Wrath reminded me that we all had that phase in our early second lives: if it is for free than take it. Clothes, both male and female, shoes, eyes, vehicles and weapons, buildings, plants, lamps, furniture, more eyes, giant TV's and little dragons that flies above your head. And the pose balls and anims, too. Lot of them! It is like somebody put a spell on us on the Orientation island. Or maybe there is subconscious superstition that the grid will fall apart if we don't have more than 6000 items in the inventory. Just get it! Later we learn that the grid is going to fall apart anyway, so we stop collecting freebies. Or, at least, we don't take just every box with floating text above it.
Ok, freebies are important in the life of every noob. Nobody can live with the things provided in library. But it is not just the clothes you get, freebie hunt is a way to learn how to use the search and the map. It is an exercise in running quickly and effectively over the world. Very soon, a noob learns how to deal with the place which haven't rezzed completely yet. And social moment too. Freebie warehouses are a great social places for those that still have to get their clubbing outfits. Just imagine all the love stories that started with:
Hello, do you know where I can find….
… And then, after plundering a dozen more boxes, they have gone to nearest sandbox together to unpack tons of boxes they got. She found some third grade silks which made her feel attractive for the first time in her second life, he got that unscripted attachment that griefers are misusing so often. They rezzed the house right there in the middle of the sandbox. I'll leave to your imagination the rest of their learning how to get some fun from the poseballs which are not properly aligned.
But freebies are not for free. As Lillie said:
There is no such thing as free sex. Either you pay in money, or you pay in time searching to get lucky, or you pay in having poor quality and less options, or you pay in emotional work of having a relationship.
The same goes for freebies. You don't pay them in lindens (except those for 1L$) but you invest your time in searching and then in checking all of them selecting the gold from the rubbish. You have just sold your soul to the devil and you have the mess in the inventory you will have to live with until the end of your second life.
But then again, some of freebies I got back then are great things. Some of the clothes is still on me. Some for emotional reasons, some because I really like the craftsmanship. I still steal snippets of code and occasionally learn from the free scripts. And if I see the box with the free textures title, I will take it. There is never enough textures. You? Are you still taking freebies?
No freebies anymore for the abovementioned reason… Too much loss of time to drain gold from rubbish. I do not complain about paying some dollars every month to buy new stuff, I only complain about the fact I’d like to try my ouutfits *before* I buy them.
Givin away bought items that doesn’t suit me is still a pain for the heart (not to mention the wallet…)
That sometimes just makes me wish I went searchin for freebies again…
A most excellent analysis, Dandellion! I think you just accurately captured the newbie experience for millions of residents. :-)
And can I just say that I used to hate when the ‘freebies’ had a L$1 price tag!
I don’t think I have yet managed to clean out my inventory from all that hunting and gathering, either. :-(
*laughs*
I largely missed the freebie stage of my noob-hood – though I lived in the freebie black latex catsuit, Anarchy babydoll or Namiko T for much of my first month, even when I could afford “real clothes”….
I’m finally coming around to working with anims and gestures, and ventured into Yadni’s for the first time this past week – I TP’d in when I was new, had sensory overload, and ran back to the park bench I was sleeping on!
And, yes, you can never have too many free textures! But, if you don’t have it, get the $10L tFinder from SLExchange – it’s a brilliant tool for finding free textures and pulling them into a HUD for you!
I hated the 1L$ freebz until I discovered camping. Then, somehow I found those packs a bit better than the rest that was absolutely free. It was a poor girl’s feast!
Soph, thanks for the fFinder tip.
Well, I quickly gave up on searching in-world freebie boxes. (Although not quick enough. I wore some horrible stuff too.)
I did use to see what was listed for 0L$ on SL boutique. Less time intensive. =)