Massively^™

Have you been pining away for a great golf MMO? We have, too! Look, even if you haven't, let's just go along with this, okay? Albatross 18 is an engaging, colorful, whimsical game that doesn't disappoint. When one considers golf, there really isn't too much to it -- hit the ball into the hole, rinse, repeat. The beauty of its simplicity is that a developer can go crazy with that concept and add all sorts of madness to it, and it can only improve the game.

And that's exactly what's going on with Albatross 18: beautiful environments, useful power-ups, crazy caddies, mascots, costumes -- this game is hilarious. Will you like it? Let's find out. As always, we remind you that this is not meant to be a full review of everything in the game; these are the first impressions we got after spending an hour or so playing. Excelsior!

How will you ever tell your little girl that her friend Jane is a special VIP in Barbie Girls Online, but you won't even give her a dented copper tiara? Jane's tiara is made of diamonds, platinum and unicorn hair! Your daughter: No tiara. You: resented in real life. But you're a good mommy or daddy, and you'll buy your little girl her VIP membership and her tiara will be gold, with rubies, because you love her just that much. Welcome to the wonderful world of getting to your wallet through your children.

It's not entirely new; Kid-oriented web sites such as Webkinz and Neopets have offered dolls with codes for use on their website for some years now, but they were real dolls, and the special perks on the website were theirs forever. They had something to keep when the computer was off. Now, your daughter's tenuous reign as VIP lasts only so long as you keep paying for a VIP membership. (Barbie Girls Online also requires a Barbie-shaped dongle/MP3 player to be plugged into the computer for full access but is not required for most of the site).

Officially licensed merchandise for twelve bands can be found at the new Rock Vault in Second Life. Avenged Sevenfold, Slipknot, Funeral for a Friend, HIM, Kings of Leon, The Ramones, Trivium, Iron Maiden, Bullet for my Valentine, Nickelback, Stone Sour, and Cradle of Filth are the bands represented, though not every one of them has inworld shirts to buy.

Whether there are inworld shirts or not (the price for all of them seems to be about L$150) each kiosk links to an online merchandise site where you can order the physical article. Don't go to to sleep quite yet, though. There's something much more interesting about this place than just selling tee-shirts -- thank heavens!

Time once again to check in on What yoU aRe Playing in the world of MMOs lately. Last week, the Nielsen Company reported that World of Warcraft was the most-played PC game from April to November of this year, with the average user still playing a whopping 17 hours per week. Yowza.

Is that you? Are you going to be playing WoW all weekend? Personally, I'm going to be busy doing a lot of holiday stuff (I'm making the trek back to my hometown of St. Louis, MO this weekend, and I haven't actually "started" doing my gift shopping yet), but I do have that pristine copy of Guild Wars that I picked up at Best Buy way back on Black Friday, so hopefully in between all the merry making this weekend I'll be able to break that out.

And are any of you actually planning on getting an MMO as a gift? With the subscription fees and all, these games are really something that you buy for yourself, but I wouldn't have a problem with seeing a copy of Hellgate under the tree. What are you playing?

When it comes to impressive builds in Second Life , one of the more impressive ones is actually actually not a strictly an architectural showcase, role-playing setting, or corporate-funded park. It's a shopping mall.

Undeniably attractive, this floating mercantile behemoth is actually part park/recreation and part mall - it is the home of Grendel's Children, featuring a wide range of some of the best non-human avatars and accessories to be found in Second Life.

Several days ago, Celebrity Trollop announced that Second Style would be taking signups for their Secret Santa game. You can pick up her lovingly hand-scripted Secret Santa kiosk vendor at the Second Style HQ. Please note that signups close on December 19th at 12pm PST, so hurry!

On the 19th, you'll be randomly assigned to another participant. You will have until December 25th to buy them a gift of at least 100L in value, but not more than 500L. If you would like to give multiple presents, they must not total more than the 500L value. To find out how to send anonymously, please read the full rules.

[Thanks, Celebrity!]

