De-noob for nothing

Female? Just joined SL? Need to de-noob as fast as you can? Follow this guide (and do it fast; one of these offers won’t be around for long). Get this look, entirely for nothing:

Hop behind the cut :)

Free AOs

UPDATE (October 2010) – This post has now been updated with new SL Marketplace links, as the old XstreetSL site has now closed. I’ve also added a couple of new SL Marketplace AOs to the end of the list.

From looking at my blog stats, one of the most frequent search terms that brings people to SL for Nowt is ‘free AO’. An AO is an Animation Overrider, which is something that you wear (usually a HUD on your screen, but very occasionally an older AO will be worn on the body) and it will change your stand, walk, sit etc animations to much nicer ones than the default.

I thought it would be a good idea to compile a list of free (and very cheap) AOs in-world and on SL Marketplace, so that people had a one-stop-shop to go to. This list will by no means be comprehensive (I can only cover the AOs that I know about or can find!) so if you know of a free or dollarbie AO that isn’t mentioned, please let me know in a comment and I will add it to my list. Please mention in the comment whether it’s available for newbies (avatars under 30 days only) or for anyone to buy.

Hop behind the cut for the list!

The XStreet SL Newbie

Think you have to hop around tons of stores in-world in order to look good?

Think again.

Head over to Xstreet SL. It’s Second Life’s official out-world shopping area. Log into it using your avatar name and password (the same ones you use when you log into SL itself) and click the ‘Marketplace’ button. There’s a LOT of free stuff available. Yes, some of it’s crappy, a lot of it is demos (a tip is to use boolean search operators to weed those out, so if you want free skins type in +skin -demo -demos) but there are some gems out there.

I thought I’d try to equip a female avatar with all the basics, for nothing at all. Did I manage to do it? Hop behind the cut and see ;)

Info post: The Life Shop AO, debunked

It’s more than likely that in the past week or so you have seen, either in group chat or notecard sent out by group owners, an alert about the ‘Life Shop AO’. The alerts usually take the following alarmist format:

There have been some scripted attacks using the pretend “gift” tactic. Once you rez it if you have land rights you are in trouble, it can destroy your home, steal items, and take money from your account, it will turn you into a walking advert and dummy gift giver. The worst attacks required a sim rollback to fix, so please be careful….It’s called “Life Shop AO”

First of all, the important stuff: MOST OF THE CLAIMS IN THIS ‘WARNING’ ARE UNTRUE. Your home will not be destroyed, items will not be stolen from your inventory, and nor will money be taken from your account. The ‘worst attacks’ do not require a sim rollback to fix.

HOWEVER: one claim is true. It will turn the wearer into a walking advert and dummy gift giver, because there is a script inside this AO that, when worn, automatically spams everyone within chat range (20m) with a copy of itself. The wearer of the AO is completely unaware of this, until someone who has been spammed informs them of what’s happened.

A resident on the Second Life Official forums contacted Live Chat and spoke to Joppa Linden, who had the following to say on the matter:

Joppa: ok, false alarm. all this thing does is give out a Landmark, possible giving itself out as well.. but that’s it.
Toy_LaFollette: tyvm, may I quote that? :)
Joppa: surely ..it’s also an actual AO with animations in it
Toy_LaFollette: good news TY :)

Further information can be found at this post on the Official Forums. Please refrain from perpetuating the scare myths about this AO (which actually just contains the same old freebie animations we all know from Businesses in a Box and Full-Perm stores) and gently set people right when they pop up in group chat to holler about it. Also, please feel free to direct the unwitting wearers of this spam object to this post (and then send them to E. Watkins at Haddath to get a great, free AO instead!)

The Six Linden Dollar Man

EDIT: My bad! The last day of the Kissed Hunt is today (Feb 20th) so if you’ve not grabbed that Belleza skin, get a bloody move on!

*groan*

OK, I just couldn’t resist that title ;)

Want to spruce up a male avatar for just six Linden green ones? Now’s the time to do it, people. This specific look will only be available until 28th Feb 2009 20th Feb 2009, after which time the Kissed Hunt will have ended and the skin featured here will no longer be free. (Fear not. There’s still a great male skin available free at the store; just join the Belleza group and click the box just inside the door on the left as you walk in, with your group tag active.)

But this guy? Cost me just L$6 and ain’t he fine? Hey, if he wasn’t me then I wouldn’t say no! :p

Links will take you directly to the items in-world.

