How to Play the Gatcha Game in the Remaining 8 Days? Carefully...

The glorious Chakra set from 3rd_Eye Perceptions

By Prokofy Neva, Virtualtor

So there are eight days left to play the gatcha machines of Second Life, also spelled as gacha, from the original Japanese gum ball machine called gachapon.

First, if you or a loved one is suffering from gatcha addiction, come to Shaman's Hut Gacha Addiction Treatment Center which has a helpful tutorial on buying and selling gatchas still relevant after the ban, and various pays you can take to address the issue, along with many prizes along the way. Now there's a BBB stamp as well. I have run this site since 2016.

To cut straight to the point for the tl;dr crowd, MOST merchants have "Goodbye Gatcha" or "Gatcha Eclipse" or "Gatchapocalypse" type sales you can find on seraphimsl.com or in various group notices or at their stores. MOST have put out even their old machines for 25L or 30L a pull. 

But some refuse to do this, and they should be called out, with some commentary:

STILL 75L PULL BUT WORTH IT -- OR NOT

o Half-Deer - has even raised some to 75L which were 50L before the announcement. Since Half-Deer makes many sets and no-transfer items and doesn't appear to make their living from gatchas only, this seems half-assed. Are they in a poor country? No idea. I don't have *quite* the supply of two-headed cats that I need for my quest, but so few find that particular challenge that I will get by, truly I will, and make a two-headed cat myself if I have to at those pull prices. H-D has a ton of little creatures, some on squirmy and not animesh, which I hate, and stuff that I did buy once, like the Carved Animals but which I find don't sell or at least I personally don't need them.

o The Looking Glass - 75L. TLG makes mainly non-transfer sets and gatchas are occasional and seemed a side-line. There are some very high-quality items here that are worth 75L -- the Torch Singer, for example. You still can't win the rares as she sets the chance low evidently, but everything is good in the set, i.e. the lanterns.

o Thor - Thor lives in a poor, COVID-riven country and makes his living almost exclusively from gatchas. So go pay the 50L or more, they are worth it, and have high re-sale value I have found. He has matter-of-factly, without complaint, changed to a mode of $1700 packs with individual items on $75 or $125 or $250 that used to be the "commons" (see his booth at Shiny Shabby). That's fine, and the price is right, but they are on no-transfer. I hope he will take the cue from Silas Merlin, also at Shiny Shabby, Jinx and others putting them on TRANSFER but of course each to his own. At Shiny you can see the new types of gatcha-like vendors approved by Lindens -- the "conveyor" style, which puts items randomly, but you can see them before you buy them, and thus the rare is only randomly available. And then the key-vendor, for lack of a better term, a gatcha-style key where you click on the individual item pictured -- as you would at a yard sale using this method -- and just buy that one thing. All the more reason to HASTEN to Thor's very fine gatchas and pull and pull, as pretty much everything is good (well, ochre mugs are unsellable ok) and it is easy to get the rares. Why? Because even if he fatpacks them, chances are he can't take the time to do ALL of them, some are likely to be retired and his items will not be on transfer -- they are not now, in the new dispensation, and as far as I can tell, he will not be changing this. PS Thor has a few gatchas for 69L on the Cosmopolitan sim so as you can see, he is not in "25L Tuesday" with that price.

o Beetlebones - Perhaps you never heard of this fine artist who has only a few gatchas and in a temporary store that is disappearing soon so hurry. I very rarely collect animals. They are cartoony or overcute. I make exceptions (Silas Merlin makes fine sculptures, garden statues and animals that may be "cartoony," but have this kind of soulfulness and angst in their eyes that rescues them from kitsch). Beetlebones are not high prim and are animated and not overly cute but dignified. Like all of Jinx. They are still 50L and 100L and worth it; some animals are avatars.

o Neva (Rekt) still has some 50 and 75L gatchas although some are set to 25L. Neva as the Russian-river name indicates is in Russia, a poor, COVID-ridden country where many of my friends and inlaws live. So I would tend to buy from Neva although I personally can't take the overdone wrinkled carpet-cracked leather boots-stacked cups-macaron thing too much. I actually don't recall ever seeing dacha scenes like that even in Peredelkino but apparently I didn't go to the right dachas. I tried to get the Soulcatcher guy screaming out of the briefcase and failed, I have one copy I think somewhere. Most of these have high re-sale value.

o Sorgo - I don't know where Arscene Dubrovna is based. A Muslim country, judging from his many gatchas and clothing items with the Islamic theme? Perhaps Bosnia or Spain or somewhere with Muslims but in Europe (lots of euros in the gatchas and his name is sort of Yugoslav). Who know! Chances are HIGH that he is in a poor. COVID-ridden country so I think he deserves support. His store was closed for a long time and I IM'd him to make sure if he was alright, he assured me he was, and was revamping his store. It's still under construction but you can find the high-priced gatchas in the back. I think they are among the most unique and high-quality gatchas of SL, of the "golden story-telling age". They are weird, and I like weird. He has the "Grand Budapest Hotel" as a gatcha, and other things of the sort of heist and RL honcho male or cult collector theme. I think these are worth it. Resale value seems to be good although certain things crash in price as commons (like the towels from the Kebab set).

o E.V.E. I fear Noke Yuitza died in real life. Why? He has not logged on since 3/29/20, more than a year ago. I happened to talk to him that day in his store, and he told me he was going to visit his mother in a small Spanish town because she had COVID. He has had to go to that place in the past and it had very poor Internet service. Spain is a country with poverty and difficulties after 30 years of fascism. His colleagues at E.V.E. have somehow kept the store open and must pay the tier obviously. Both they and others who were close friends of Noke say they do not know where he is and fear the worst. We can find his real name and look him up and I have tried in El Pais and obituaries and such, but it is hard and not everything is recorded. There is no new content. The gatchas are on 50L. I don't know how long they can keep this store going. Many left the group. So get these amazing gatchas now, as they are unlikely to appear ever again. I don't know how long this store will remain open, so get anything else you like as well. Don't be frustrated by the annoying vendors there and think they don't work. They are the kind you have to first click, get a menu, then select "buy in Lindens" and push through to actually buy. 

