For those of you who are familiar with the MetaCard, it probably doesn’t come as a surprise the card is being discontinued by First Meta. Launched in July 2007, the card was the first of its kind, a credit card for virtual world currency. Usage of the card has slowed to a crawl recently due to the real world and Second Life® economies. Although merchants accepted the card, consumers have had little interest.

AFK Magazine developed a Bestplaces Hud ! Using the hud you can select places of interest and jump directly to there. The list of best places is constantly maintained and growing. If you like your place to be included in the Hud, contact Erik Goff.

You can get the hud for FREE in our business center : http://slurl.com/secondlife/Muk/173/142/51/

 

RP is not for everyone, it’s not for me to be sure, but having come in contact with several pregnant avitars recently, I was curious how SL™ pregnancies work and what’s involved. It’s evidently a growing market in SL, for those that have been in SL a while who have gotten bored of the normal routine, for those that want added layers in their role play, or for those that just think it’s funny or odd. Who knows what motivates couples to decide to have a prim “baby” in SL. But for those of you, like myself, who find it completely confusing, here is what I have learned about SL “pregnancies”. You don’t have to be partnered to adopt, you can brave SL as a single mother (or father for that matter) and adopt a prim baby from MANY vendors.

     It’s actually a pretty clever project for creators in SL. There is a HUD that allows “baby” to talk in local chat, informing “Mommy” what she is craving, what baby is doing and thinking etc. There is a  HUD that also allows mommy to emote  “singing to baby” or rubbing  her tummy in local chat as well. There is an AO to be purchased, so that the mother is actually animated to seem more “pregnant”, there are shapes, which, for a fee of course, you can purchase to make you appear pregnant in stages. And then there are the babies, varying from very complex scultpy prims, to very primitive-heavy unrealistic lumps that make baby sounds.

    I found several places which you could custom order your baby to appear like your offspring, or specialized vendors which you could have a vampire, neko, fairy, fae, dragon, or angel baby. Some “maternity centers” offer packages including “ultrasound appointments”, “delivery dates”, the packages often come with birth certificates which are basically custom textures that have been “framed” in SL. What will an SL baby cost you? Well I did quite a lot of research on this matter, I found “economy” baby packages that ranged from 800-3000L depending on how customizable the baby is and which package you chose. But the more interactive the “baby” the more expensive the package. I found on the higher end, the more realistic the baby looks, and the more you can do with the baby itself, you could expect to spend anywhere from 6000-10000L and that price may or may not include your tummy, shape, AO, or HUD talker.

What happens after “baby is born”?
    Once you have chosen your maternity ward, or in some cases “adoption agency”, your baby, your HUD, your AO, your shape, etc. then what? Well you wear your HUD, shape, and AO. There are some variations as to how your “delivery” takes place, with some vendors, there is a preset “delivery” date, with others, the delivery happens at random so it’s a surprise. You can also choose to not know the gender or appearance of your “baby” so that it to is a surprise. Then a whole new world of SL opens up for you. Ok, well maybe not, but it did for me, as I am completely new to all of this. There are nursery items to buy, cribs that interact with your baby, strollers, carriers, walkers, toys, clothes, high-chairs, booster seats, diaper bags, rockers for you to rock your “baby” to sleep in etc. There is literally no limit to what you can buy for your baby in SL. Most of the babies that I found don’t develop beyond 1 yr of age, although I did find one provider that offered a very unrealistic looking baby that “aged” to 4 yrs old but it was much less interactive than most. All in all this experience has left me with more questions than answers to that infamous question “Why get pregnant in SL?”. I talked to several “mommies-to-be” and their answers varied from “I thought it was something funny to do” to “I wanted to have something more profound with my partner than just a house”, it was a curious journey I have been on these past few days, and the more I learned the more I was increasingly aware of the potential cost for an endeavor such as having an SL baby, and I found myself giggling a lot at the odd parallels to real life that I kept coming face to face with. The simple act of boredom in a relationship leading to procreation is not that much of a stretch even in real life, and the cost involved is fairly similar as well. I suppose, that as long as there is money to be made, and curiosity, there will be prim babies in SL.

 

Much of the information I found was overwhelming, it truly is a whole new world if you aren’t familiar with all this!

 

A mommy to be?

 

 

 

 

Discover the Commerce Forums

In case you were wondering, there is a place to learn about business issues in Second Life® and join in the discussion. The Commerce Forums (don't let the name put you off) are at https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/commerce. Thinking the forum is only for business owners or economics majors is a mistake. It is loaded with interesting information as well as banter on such topics as the SL Pro! Conference in February 2010, the new Managing Freebies Roadmap and employment in SL. Some people have commented that it’s difficult to find and, having only stumbled upon it myself, I understand why they say that.