Shape: ‘Syler’ from FabFree (5L$)

Coat: US Navy Pea Coat from Maschienenwerk (Free)

Pants: Black Detroit Jeans from Maschienenwerk (Free)

Boots: Shino-Bi from one of the lucky chairs at Discord (Free – the boots you win are bright orange; they’re easily re-tintable to black, and don’t forget to edit appearance and edit the shoe base to black, too, or you’ll be wearing lairy orange socks!)

Skin: Belleza ‘Ewan’ (Kissed Hunt gift – Free). The skin is what you need to RUN for. It’s only available until the gridwide Vain Inc ‘Kissed’ Hunt ends, which is on 28th Feb 2009 20th FEB 2009. After that, see the beginning of this post for another free skin from Belleza (which is sans guyliner).

Hair: Truth ‘Kensei’ (fatpack) (1L$)

Eyes: House of Zen ‘Green 5’ (Free)

Earring: ‘Blue Moon’ from f*a (Free)

Additional stuff:

AO: E. Watkins (Free)

Radar HUD: Crystal Gadgets (Free)

Flight Feather: Can be found on any of the NCI locations’ freebie walls (try the one at Caledon Oxbridge, which is pretty quiet and has a great orientation).

Need to find 6L$? Try money-tree hopping for a few minutes (newbies under 30 days only). If you’re an older avi, try camping.

EDIT: Hey guys (and girls)? If you’re heading to Maschienenwerk and you actually have money in your account, please consider putting just a few L$ into the tipjar at the bottom of the stairs, to help the owner make his tier payments. Because without your help, generous people like Armin Rickena wouldn’t be able to offer such fabulous clothes for free in Second Life.

Free newbie AO at Long Awkward Pose

UPDATE: Long Awkward Pose has moved. I’ve edited the post to change the landmark for the freebie AO. You’ll need to walk inside the store and find the reception desk. The AOs are on either side of it, on the desk base itself.

Hi, guys! Long Awkward Pose [LAP] has a fabulous freebie AO (animation overrider) for avatars that are 30 days old (or less). There’s both a male and female AO, and even though I can’t snag them (being an oldbie and all that) the pictures on the ads show that they’re excellent AOs. The poses look subtle (not overdone or exaggerated) and you get a lot of poses packaged in each AO:

Just touch the relevant board for your avatar gender, and if you’re 30 days old or younger, you’ll receive the AO.

Mar’s Ladies’ Starter Kit – Monochrome

Ladies, this is something that I have wanted to do for a looooong time: a series of starter kits especially for you!

I’ve begun with the classic colours we all need in our wardrobes: black, grey and white. Staple colours and great basics.

The starter kit has everything to get you kitted out quickly: a shape, skins (the full set of Eloh ones), hair, shoes, tops, pants, dresses, underwear, a walk override, radar HUD, flight feather, posing stand, helpful notecards, and landmarks (contained in one of the notecards).

It’s only available at my store in Baileya at the moment (I set up the sales board in the store, but forgot to put it in my XStreetSL box too!). Hop behind the cut for pictures of the contents :)

Heaven’s Gate freebies for the girls

NOTE: This post does not contain inventory-sorting tips, purely because there’s so much stuff here it needed a separate post! Your inventory-sorting tips for this post can be found here: Why inventory-sorting is so flipping important!

Location: Heaven’s Gate, SGLand2

What’s there: Four complete female avatar packs, free female shapes, skins and hair, camping for other full female avatar packs (30 mins each), money tree. (Other freebies for the guys, too, which I’ve already covered here.)

Hope behind the cut for pics.

Heaven’s Gate freebies for the guys

Note: This blogpost contains inventory-sorting tips! (No, guys, you’re not exempt from messy inventories! Get sorting before it gets out of control!)

Location: Heaven’s Gate, SGLand2

What’s there: Two complete male newbie avatar packs, free male shapes and skins, camping for other full male avatar sets (30 mins each), money tree. (Lots of other freebies for the girls, too, which I’ll cover in a separate post.)

Hope behind the cut for pics, and some inventory sorting tips that might surprise you.

Sao Tome shoes

There’s a free pair of chunky platform shoes at Sao Tome. They are colour-change and include a sexy walk. I don’t know how long the offer is for, so move quickly, girls :)