I don't like things in chains and a little sparkle goes a long way with me, but even while he was active inworld, I under-appreciated Noke's work at first. Then I realized he was a great artist. Sadly his gatcha from a Steam event last year never got repacked in the store, and it's my absolute favourite gatcha of all time, the one with a story (like all the great gatchas) of a cat, Gatto.  I have it out in the tidal pools in Atis in Shaman's Bluff.

I can't think of any other 75L or higher pull merchants to call out as good or bad atm so stay tuned as I will likely find more. But then there's this...

25L PULL AND STILL CAN'T GET THE DAMN RARE

Then there are those who have put their gatchas FINALLY on 25L, after waiting two weeks while you hurried to pull for 75L thinking they would not do this (sigh), but you still cannot get the rares, just like you couldn't all these nearly 10 years they have been in existence. 

o anc - anc is notoriously customer-service-free and silent, possibly due to lack of English, but he has nice stuff plus he is on the Mainland, always a plus for me because I will favour Mainland merchants over island any day. He has finally moved his gatchas to 25L. You will never, ever win the Snow-white Mermaid Dog or whatever the hell that thing is. Trust me, I have tried for the five or more years this gatcha has been in existence. anc has a fuck-you final gatcha with shit-brown rugs (ok, guess they are sepia-toned) and a...gachapon machine as the rare. Actually two, one with a green-leaf garland. You will never ever get the green-leaf garland -- see above, Mermaid Dog. The commons to Mermaid dog sell really well, which I totally marvel at, because I didn't know there were hundreds of people who needed a "navy" Mermaid Dog (hundreds, being what you needed to put up with on your way to Mermaid Dog Prince with his fur stole). If you are trying to get the rare octopus platter or whatever that gorgeous elaborate sushi thing is, well, don't. It took me many years. To be sure, I was casual, only pulling a dozen times if he happened to have a Fifty-Linden Friday sale, where, along with the rest of the hapless throngs, while we tried to FIND his FLF offer (which he always hid well), I would pull. It is not possible. Go on the MP. if it is not on the MP, do without. I was lucky that one time. You will not be.

o ionic/Spell - I thought perhaps I was the only one boycotting ionic for years after spending an amazing $12,000 or $26,000 to get the rares in past years which I blogged about. This was to prove just how impossible it is, because yes I KNOW about the law of chance and the law of averages. And I totally get that you really might never get a rare even set at 25%. Except...that is unlikely, when you have pulled $25,000 worth of times, and that has to be because the rares were set at 1% or 5%. It's statistically likely. But it wasn't the crazy lack of chance for getting a rare at ionic, known to all. It was because that one rare time I got the rare house (a motel), you couldn't walk into it, although it was meant to be walkable since the rest of the set were the props for it. So silly me, I should have known better, I wrote a few times and then sent her the item, thinking she won't fix it and send me one until I send back the rare. Well, guess what, I never heard from her. So that was the end of my ionic phase of SL. I once had a house in Winnipeg entirely made up of ionic items, some repurposed so they would fit into rooms where they were not intended. No one ever rented it so I took it down.

I then discover recently that everyone hates ionic and thinks that lakua Arriaga, named for a village in Spain and evidently in Spain with her partner Hideki, is a total bitch. I ordinarily have a lot of time for poor designers in poor countries making their living in SL (and that can include Texas), I think they deserve support. In her case, I think she has been coining money from gatchas long enough that I don't have to, but more to the point, it's not just the customer service which is lacking. She had various events she ran including Chapter Four which we all loved, which were ended because the other merchants simply could not get along with her. So that's that. If you are a high-strung creator who thinks you are above everyone, fine, then hire a clerk to deal with the public so you don't have to, you should be able to afford that with your earnings. That's what Apple Fall does? And lots of others who can afford it less.

If you thought oh, NOW I will get the dragon eggs or the rock collection or the Córdoba Portal Into Nothingness or whatever the hell these rares are, fugeddaboutit as they say in Brooklyn. You will not. If you think, oh, now that it's only 30 and not 60 or 75 as normally, let me try, let me suggest that you still have that one tiny chance you always did with ionic, so after maybe 3000 worth of pulls, or 10000, you might get a rare or two. It may not be the rare you want.  Save your Lindens for better gatchas made by better people.

o Hideki is marginally better, and I see he is putting his items to Saturday Sale for 75L so there is in one sense no point in playing his gatchas now even for 25L. He is mainly all about gatchas, with some buildings and other no-transfer single items, but no question that his living game from gatchas. If you think NOW I will win his houses finally -- nope, you won't. I have tried. I don't want to spend more than a certain amount I set aside so you can go try -- good luck. 

