Gacha Fever: Here's What I'll Be Looking Out For At The Arcade's September Gacha Event in Second Life

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

With the September round of The Arcade's Gacha Festival starting up this weekend, designers have started sharing peeks and promos of what's to come. As always there's plenty to look forward to, from the weird to the wonderful, and I've already singled out a few favorites.

Pandora Wrigglesworth, the mad genius behind Curio Obscura, often has some of the most interesting items in each round of The Arcade. September seems like it won't be any exception; her Materials-enhanced Abomination boots (above) might not be something I'll throw on every day, but you never know when you'll need a pair of shoes as vicious as these in your wardrobe.

I'm also really looking forward to Polyester Patridge's fish and aquarium set from Yummy, but not because of the aquariums themselves. Granted we're long overdue for a really nice mesh aquarium set in Second Life, but oddly enough I'm most interested in the little baggies that each of the fish come packaged in. It's weird to say it, but they're an interesting and unconventional accessory, and I'm expecting to see them in a lot of super cute post-gacha photography.

Umazuma Metaluna's body brand, The Skinnery, has become a staple of events like The Arcade, and her skins have been growing on me a lot as a result. Her preference for clean and natural skins complete with creases, freckles, and "flaws", is a nice change of pace when so many skin brands still focus on keeping faces and bodies plasticky-smooth. I'll probably be grabbing more than one of these Alice skins for just that reason... Even though I honestly hate it when skin makers make their "Bare" makeup option the rarest one in their gacha.

Be sure to drop by The Arcade when it opens this weekend.

... Unless the sim fills up immediately.

... Which it almost certainly will.

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Iris Ophelia (@bleatingheart, Janine Hawkins IRL) has been featured in the New York Times and has spoken about SL-based design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and with pop culture/fashion maven Johanna Blakley.

Comments

[Pussycat Catnap]

I've not been able to 'get it' with the Gacha craze. I like to know exactly what I'm getting when I get it.

I can see it as something that satisfy the shopper thrill though. Especially if you shop socially - which I haven't for the last few years (I keep making friends with people who never buy ANYTHING, and it drives me nuts)...

Recently I've been seeing places where the Gacha is priced higher than normal items often are - like a 500L gacha for a pet. But most of the time they're low priced items designed to satisfy the impulse shopper: which is smart marketing.

[Cicadetta Stillwater]

@Pussycat: It gets to be a game, honestly. I've never seen a 500L Gacha, at least not at the Arcade, but with price points ranging between 25 and 100L, trying to "collect 'em all" or get an elusive rare (during which you will almost inevitably "collect 'em all") is more doable.

It's also very social. I really got into trading during the June round, and I probably will this coming round, too. (Wow, those boots. I may have to start wearing footwear again...) Arguably, the trading is the best part. You never quite know who you'll meet, and it's a good way to relieve your inventory of duplicate goodies.

[Kylinn]

Don't forget the machines at Grendel's Children, which disgorge quite lovely wyvernlets, chicks, bunnies, and mutants for just 1L$ a chance.

[Cicadetta Stillwater]

Ooh, yes. The Grendel's machines are worth playing just to watch them work!