I’m completely bloody knackered, as the photo accompanying this blog post portrays so adequately. For the past few hours I’ve been in a hunt frenzy, and there are not one, but two rather good hunts on the grid at the moment and if you are unlucky enough to miss them I promise you will kick yourself in the head rather a lot. (Note, there are probably a few more hunts going on at the moment, but these are the best ones in my opinion. That and the fact that the wonderful ‘The Rumor’ has blogged at least one of them which makes my life a lot easier! I hope they blog the other one…)

First up is ‘The Season’s Hunt- Winter’, and you have until January 29th to visit all participating stores and find the Snowmen hidden in or around each one. Guys I cannot tell you how fabulous this hunt is, so you’ll just have to see for yourself. It’s not very often you get a hunt that features quality from every participating brand and I don’t mean that in a nasty way, but let’s be honest here, some hunts are better than others and often times you wonder why people have bothered to contribute at all. A hunt after all is primarily about increasing your customer base, so with that in mind the freebie you give away should be the best quality that you can afford to give away. As we all know, not every hunt applies that logic, and as a result some hunts turn into a lesson in how not to market your store in Second Life, and serve only to put potential customers off your products for life.

But not this one. This is as solid as they come, and it covers all bases. We’re talking skyboxes, furniture, animations, men’s and women’s clothing and the rest, from uber-names like Split Pea, Theosophy, Fri.day and the list goes on. See what I mean about quality designers? ALL the best ones are here, and more besides. I’ve not found every item yet but I recommend you drop on over to The Rumor blog  where they have a handy visual guide to the items available. (The Rumor is a fantastic blog; and this feature is dead useful enabling you to prioritise your hunting and weed out the ‘must haves’ from the ‘meh’ (Not that there’s really any of that kind of thing here!))

So far my fave items HAVE to be the sofa from Lisp, The Magic Nook sleeping basket (as featured in this photo-truly fabulous fun!),  the outstanding skyboxes from  Concrete Flowers and Molto Bene, AND True Love Never Dies as well as  the amazing Awesome Blossom chair, Elikatira‘s fantastic hair offering and the Art Dummy bench. In fact, while I’ve been hunting I’ve been making a list of stores that I shall be beating a retreat back to once I have some virtual spends, and this is why hunts can be good publicity if they’re done correctly. Not only have I rediscovered stores that I love and should visit more often ( Example: Concrete Flowers, I f*cking love that store!) but I’ve also seen loads of new items and visited stores that have had a revamp since I was last there. Lisp is a prime example, I haven’t been to the mainstore in a bloody age and it literally blew me away when I saw the quality and variety of goods when I was doing my hunt thing!

In fact, it’s almost scary to think how many stores there are in Second Life. At the moment I’m making a list of the best ( in my opinion) furniture stores, and so far I have twenty five on that list and it isn’t anywhere near finished yet, but each one is a ruddy corker. I’ll probably publish that list at some point but don’t hold your breath, it won’t be staying at twenty five stores!

Anyways, you have been told what you need to do, so now go away and do it, ok?  I’ll post about the other most worthy hunt on the grid tomorrow. Until then I’m gonna have a kip in my basket. Good luck and happy hunting!