* * *

Let's leave aside the hideous forums thread, which I tried to oppose and suffered first a 3-day, then a 5-day ban, first for "spamming" (opening a second thread with 10 demands to the Lindens, 2 of which they have now fulfilled, surely not because of my post) and second, for "personal attacks," which, following the usual Linden pattern amounted to pushbacks on the personal attacks on me, which for the most part were left to stand, or, if removed by zealous mods, did not lead to bans for those august personages.

Let's have a conversation with the majority of people in SL who aren't on the forums or fear to post there, and who do play gatcha machines, or have received them as gifts, or buy them at yardsales. My polls show that only a small percentage of people have not heard of gatchas or don't play them. 

WHAT SHOULD WE BE DOING NOW?

For various reasons, which I'll put in another post, I myself have not played gatchas much this year, although I don't oppose them or have some animus toward them as a style of manufacturing or vending. It's clear that the era of the great "story-telling gatchas", as I call them, has long been over, and the quality has gone down as the pull price has gone up. It's instructive to me that two friends of mine who seriously played the Marketplace to make up sets and sell especially retired sets for huge figures like $50,000, seemed to lose interest in the last year and even left SL, to go to real life or other games to do their buying and selling. Some big-time merchants like Apple Fall stopped making gatchas completely 2-3 years ago and took their machines out of their stores; Zaara made them in 2012 and perhaps a few years after but ceased making them; certain others have a few gatchas and never really got into them as a "thing". Are their gatchas now "worth more"? 

Most of the regular makers of gatchas have told their customers of one policy or another. They may be retiring all the gatchas completely (Nomad) and selling them for 25L (Nomad); or you can buy them for the same price in their shops now, 50-75, and they seem likely to move to a fatpack system (Thor). Some waited a few weeks to move to the 25L or 30L price point (like Petrichor) and it's not exactly clear to me anyway whether they are making fatpacks of ALL these sets or retiring them all -- after all, Petrichor seems to make mainly clothing and jewelry and accessories, not gatchas.

One principle I find worthy as a reason is to support the maker, whose livelihood depends on it. 

Raindale, unlike less transparent gatcha makers (the majority) has honestly told us in her group notices that she makes a living primarily of gatchas, and they are now 25L in her shop. Some she will retire, some not -- it's a lot of trouble to re-package all these individual items, check their permissions and re-offer them. Raindale (keiralans) sounded very upset at first (she is in a COVID-ravaged authoritarian country) and pondered whether she would have to stop selling and maybe take her talents elsewhere on the Internet, although we know competition is fierce.

Example: I have a Shutterstock account, and I recently canceled the cheaper $29/mo plan which they FORCE you to take if you accept the plan after the free offer -- you cannot cancel it without paying a penalty which they will charge your card or seek endlessly in debt collection, I imagine, I didn't wait to find out, and kept the account, but found that as an amateur, I couldn't use all those textures. SO now I get the more expensive $49 one-time 5 picture version occasionally if I absolutely can't find something on Wild Textures or hey, on the Marketplace for far less. If I want a deer theme texture, I pick one that a) is by a Russian or designer in a poor country making their living this way or b) who have never sold that texture so I will be the first (and possibly only one) buying it. I know people who try to make a living on Shutterstock and other big sites, but it is extremely hard because of the huge percent the platform providers gouge out of their prosumers.

I can second  the concern of gatcha creators about the re-packing. I have my one and only successful gatcha (my first gatcha machine attempt had only one customer in an entire year and I am so glad he won the rare Shaman's staff of that era). It's called Dinkie Tea Ceremony and has 18 pieces with 9 animations. WHAT was I thinking. It was goddamn crazy. I spent days on end making that thing. The sales paid for the textures and my booth donation or fee and events, then I had a tiny bit left over to make the next thing -- except I was too exhausted.  When Mieville had a Last Chance Gatcha Sale, I couldn't find the machine I had out at Fantasy Faire and elsewhere, and stuffing a new machine was TOO MUCH WORK as I have the fatpack for sale for $199. I could probably wrest some 10L sales out of my fellow Mievvillians but why? They can either get the fatpack or I will have some of the items for 10L separately, and yes, on transfer. I am merciful that way -- mod and transfer is an absolute must, especially if you are an amateur. Let someone mod it or sell it when they are sick of it.

Jinx - She hasn't said her living relies on gatchas but I think surely it must. She does make non-transfer items but her gatchas are very popular. She has a generous Lucky Chair with some of them but it's worth playing the machines. Other than Silas Merlin and Alia Baroque, she is the only merchant I have heard say that she will offer items on transfer, as she knows how important reselling and gifting is to her customers. Bravo!

libertine/Fallen Gods - Alia makes his living from SL, and to be sure, has many skins and loungers and such that are on non-transfer to make up his revenue, but surely his surprise egg gatchas are among his steadiest streams of revenue. I know I haven't managed to collect them all, even though he has always generously offered them at 25L after their first year at various weekend or event sales. He is, as noted, one of the few to blog about how important the resale is to his customers and he wants to find a way to continue it. Not merely resale but gift-giving as his eggs and various special Valentine etc. items are perfect gifts. He always has the freebie Christmas tree every year.  I have an awful lot of his eggs and they aren't well sorted. I guess I figure after 9/1 I will still be able to get them in some form, if no other way, at Fantasy Faire in the auctions. Even so, I'll get still MORE as they are good re-sale items and maybe I will make up some rares and sets I didn't have.

