About Gatchas (Updated August 2021)

Gatchapon in Japan
Note: As of August 31, 2021, Linden Lab will no longer allow traditional gacha machines in Second Life.

This now becomes 'history'.

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I'm sure you have seen one of the many 'gatcha' machines here. Although they resemble some of the capsule toy machines you see in the U.S., they differ in many ways.

The principle of the basic gatcha machine is simple - you pay a fixed amount and you get a random item from those pictured on the outside of the machine. Usually they are no-copy and no-modify, but can be transferred.

This being Second Life, what you get usually wouldn't fit inside a capsule - you might get things like a wiggling puppy or an entire castle.You can find the primary gatcha machines in inworld shops, or at special events. Sometimes the gatcha machines will contain items that are a variation of one item (like the same popcorn maker, but in different colors) or it will have items that are part of a defined group (like a coffee shop and all the accessories).The odds of getting 'commons' or 'rares' is set by the machine, with a high ratio of 'commons', to 'rares', and you will usually have to try more than once to get what you want. Some residents pay large sums to get the rare items. Since there are more commons than rares, they usually end up with a lot of duplicates, which has led to a large secondary market reselling gatcha.

The secondary gatcha market can consist of informal exchanges between residents, yard sales, and entire regions set up as shopping districts. You can also find secondary gatchas on the Marketplace. Sometimes they are listed as 'gatcha' or as 'used'.

Pros and Cons of Gatchas:

Cons: You can't pick what you want. I usually look at a gatcha and think "Do I need this?" and "Can I buy it somewhere else?" I've heard a number of residents say that if they really want something in a gatcha they will wait for it to be on the secondary market. Some residents complain that playing gatcha machines is a form of gambling. One of my complaints is that there are some designers whose majority of products are only available from a gatcha machine. If you want that particular Japanese city house or that very adorable kitty, you will either have to play the gatcha machine that has it until you've won it or gone broke, or you will have to look for it on the secondary market.

Personally, I'm not happy with the 'no mod, no copy' part of it because, for example, if I 'win' a pink chair that doesn't match my teal color scheme I can't re-texture it. The photos of the items shown on the outside of the gatcha also are taken under optimum conditions and may not look the same on everyone's viewer. I have been heartbroken after getting an armchair from a gatcha machine and finding that the chair just showed up as a blob until I was practically sitting on it, another time I got a small building that looked like a pile of potato chips from 10 meters away. The worst item I've gotten so far was a pile of snow sized to fit around the base of only one building (a 'rare' in the same gatcha). Who knows what I am going to do with that - I'm certainly not going back to play that machine in a hurry.

If you possibly can, try to view items like large buildings in person if you can. Click on the object and choose inspect to find out how many textures, vertices, etc....it has. The most beautiful building in Second Life is no bargain if it takes fifteen minutes to rezz because it hasn't been optimized.

Pros: People who like gatchas say that using the gatcha machines isn't gambling, because you always get something. If you are lucky you might get that special rare item for a lot less than it would be sold for. If you just need something like a rowboat, and all the gatcha items are rowboats with variations and you don't care what your rowboat looks like, then the gatcha is your friend. I have also found that it is fun to visit the gatcha re-sellers areas to search for specific items I need (use 'Search') and then comparison shop.

Mad World in Second Life, and a Bit About MadPea Games

MadPea is a lot of things:

They create games:
  • Immersive games like Spellbound where your character moves through virtual scenes looking for clues to achieve a goal. Mad Pea's Ghost Town, free to play, is a good introduction to gameplay as you use your camera controls to hunt down the ghosts of murdered residents to free them from their earthly bonds. 
  • "Escape Room" games that have a smaller landscape where your time is limited
  • Boxed games that contain stories and puzzles
  • Hunts where players compete to collect objects like misfit cupids to win prizes
  • Social games you play in company
MadPea has two isolated regions - part amusement park and part main store.

The amusement park, MadWorld, has become part of the main Made area. Part of it is bright pastel colors with a traditional ferris wheel, teacup ride, bumper cars, and shooting galleries. There are unicorns and rainbows. The other side of the amusement park is dark and dingy with derelict buildings and things like The Witch Hunter. I prefer the dark side.

The store is in the same region. 

Mad pea used to produce Gacha games that contained a story that could be solved by collecting the right pieces of the puzzle. They no longer sell gachas, and former gachas are being sold in complete sets.

 I am always amazed by the variety, ingenuity, and quality of their items. They are also generous in giving prizes for completing games or contests.

MadPea also has a social element.  Members discuss the games, and a million other things, in chat.

Greenies, and the Second Life Primative Museum

Greenies were large 'little green men' sculptures. They were displayed in settings that resembled giant's houses. If you teleported into one of the settings, you would feel as if you had shrunk to mouse-size.
My first Greenie sighting - One is removing the cap from a bottle of Coke. Saucer in the background.

I came to Second Life too late to see the original Greenie regions, but I saw the first Greenie sculpture at Simple's Zoo. He had several sculptures on display. Simple's Zoo is no more, but you can see several Greenies on display at the Primitive Museum in Ritchie.

Apparently the Greenies were the creation of a group called Rezzable, which I read at one point had 40 regions (sims) in Second Life. They had one region which simulated a giant kitchen, and next to it a region which represented the adjacent back yard. Avatars who visited felt they had been shrunk in size. In this giant environment the Greenie sculptures depicted the Greenies in various pursuits.  Some people got a Greenie avatar and joined in.

In June 2010 Rezzable pulled up roots and moved to OpenSim, but I have been unable to find any further information about them. Their old blog has either been taken over by a new company, or else they expunged any mention of Greenies in a rebranding. The OpenSim log lists their place in OpenSim as inactive.

I found several blog entries and YouTube videos about the Greenies, just google "Greenies, Second Life".





The Second Life Primative Museum also has a display showing one of the original teleport hubs, information about Yadni Monde, early Second Life controversies, and much more!

I also found this interesting comment about a product Rezzable produced called 'Builderbot'. Apparently the idea created quite a bit of controversy. I think the idea of the utility was that you could copy everything on your entire region and keep it in storage or transfer it to another virtual world platform. The problem was, it didn't check permissions, and a lot of people were afraid it would be used for illegal purposes.

Currently Lankarian Lock is currently offering copies of a dozen of Light Waves' Greenie sculptures on the Marketplace for free. https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Greenies-Collection-by-Light-Waves/2810153.  Remember, these are BIG - open them in a sandbox!

Nostalgia by Cica Ghost in Second Life

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Mysterious%20Isle/112/113/27 At the exhibit you can get a free ventilator hat almost like Cica's B...