown (sizes: Maitreya Lara, Belleza Freya Perky, Slink Hourglass, and Meshbody Legacy).
The Anne Star gown package includes a set of cream-coloured Eden jewelry (earrings, necklace, a ring and even a clutch purse!), which Vanity Fair is wearing below with the gift from Sascha’s Designs, a romantic cream gown with an optional flexiprim skirt attachment:
You’re all set for your next fancy event in Second Life in this ensemble! The gown comes in sizes to fit Maitreya regular and Petite; Legacy regular and Perky; Slink Physique and Hourglass; Belleza Freya; Tonic Curvy and Fine; and Kupra mesh bodies, as well as a medium-sized standard fitmesh version. (Please note that when you add the unpacker HUD, it rather disconcertingly fills your entire viewer screen, so attach it to your right hand instead, right click on the HUD and select Edit, then drag what versions you need from the Contents tab to your inventory.)
The gift from Bee Dumpling and Solas NaGealai of Silvan Moon Designs is this Anais Saturna gown, which comes with an optional coat and a chain belt in three colours: black, gold, or pewter as shown (the dress and coat comes in Maitreya Lara and Slink sizes).
The Anais Saturna gown by Silvan Moon Designs
From the TO.KISKI booth comes this complete outfit (dress, shoes, cat head band, and an animesh floating heart for your hand), plus a black voodoo rabbit doll!
This sexy red metallic dress with matching heels is sure to be a hit at the nightclub! The dress and shoes come in sizes to fit Maitreya, Belleza/Hourglass, and Legacy/Classic. Here’s s short video showing you one of the six different animesh hearts in action:
The generous gift from Essenz is a complete fatpack of these Aranea pumps, adorned with a spiderweb and dangling spider! Perfect for a dressier Hallowe’en outfit! These shoes fit Legacy, Maitreya, and Belleza mesh feet.
Among the many gifts from the Petrichor booth are a set of Azre weedcrowns, which come in no less than 36 different colours!
If you’re trying to pull together a witch look this season, here are two gifts for either end of your witch! (Do you know which end of your witch is which? 😉 ) The witch heels are from Hilly Haalan (they come in two colours, black as shown and green, sized to fit Maitreya, Belleza, and Slink mesh feet), and the wonderful witch’s hat and rigged mask are from Giulia Design. Click on each picture to see them in a larger size, and appreciate all the details…
And if you’re feeling devilish, perhaps you’ll want to snag these delightful purple horns from AERTH, which feature an animated orange swirling pattern! You’re sure to stand out in any crowd of demons! 😉
I leave you with the present from Jian, which is a keeper! It’s a cat sleeping on a pillow. If you click on it, you can change the texture of the feline’s fur, as well as the colour of the pillow! It’s adorable, and instantly earns a place in my Linden home.
The Hallowe’en Shop and Hop is on until the end of October, of course, so there’s no hurry! I’d suggest waiting until later on in the shopping event, when it’s less crowded and laggy.
UPDATE 3:30 p.m.: I forgot to mention that there are also a number of free store credit offers available at the Halloween Shop and Hop! The following list is courtesy of SL vlogger NovataSecondLife—thank you for compiling it!
You can pick up one of these lovely Flora tea dresses (which come in six different floral patterns) for free using the L$150 gift card available from the Ghee booth at the Hallowe’en Shop and Hop event
UPDATE Oct. 4th, 2021: One last fabulous freebie! Check out these truly glorious red wings, part of a complete outfit from the Alter booth at the Hallowe’en Shop and Hop! The outfit comes in sizes to fit Maitreya Lara; Belleza Freya, Isis and Venus; Slink Physique and Hourglass; and Meshbody Classic/TMP mesh bodies, plus five standard sizes. (The dress in the picture below is the gift from TO.KISKI, which I discussed earlier in this blogpost.)
Following a big spike in usage in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, social VR app VRChat has reached a new record of 24,000 concurrent users. Its creators say the surge was driven in part by the launch of Quest 2 and virtual Halloween festivities.
…
Indeed, with more users joining VRChat from Quest and now Quest 2, the app reached a new record of 24,000 concurrent users over the Halloween weekend, CEO Graham Gaylor tells Road to VR. This eclipses the previous record of 20,000 concurrent users in early 2018 when the app went viral on Twitch.
It would appear that a great many people, who would normally socialize in person at parties and bars at Hallowe’en, chose instead to stay home and strap on their VR headsets, due to social gathering restrictions imposed by the pandemic. One poster on the Coronavirus subReddit commented:
Extrovert here and struggling. Thankfully buying a Quest 2 has ACTUALLY been quite the pleasantly surprisingly alternative for me. Especially the VRChat clubs which remind me of my nightlife. I know not everyone can do it but I wish my friends still travelling and partying would give it a shot too.
This new user concurrency figure smashed a two-year-old record, when VRChat suddenly and unexpectedly went viral back in 2018 (largely due to the influence of livestreamers and YouTubers such as PewDiePie), reaching a peak of 20,000 concurrent users on Steam.
You might be surprised to learn that only half of VRChat’s current users access the app via VR headset. Road to VR reported:
Of course it’s worth noting that VRChat is not exclusively a VR game; it supports VR and non-VR modes. Interestingly, Gaylor indicates the app’s share of VR users has actually grown significantly in the last few months. Earlier this year in April around 30% of VRChat users were using VR; in October the share of VR users was up to 43%.
Among the 24,000 concurrent users specifically, Gaylor confirmed that an even larger share of users—52% or 12,500—were in VR.
Adeon isn’t surprised: “Confirms a lot what I see too. I have lots of friends that have an Oculus Rift, but still choose to run the Steam version on it, just because of Steam’s social features, and Oculus requires Facebook to have Oculus friends. That’s one major oversight for Facebook. People don’t want to use the platform if its social features aren’t cross-play with their friends’ setups.”
It’s an oversight—and a paradoxical one: The main point for requiring Facebook log-in, an Oculus developer recently told me, was to encourage users to interact more in VR with their Facebook friends. (Data harvesting for ads being a secondary goal.) But because so many gamers have strong social connections apart from Zuckerberg’s social network, the Facebook log-in requirement can actually disconnect them from many of their friends.
That to one side, VRChat’s usage growth is impressive. I would not be surprised if its monthly active user numbers have also surpassed that of Second Life as well.