SO HOW SHOULD WE PLAY THIS GAME?

This is where I have really been stumped the last week. I set aside about 10,000L to make the last gatcha purchases. Where are they best spent? And what is the purpose to play them? I have several thousands left. But I am out of ideas. 

FULL PERM MERCHANTS BAR FREEBIES, HUNT GIFTS OR LOW-COST RESALE

In my case, I use gatchas a group gifts. Why? Because even if my own creations are something people want for free or very low cost, and they are sometimes, the people who sell mesh models on all perms, or textures on all perms often have a TOS: you cannot offer your creation made from their waves for free or as a hunt prize and you must sell it for a minimum of X. Sometimes this is only 50L but other times it is a formula based on what the full perm item cost. Needless to say, this kills off most items I make as freebies or group gifts. Will these owners finally change this self-defeating policy after the end of gatchas, when (presumably) more people will begin to make and sell things from full perms? Likely not, as the same creator-fascism and fear of copybotting and abuse will drive them, as they imagine more people will flood into full perm purchases without gatchas to resell. How can we change this -- again -- self-defeating policy? We can't except not buying from those creators. They will hardly notice as 100 more will be found to replace you.

I totally get the fear of selling full-perm items, that they will be distributed for free "as is", an obvious problem. But most people obey the TOS as they want to stay in business and not be banned or get AR'd. Because these creators do "secret shopper" checks and AR or DMCA take-down on those who violate their TOS and the Lindens do honour these ARs and it does work, especially if they are willing to give their RL name and address on a form. Some are not, which is why they feel like DMCA "doesn't work". They don't want to take the steps necessary that you need to take in a real business. They want everything to remain unicorn fairly land and for the Lindens to do all the policing. The Lindens are limited in their ability to pre-police and respond to abuse reports, and not always. I personally have filed protests on behalf of my builders who were copybotted by griefers and seen the content and accounts removed. Everyone has a story. But if this was the problem feared that creators hope to address by ever more convoluted and fierce TOS warnings, there would not be SO MANY full perm sellers. There are A LOT because they have found this is a really great market. Lots of people like me want to make stuff, but are poor in the "eye see, hand do" department and so we can be creative because others before us were willing to sell their creations full perm so we can make up stuff like a Shaman's Staff with a deer head, moon, berries, feathers, music etc. all from various creators.

I THINK I HAVE ENOUGH?

For now, I need gatchas a group gifts, quest prizes, gift givers at all my many venues, welcome gifts, etc. etc and I run through a lot of these in a day. While my quests are no MadPea games, there is a trickle of people every day getting the prizes and buying 10L gatchas scattered throughout the areas. While the majority of  SL Public Land Preserve locations aren't in Destinations and likely never will be (except for St. Paul's Church in Grace, put in without me requesting it and St. Thaddeus Monastery in Tethys, put in when I applied during Halloween some years ago). I have had requests to be in Destinations turned down every other time, so I have stopped requesting. I am never going to make the highly-stuffed, expertly-meshed and postcard-picture venues that are in Destinations. That's fine, I am still very happy in my Second Life where I don't overstuff as I don't have the prims -- I have to have tenants around or in many venues to help pay for them -- and I am never ashamed to use sculpty or prim items which sometimes are quite beautiful.

I think with my inventory of now 188,000, probably half of which are gatchas, I will have gatchas for years to come? I put some for sale on the MP and they never sell because I don't "work it" and price them lower constantly or front them with pretty pictures which you need to do to succeed on the MP.

I made a folder called "Stock Gatchas" which is only those items I have bought since the Lindens' announcement which I will use as stock in my stores, mainly with the fantasy/elf or housewares theme. It's at 1,414 and I think that's enough. If I give 10 away per week, I have enough for a year. And there's this to consider: everyone else has thousands they will be trying to sell -- forever. The price will come down and I can find more stock to sell at the same or somewhat lower price. To be sure, certain items will be retired, or will go up in price (Apple Fall's Ritual gatcha which surprisingly still has items for only 50L because not everyone wants a sprig of basil). But generally, as with the sionchicken food, I think I'm done. I once stood and bought sionchicken food for $1 until I had about 500 cases or whatever. He has left the world, ceased taking care of his creations, has no more vendors out, and the food will run out and the chickens will die -- I think by the end of this year. I sell the cases for $1600, which is what they cost before he put the $1 sale out (then removed the vendor), and I have no shortage of people buying them as they still like sion chickens. I'm one of the few re-sellers left. My little guys will starve, after giving me one more leg bump of affection, even as they cry that they are starving, bewildered that I am not feeding them, like I always did. It's hard to suffer, but remember I went through about 12 generations of Hope, my chicken who survived a griefer attack (kicking them offworld kills them), and in a secluded location, kept producing new generations (his sons to continue the sacred line were chosen by whether they headed towards the holy toys or not) -- until the last Hope was kicked even from the secret location (constantly moved) and the line ended. C'est la deuxieme vie.

Still, as I thought about how fast this stuff can go (all my 25L gatchas in all my stores have sold out in the current frenzy), I can pull some gatchas now to keep my stock. Here's the ones I decided on:

25-30L PULL NOW, WORTH GETTING THO EVERYONE ELSE IS, TOO

3rd_Eye Perceptions - all pulls are 25L. I already played most of these and already got the sets even in some cases, but they do make nice gifts as pretty surprise eggs and music boxes so I played to fill my "stock".  3rd Eye not only makes her living in SL, she has pictures of her kids in the store, so please get there ASAP and don't let her lose income.