I probably had something witty to say when I started this list, but that was 7 solid hours ago, and I'm not even sure I want to look at another Second Life ad listing again! However, I've found more amazing listings from 89 incredible designers for your shopping enjoyment. If you followed along with last week's guide, you'll notice that the list more than doubled! Keep in mind that some of the deals from the December 1st edition are still going on.

With that said, I structured this week's guide differently because of the sheer size of it. The categories are: Freebies, Cheapies, Free to group members, Sales, Regular-priced, For men, and Home and Garden. Once again, they are listed with the shop name linking to a store SLURL and what they're selling, with a link to their blog or forum post about the item. If you release something in the coming week, let me know, or leave a comment here, and I'll include it in next week's guide. Happy shopping!

Freebies:

• Adam n Eve - Free men's boxers, lingerie in red or green
• ADIMU - Freebie Xmas boots
• Alchemy - Free dress in gold or silver [Via Mui Mukerji]
• ANIMAH - Freebie animations
• Chicanery - Three freebie santa hats to choose from, including traditional, dirty, and black and red
• Corduroy - Freebie green-striped wrist warmers
• Gnomenclature - Freebie Christmas Jester Hat
• Immortelle - Freebie Silver Felicity Top
• Ingenue - Weekly Christmas gifts on Mondays until Christmas
• Kess Creations - Free Christmas ornament necklace
• Rave Nation - Free Sexy Christmas, Merry Mistletoe, and Candycane Bitch outfits
• Reaction - Daily freebies under the tree until Christmas eve!
• Sy Designs - Free red tucked sweater
• Sylfie's Prim Seduction - Merry Xmas 2007 Stilettos [Via Alienbear Gupte]
• Talisman Designs - Ornament Necklace and Nixon animation
• Tres Beau - Free Diamond Slippers and earrings

Read on for cheapies, group members only, sales, regular-priced items, menswear, and home and garden items ...

Dwight Allen is working on his Master's thesis on attitudes and motivations for the use of stores and about shopping in Second Life. If you've had some shopping experience in Second Life, and are willing to fill out a short online questionnaire Allen would like you to send him an IM in-world.

Allen's forking over the dollars to recompense his research subjects (he needs 100 in total) and is paying L$200 for each complete and correct questionnaire until he gets enough data for his thesis. The only personal information he's after is a contact email address.

With a little luck the results of Allen's research will be available at a later date.

It's Christmas season already, which means Limited Editions, holiday outfits, and freebies! Sifting through all the blogs, ads, and forum posts can be quite tedious. I'm going to be taking care of the work for you every Saturday!

In order for you to get the most out of your Second Life shopping experience, I've broken the items down by pricing. They are categorized as freebies, cheapies, group only, sales, and regular priced items. They are listed with the shop name linking to a store SLURL and what they're selling, with a link to their blog or forum post about the item. If you release something in the coming week, let me know and I'll include it in next week's guide. Happy shopping!

Freebies:

• Dawnshop/Dazur - Christmas outfit
• Ephemeral Creations - Free Holiday Chenille Scarf
• Essentia - Christmas tree earrings
• Inspired - Stocking treasure hunt - 12 in all!
• Ivalde - Freebie gifts under the Christmas tree
• MANTRA - Free Christmas tree
• Pixeldolls - Free holiday decorations
• Second Mirage - Advent calendar - Stop by daily to get a free ornament only available on that day. This event runs until Christmas.
• Sin Skins - Pearl treasure hunt - 12 items, including skins, manicures, and lashes!
• Style Your Destiny - 8 Days of Hanukkah freebies, starting December 4th
• Subtle Submission - Lucky chair Christmas tattoo and shirts
• Talisman Designs - Free snowman earrings
• The Body Politik - Snowman necklace and earrings
• WRONG - Daily freebies until Christmas Eve!

Cheapies:

• Callie Cline - 99L Reindeer antlers
• Dark Eden - 50L Candy Cane..."prim attachment" (Warning: Website NSFW)
• She's So Unusual - 25L Googly-eyed Rudolph slippers
• Subtle Submission - 100L 3-pack Christmas stockings, 50L each for holiday separates, 50L Bettie Page Christmas necklace, and a *cough* 100L Santa's Little Whore costume
• Talisman Designs - 1L snowman shoulder pet, 40L Frosty snowman choker

Read on for group only, sales, and regular priced items ...