Plaaka - 30L pull. I have played Plaaka til the cows come home in the past to get the full set of the ceramic stuff for my Mooloreum Glass Museum and probably will be selling little ceramic things until the end of time. Is there anything else here? I also won't play the one that has all these Japanese dishes -- I played it once to make up an outdoor kitchen, but I know full well food gatchas never, ever sell. Even if priced to $5 or $10. No one needs a stand-along food item that doesn't dispense, especially. Same with mugs or cups, especially the kind that you can hold but no one can get anything from (not dispensable if righted and placed in world).

So I thought to get some of these sewing and leather items for my quilt room in Crespo, which has AF and other stuff of that type, but this is typical of the reason why people hate gatchas: it's a mixture of things you'd actually like to re-create a scene in your house or venue, but then it is half food items you don't want or can't re-sell. Why put so many food items? Plaaka loves food items, and I totally get that, but since none of them dispense, I myself have to put hydrangea platters or cakes into her hydrangea soup or whatever.

Then it's one of those perverse gatchas where you get VINTAGE SEWING MACHINE RARE five times, though it's the rare. How does that happen? Do people never set these things right? Then I get Miepan Chocolate or some such 5 times I can't use -- then I stop, having gotten "Leather Pieces" only once. Of course here's where the knowledgeable person goes to the MP. But CAN you expect to do that in the future? I think so, as lots of people are playing now, lots of people played before, and there are incrementally increasing gatchas for sale every day on the MP and more inworld.

Black Sand I have a lot of time for Black Sand. They have 30L and 60L sales constantly which is all I buy, with an occasional exception like one of their high-quality couches with many textures. The "Russia Friendly" and "Arc" gatchas have really great decor, at least for my purposes. Black Sand is the only furniture store I have ever seen in my life (surely there are others?) that has ad boards for you to advertise your rentals in, so that after people buy all that furniture, they can come and rent your place (the clickthrough is pretty good there). So I bother with multiple ads there.

Epiphany is still running (it always seems to run forever and maybe is held over) where you should HASTEN to get one of the only two good gatchas there (in my view - of course there are things like Thirst's martial wedding set but I don't buy clothes). One is random matter's Curiosity Cabinet, which is high quality although not very unique as a set, and Black Sand's "Epic Historical Tables" which are truly that, and highly unique and really one of the greatest gatchas of all time -- what the golden "story" era was known for and of which few survive. For once, the $100 pull here is very much worth it, and all 25 times to get the Seed of Inspiration. I realize I don't have "Peru" and "Nigeria," the rare and have to get back there ASAP.

Petrichor - She waited until mid-August to put hers to sale at 25L, ok, they weren't her mainstay but she wants to get the value out of them. They are really finely-made and I keep them, I don't resell them, even with copies, as I have a lot of magic/elf type sites. The rares were a bit hard to get but I did secure some of the main ones.

Attic - Some of her gatchas I don't understand, and those I do have things I don't want in them, nevertheless there were a few I played endlessly to get the props for my Home & Garden Design Contest entry and other stories, namely the Cranes and the Water Spirit and Oxygen ones. These are all wonderful. I finally got the Spirit Flute or whatever to put in my Forgotten Realm/Fantisseria spot.

Nomad - Nomad has a Russian theme often and may even be in Russia, who knows, the sim is called Motherland yuk yuk. They are odd ducks for sure but popular and have good resale value. They are on 25L and AFAIK they will all be completely retired after 8/31. Nomad does not like gatchas and has other no-transfer things he sells, more and more. Can you get the Asylum or the Museum if you try hard? Well, I did, even before the 25L gatchas, with rather many pulls, and then I realized the Asylum is so huge and high prim that to decorate it properly (it has a zillion rooms) I will need a huge amount of prims. I am going to finesse this, just you wait.

Bamse - I never thought to look for a main store for Bamse until now, because he has the Cosmopolitan mini store where he is constantly in half price Tuesday sales and such. Now I discover there isn't a main store, and this is it, see, you take people for granted. And now he will not be putting his more expensive gatchas out for half-price Tuesdays because MACHINES (not the gatcha prizes themelves) are banned as of 9/1. So you better get to Cosmopolitan ASAP and get them now. They are very high quality and have good resale value. I personally don't need a lot of blood-spattered weapons, but many do in SL and that's why they are popular. I prefer the space/architect/criminal ones with more props of more imaginative type.  I think Bamse will fatpack it after 8/31 but not sure. Looking at them now, I realize I don't have a lot of the items and could use some.  If you can put together a full sword set with the rares, it will go for a lot.

zaara - zaara has not made gatchas in years and years but her few gatchas are very popular and you see them at every yard sale.  They are excellent, long-lasting heirlooms. No, "traffic frames" cannot sell even for $0, there are just too many from people playing and trying to get the rares, which seldom drop. The "ethnic lanterns" and "block print" furniture are very good quality. They came down in price as many played these gatchas trying to get the Jodhpur house. I'm proud to say I won two, and bought one on the MP over the years. It's an absolutely perfect house, its props are perfect, and I wish zaara were in the building business. But she prefers to make dresses and some men's Indian style tunics possibly because ultimately they sell better? I have never been able to win that boho hutch to replace the one I broke trying to make the doors open and close better. PS I have lots and lots of "fishermen's pants" and only one of those Beach Huts that no one could ever win. I put it out at the Hot Springs in Juanita. I have never seen anyone go in it. Please sit in it and send me a picture and you get a free week's rent.

tres blah - Tres (whom we remember back from our The Sims Online days in Sim Arts) makes very high-quality gatchas and also generally stopped making them years ago, I guess because clothes sell better. It's fairly hard to get the rare or commons you want, although some do drop. I guess I will have to live with just one Owl Trinket and hope I don't lose the other one. I stocked up on some of these as they are perfect as clutter on nightstands in hotels, B&B etc. Until someone complains, perhaps years from now, "Why are you putting out that old dated gatcha stuff? peaches has new, better clutter". OK. I think tres blah will remain a class for me and others.

 

SO WHAT ABOUT THESE OTHER WILDLY POPULAR GATCHAS?

8f8 -- he has talked about putting them all in fatpacks; he has talked about retiring some, to the howls of customers who, like me, have played them for years and never got the rares because a) he has a HUGE number of items in each set -- you are really spoiled, but chances of a rare are less with more items (because: math) and b) he has the percentage of chance set low. 8f8 seems not to make gatchas any more for the last year or so, and also always seemed to make other whimsical and ethereal and leafy things on no-transfer. My bet is he will fatpack these things that he no doubt made a large amount of his income from, and I gather he made a living here. I think he's in an Asian country but who knows where. His gatcha are currently at 25L and you have no better chance of getting the rares or even one you like than you did before all this. I personally just don't want to pull them any more for that reason, but also because I have a ton of grandma's chickens and storyteller burrow wall lamps when I want the 8 o'clock mints or whatever. I think it's safe to say that 8f8 makes the best gatchas in SL and has the most popular ones. I think he stopped making them for awhile due to real life difficulties/illness/who knows as many themes of crying, sorrow, depression followed in his non-gatcha autumn-leaf and tearful-figures items BUT he is back now with more cheerful things (like his summer island which is wonderful) on no-transfer. He should weather this transition.

Even so, I'm going to officially declare his Artist's house as the most impossibly fucking hard house to decorate in the Metaverse, even -- especially -- if you have all the props. There is no picture of the props assembled, and no example inworld on his sim. You simply can't tell what goes where. There are all these plant boxes/holders yet all the individual plants don't seem to fit in them.

There was one a short-term Destinations place that had some of it, but it was different than I did it, and I think the fact is -- no one knows. I have had tenants for whom I put the items on "share" give up and run away screaming. I myself have left that house unattended, not for rent, paying tier uncompensated, for more than a year. It's too beautiful to take down. Right? I think? So I should finish it...right?  This is the problem with certain gatcha "story" sets that overwhelm you. I could point out that Granny's cottage is much easier, and constantly stays rented. So does "Storyteller's Burrow". I think that's why 8f8, even being Asian, made a bunch of Western-type themes with "Christmas" or French pastry shops or things like that which were wildly popular. PS you can never win the koi pond. DO NOT try to win the koi pond. T-Spot sells a very nice set of full perm ponds that are really nice (despite some ignorant bad reviews) so buy those and make your own koi pond.

I am now drawing a blank, so I asked some friends and tenants who are very serious gatcha resellers of the things I care about (furniture, props, fantasy i.e. not clothing, hair, shoes etc) what they suggest. Here is the list:

vespertine - I already have most of vespertine having played it over the ages. I think you can never have enough of those little green tables and "Tiny House" items that re-sell well at least in my limited experience.

Second Spaces - if you do kitchens, and many do, this is your gatcha, but I don't like the photo-real style myself

Six o'clock - lots of good furniture sets

zerkalo - zerkalo was my very first gatcha ("Coffee on the Porch") and I have a lot already, especially as they are often in weekend sales. The original creator Daniel died in RL, which means you will never see again some of these particularly exquisite items -- lacy doilies on tables, Russian samovars (he was Russian) all kinds of nice stuff. His widow has bravely  continued the business (what a devastating loss to go through, a partner dying of brain cancer so young) and has made her own very nice items and has brought in other designers I gather. In any event, all of zerkalo, past and present is a good buy, especially past simply because Daniel is gone.

Sway's - I haven't bought anything from Sway's in years I guess because a certain kind of 30L sale item you get enough of, quickly, and they often repeat. I like the non-gatcha Sways more than gatcha personally but there are many nice things.

trompe - I bet trompe is telling everyone she doesn't depend on gatchas but is nervously looking at her bank statements. I have numerous tenants who put out her cheap gatcha houses and not her more expensive no-transfer cabins, which have gotten more and more strange and ugly as time goes on, although no doubt the Campbell Coast set thinks they are "edgy" or something (while likely finding them to violate the theme there ROFL). I boycott trompe due to her bad behaviour on the old forums. She was (still is?) a Linden contractor and when I would out and protest such favouritism, she would hate on me and then barred me from her vendors. That's fine, I can have an alt buy her houses if they seem absolutely indispensable to tenants, a few are. 

Bee Designs -- these are constantly on weekend sales and I personally just have way too much of that flowery kitschy stuff but you may not. Bee's partner M. Law, ditto.