Several months ago, Alyssum Therian, of Love, Aly, blogged about a friend's child that had been born with a malignant brain tumor. In order to raise funds for her friend, she created an outfit in baby Abby's honor, with 100% of the proceeds going to her medical bills. Sadly, it only managed to amount to about 25 USD.

Alyssum hasn't given up hope, though. She's designed an adorable Christmas outfit with many components to it, including a blinking skirt! At only 100L, it's a bargain, but even better, all proceeds will go to Abby! Let's hope that this second attempt fares better. Currently in her ninth round of chemotherapy, this child will need all the help that she can get.

It's been half of a year since Second Life Insider first covered the Second Life Cable Network. Since that time, they've expanded rapidly, growing into a full blown TV station. Their determination has set them apart from other video programs inside SL. I'll personally never forget them, because Starr Sonic poured glitter in my hair at the Second Life Community Convention. It took two people 20 minutes to pick it all out!

SLCN offers a variety of programming for the audience. For the sports fanatics, they have sailing, hockey, SLASCAR racing, and snail racing. They also have weekly talk shows, streaming of live concerts, fashion shows, and on location reporting. In addition, they recently announced a shopping channel that will run 24 hours a day! These channels can be watched on their website or streamed into Second Life.

Read on after the jump to find out more about SLCN ...

It's Black Friday, and that means every one (in the United States, at least) is busy shopping for the holidays! And with MapleStory, shopping and online gaming go hand in hand. Nexon, the company behind MapleStory, announced that there will be a huge Black Friday sale for MapleStory users this weekend.

So, if you're into MapleStory, that's good news for you; items in the Cash Shop will be sold at a big discount and there will be special sales of very valuable items for very low prices at certain times. If you're not, well, you still have all the "real-life" deals we pointed out earlier today to salivate over.

Last week, CHAI Skins opened shop. Launa Fauna offered up five skin tones, with eight total makeups. They also came with a freckled option, and a lighting rig. On Saturday, she released three new skins. According to Ms. Fauna, she'll be coming out with new skins weekly, but that's not the best part. She's been taking the suggestions from her loyal customers and even basing new makeups around their real life looks, such as Mistress, which is based off of a picture of Mistress Midnight.

She currently has two locations, one in Freelon and the other in Port Seraphine. I strongly suggest that you shop at Port Seraphine, as the Freelon sim is mainland and was the target of grief last week. Purchasing her skins in bulk has never been easier. Each skin is priced at 1200L, however if you want more, you can simply purchase a store card for later use. Three skins cost 3000L, five cost 5000L, and a whopping 10 cost 9000L. This allows you to hold the card in your hand and buy only those you truly want, versus being stuck with makeups you may not like.

I'd also like to throw out a quick plug for her leather pants, which I'm wearing in the picture above, and her jeans. With careful highlighting and sculted legs, these pants do wonders for your figure. They're all available in a variety of colors, styles, and cuts, including capris!

[Thanks, Roslin!]

For those of you who may not be completely familiar with Second Life, one of its biggest draws is that it's a haven for content creators, as opposed to virtual worlds like There.com, which doesn't let its users build anything of their own. Now, of course, what you get in exchange for the freedom to build anything you want is having to see what everyone else is building, and this includes the infamous flying penises and other Objects You'd Rather Not Have Seen, Thanks.

But, as my friend Eric Rice recently pointed out to me, there is something to be said for not having to create your world yourself. "I don't always wanna COOK dinner", he opined, and I know what he means. In my over 2 years as a SL resident, I've not created one thing; I have neither the knack nor the interest, frankly, though I do enjoy the fruits of the labors of other residents. Shopping is great fun in SL, and probably on the top of a great many lists of enjoyable activities. Exploring is equally as enjoyable, and it's this aspect of virtual worlds that deserves some scrutiny. More after the jump.