What's Next - ditto

Serenity Style - expensive gatchas and expensive sets but very good quality. Don't know if they are on 25L

Broken Arrows - the last time I spent way too much on a gatcha last year was when I decided I "had to have" the complete set of his enamel mugs to put in my Linden Trailer. Eventually I got the whole set after many visits (if you don't win a rare in a bout 10-12 tries, leave the sim and come back another day. You may forget you ever wanted that thing. And somehow when you come back, the machine is willing to give you the rares now, it realizes which side its bread is buttered on).  I put out the whole set, added some from Soy's set and Thor's sets and...no one noticed. Cries. I then ditched my camper to get the Fantasy home. OK, so you missed my fabulous complete set of every enamel mug in SL. Your loss.

Sari-Sari -- excellent, story-telling gatchas, good quality, re-sale value. Set to 25L

Jian - I rarely have use for animals and Jian is always in weekend sales but if you need lots of shoulder pets, this is where you go.

Sayo - I liked his sets of years ago with themes and got a few but haven't lately.

Fancy Decor - all of Fancy Decor's sets look the same to me. Oh, maybe it's my computer settings lol. But you know, they are all alike, thin consoles with golden edges, a so-so abstract painting, and funny props that are hard to place anywhere except with his set. Oh, well. I remember he had this Exorcism gatcha awhile back which I got to put in my St. Stephen's Monastery and quest, in the sky in Tethys. There is also this candles gatcha which is nice but very hard to get the rares and then nothing re-sells. If you were trying a zillion times to get the clavichord in that set where you will get a zillion Mozart portraits, don't, go on the MP.

mish mish - Never heard of them but they make little animals apparently.

Kalopsia - I have Kalopsia's flamingo-y beach hut set up at the Hot Springs and not sure I got anything else except this really fabulous ruined train in the sand which I put in my Narnia quest. So I have to check that out.

dust bunny - they are in weekend sales so I don't feel the need to go look at their gatchas, which I can't remember now, although I do recall that incredibly high-prim Wanderlust set, where I did win the house but could never put it out. My feeling about dust bunny is their style is a bit cartoony/drawn but I generally like that and their food is better looking as a result than Apple Fall's, which looks dead, as in "Still Life Painting". But it never dispenses and so I tend to pass it by.

Soy - Soy is another one of my early gatchas so I have some of his houses and that fishing boat. Some of his items I have out in Shaman's Hut, they're great. I think I have everything and since he has a program of exchange where you could get the copyable version, there wasn't much call to re-sell on the MP. I imagine he will fatpack them? No idea. 

Schultz Bros - I have not thought of them in years. I have many of their no-transfer buildings, and some gatcha, like that fabulous hotel, which I put up in Ross. It used to stay constantly filled at $50 even in PG. Possibly that was one person on 5 alts, a frequent occurance because now it is mainly empty. I have all the props I think - but I will go check since I have not paid attention to them.

kunst and 02569 or whatever that number is that is their other brand name - why would you make a brand name a number no one can remember? Whenever I see a kunst gatcha at an event I give it a pass. Why? The key is so dark, and the items are so drab. They actually are sometimes better in person, but there are a lot of industrial items and nuts and bolts that I can only use so much of. I appreciate kunst. Truly I do. And I will visit them before 9/1.

ariskea - ariskea has gatchas? Who knew? I have some of her no-transfer furniture. This is worth checking out.

hextraordinary - he has very nice animals, birds and weird hybrid things, owls and whatnot, plus crystals and various English-y furniture. He is in weekend sales so I don't feel pressure to get gatchas that I think he will simply sell on no-transfer as singletons for 75 or fatpacks. Right? I mean who knows? I will say hextraordinary has been good with CS, to the point of once returning my query about what a "watery tart" was. I am not a fan of Monty Python. I know you're supposed to be, but I'm not. He explained, but then you know already, as you're one of the cool kids, too. Do I need another dogbird or mousefairy or whatever, maybe now in animesh? No, but it's on my list to check before 9/1.

Boogers - animals - which I don't care about generally. Plus I hate the stupid name.

Garbaggio - Like Boogers, Garbaggio is not a store name that I like and I wonder why people make a name like that, but we have Never Totally Dead and Fashionably Dead and Cureless and Suicide whatever -- all kinds of creepy and obnoxious store names in SL so get used to it. Garbaggio is famous for these realistic human-like dolls. These are great for story props I see, although I prefer getting the full-permed NPCs off the MP.

dM! - these are mainly clothes, but the few clothing gatchas I played because they had fabulous horses, staffs, etc. SO I will revisit but I imagine she will turn these into fatpacks as she sells clothing.

I could go on, and will, but I can't think of anything more now. And then there's this, once you have gotten the thing you like or can actually use, which for me have been the main draw from gatchas.

CAN YOU RE-SELL THIS STUFF?!

And 7500 words into thinking out loud, I have to say I am not rushing to any store now because....I don't know what I'm going to do with these gatchas. If they fit in my land preserve or quests, great, but I have a lot of that now. If they are good for quests and group gifts, great, but I have enough for more than a year (because beyond the ones designated for this just from purchases in the last few weeks, I have several thousand more.

Re-selling them is too much work, and please don't tell me about that stream-lining method on YouTube. We all get that. But it's still too much work. Mainly to find and put in the key, which I really believe in doing because no picture sows distrust, like you're some fly-by-night copybotter.

I personally don't think I will be good at joining the throngs of re-sellers, increasingly desperate not just to sell in a glutted market, but sell period, in a market with no new stuff that is on transfer.

That doesn't mean that I will give away packs of 100 to a charity sale now, because I think they are going to go up in value.

I marvel at the arrogant who say people will spend their Lindens, it doesn't matter on what. They fail to see that many people don't buy Lindens, as cheap as they seem, they make them inworld, and shop with the proceeds from their re-sales.

That's why I take it seriously as an issue, to which I will return, and understood it from the first hour after the Lindens' announcement, when I got refunds, including from someone paying a lot for a large lot, whom I wouldn't have believed to be someone needing to sell gatchas to pay her rent. Leave aside that I don't think she sold $1000 or $2000 worth of gatchas per week. What matters is that she felt threatened, she felt insecure, she felt that the world was changing and she had to retract. Like people who lose their RL job, and tell me they have to refund from a...US $1.44 per MONTH rental. Because when people lose jobs, even in America, suddenly every unnecessary expense seems to high.  So I have learned to take that seriously as a signal and believe in it, because it's true. The SL economy will contract, just when unemployment is running out for real -- despite what some say about how nobody is getting off it to get jobs which go unfilled. Do YOU want to go work at Home Depot with unvaccinated people now? OK then, shut up. I have relatives who have faithfully worked their Home Depot jobs and leveled up to better. Do you? I don't scorn people who work these jobs; I tip them heavily in the form of an Instacart or Whole Foods deliverer.

So you tell me which brands you think you can re-sell. I will reprint them merely as a public service in case anyone cares. I realize I have left out a huge percent of gatchas in the clothing, hair, make-up etc. line

Finally...

SECRETIVE, MYSTERIOUS GATCHA MAKERS

Quite a few gatcha merchants are utterly secretive and you never know where they are or who they are unless you happen to get to know them and talk to them as I do. But often not because why would anyone talk to blogger Prokofy? I assure you that I very much believe in keeping the confidentiality of a source who has requested it, and I have never had any complaints on that score.

Let me distinguish a source in journalism from my rule-breaking and TOS-abusing tenants, some of whom are total assholes and are called out sometimes by name in my RENTAL DEMENTIA columns. There's only a few every year that reach that point, but you would think it was everyone, the way they tell it, also claiming falsely that I have "broken the TOS" against publishing chat. Linden Lab has not (yet) obtained jurisdiction over the entire Internet, and can't punish you for what you put on social media or blogs, although I suppose if they get mad enough, for cause, they might do this, and there have been one or two Lindens over the years that believe that you do not have the right to criticize them outside their servers -- although of course you do. 

Ok, then. It's funny to me to see the Doux mesh head guy appear in RL on an SL talk show on YouTube with a RL shopper and vlogger. I guess it's a younger generation? But many people fear giving their identity on line, especially given the hordes of mainly American ignoramus who are not taught match in school and don't grasp the law of chance or the law of averages.

I personally don't believe this is as big a factor as claimed because not only are there a lot of Europeans and oh, Russians or Japanese who did get taught math in schools; the Americans who weren't taught don't care as they are wealthy and keep pulling and don't bitch because they re-sell the commons or they are smart enough streetwise to go on the MP and get the rares -- and wait until they appear as they always do after every event, as some dogged resellers go and make up sets fairly early on.

I think that some people have 3 or 10 bad CS experiences and have such thin skins they can't handle it and then become gatcha haters based on this tiny sample. PS they tend to be the ones completely retiring their gatchas or putting them on 75L

But even those who are known in RL or at least relatively well known in SL are being secretive ABOUT THEIR POLICIES .

Even if you join expensive $100 or $250 VIP groups, you don't know yet. You get double-talking from the likes of Hideki. You get obscurity from Thor. Etc. And I think it's time for us all to cease buying any gatchas where we don't have a POLICY, where we don't know if we are playing a machine that will entirely disappear -- or will be entirely made into a fatpack for a cheap price.

I totally get that people want to wrest as much as they can out of their customers. That's fine. I don't believe in the "carnie/mark/bunko" model that the atrocious Da5id Weatherwax favours. But I think those of you who come clean on this very clearly will see me buying more gatchas than less, simply to resell. Since most of you will not be on transfer after 9/1.

Comments

[Christopher J Neff]

So Communists selling...gatchas

Prok is literaly describing capitalism.

Must be nice to have had wealthy enough parents to have send you to school in The Saint Pe and to have gotten you into a Canadian school in the first place.

[Prokofy Neva]

Nolan, if you're going to indulge in Google witch-hunting, you should recall how wrong you've been in the past and how wrong you are now serving up this crap.

What is "The Saint Pe"? St. Petersburg, Russia? It was known as Leningrad when I went to school there. My parents were not rich at all, but in fact poor as my Dad had been laid off from Xerox at the time. In fact I worked summers, including plenty of over-time at the US Post Office, to raise the money for the program in Russia, and my grandmother contributed her savings. So fuck you, once again.

As for "getting into a Canadian school," you have GOT to be kidding. You didn't need money or power to get into U of Toronto at that time; you had to have good grades and also the Grade 13 equivalent, which I achieved through taking college courses at night and AP scores.

The tuition at that time was *$750 per year* for Americans, which contrasted with $3000 or more at US state schools at the time -- which was among the reasons I went there. It was and is a great school, without the party and frat atmosphere of American colleges. My parents didn't have to do anything to "get me into" this school, where PS I had a scholarship for 2 years and one summer, and where I worked part-time the whole time I was there.

So once again, fuck you, and you are blocked for libeling me and inciting harm.

[Prokofy Neva]

https://www.geolocation.com/?ip=73.242.53.127#ipresult

https://gyazo.com/3f690681e4f4dc8910fbff7983f115e3