With September welcoming another round of the ever popular Arcade, it’s both an exciting time and a depressing one too.

Exciting because, in my opinion, it’s the BEST round of The Arcade yet. Depressing? Well, you try to get in; there are more green spots on the map than there were on my chops when I was a spotty teenager!

See what I mean?

Fortunately there are plenty of ways to get your Arcade fix in-world without having to deal with Linden Lag. There are yard sales and flea markets galore, and each time a round of The Arcade arrives it seems that more are added to the ever growing list of places to visit when seeking a particular Gacha item.

The majority are private, meaning that they’re a personal collection of items to be found for sale at someone’s home, but some are public. These are a business enterprise all of their own; patrons rent tables and place their arcade winnings out for perusal and purchase. It’s a great idea and the majority of my collectibles  are sourced at these sales because you can usually find exactly what you’re looking for. 

Sometimes that elusive prize can come at a steep price. There’s always a lot of debate around whether or not rare items should be sold at an increased cost. Some argue that it isn’t fair, and that items won should be sold at the price listed on the Gacha machine that they came from, nothing more, nothing less. Others say that once you’ve considered how much was spent on the machine to win the item in the first place then what’s wrong with trying to recoup some of the money spent? You can spend a small fortune gambling on Gacha and may never win what you’re after, so why not just pay upfront to get it?

Of course there’s no hard and fast rule on this. Some creators object to their items being sold at higher prices, some don’t. But Gacha is addictive.  You become obsessed and yearn for a complete collection of items and it seems as though your Second Life isn’t complete without that one last piece.  The trick is to take a step back and evaluate how much something is worth to you.  A small increase on the cost price isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but paying thousands of Lindens for something that could disappear from your inventory in a heartbeat? That’s a big decision to make.

Browsing the stalls at Gacha markets  is a fun task, and it’s made even more entertaining  when those markets really make the effort to look  fun and enticing too. Sure, you can rez a few trestle tables in a skybox for your wares,  but it’s a LOT more enjoyable visiting somewhere a bit special to make up for the fact that you can’t get into the main event..

One such place is GACHATOPIA.

I’ve completely fallen in love with this amazing build. It’s a brilliant 1950’s style sim dedicated to all things Gacha. There are shops to explore and trailers bursting with common and rare Gacha winnings.   The central area features a museum and the first dedicated Gacha auction house in Second Life, as well as gig space for live events.  To the sides of the sim there are retro style dwellings just begging to have their photographs taken.

It’s colourful, vibrant and makes shopping for prizes an absolute joy.

I caught up with the team behind Gachatopia, Morbid Deceit and Lucius Templar, to ask them why they had brought this mad, crazy retro vision in-world and what they had planned for it!

What inspired you to create Gachatopia?

I think we were most inspired by the Gacha community. We had run the Trailerpark Yardsale on our home region since December 2012 and it was a total pleasure. We loved the people, we loved the vibe and we loved the machines! We had a vision for a bigger, better Gacha destination and since we had the extra sim we just went for it!

How many people are involved in the project?

It was just another one of our “couple” projects with Morbid taking the helm for concept, structure and layout. Lucius designed some of the main builds. Since opening we have added people along the way in different capacities – all of whom are Gacha fans like us.

Why did you choose the vintage feel? ( I love the way the sim looks, it’s beautifully constructed!)

We both love Googie art and architecture, mainly it just makes us smile. We wanted the sim to feel like the Trailerpark but in a bigger more epic way. Luke’s build, the Atomic Spire, was built very early on and set the tone. We will always be working on the sim design but that kooky retro vibe will always prevail.

With The Arcade beginning on Sunday, you’re sure to be busy here! What is your view on re-selling of rare items, especially at inflated prices? Some people really disagree with it, what are your thoughts?

First and foremost we believe that the creators permissions and terms of use are what should prevail and Gacha creators typically understand what it means to offer no copy , trans items to their customers. A rare item in a machine is set to a certain level of difficulty for two reasons. One, is to increase the pleasure of playing the machine. And the other is to make more Lindens by selling more items to people who are digging for rares.

The creator has been paid for every item that was won from the machine and has given the player permission to do what they want with the items they have won. Rares are resold at a higher price because it takes more Linden to get them and there are fewer of them around. Rares being sold at “inflated” prices is typically because the person selling it has no grip on what the market value is.

At Gachatopia we try to help people as much as we can, to better understand market value and to keep things “in the spirit of Gacha” which is ultimately about playing the machine. At the end of the day, no one should be in disagreement about re-sale. It is part of Gacha culture. There will be people who push resale price boundaries and there will be creators who push the rare percentage boundaries but as with most things in life, the best people and creators will fall somewhere down the middle.

 As well as Gacha items there is a fantastic auction house and museum here too. I really loved the museum, are the exhibits from your own personal collections or have you approached designers?

Right now the collections are our own items. We do hope to have exhibits up that are curated, mainly because it will take more than one person to complete them but also because it can be fun to have your things out on display. When the Googieheim (a play on the style of architecture we love called Googie and the Guggenheim Museum) is complete, we will have plaques set out naming the people that contributed to the displays from their personal collections, as well as information about the creators and their landmarks.

Are there any content creators that have voiced their support to you regarding this project?

Gachatopia is year round exposure for content creators. We have had awesome feedback from creators and you never know who you will see here on the Sim enjoying themselves. That’s all the support we need.

I’m so thankful to  Lucius and Morbid for their brilliant answers to my questions, and strongly suggest that you zoom over to the sim to check out what is available. I really do get a very positive feeling from this place; it’s being run by people who clearly have a passion for the Gacha movement and I really hope it will be a great success.  It’s a great place to while away a few hours (while you’re watching the green dots on the map at the main event!) and while I was there I saw a lot of traffic to the sim.  If you’re tempted to rent your own space at this location I’m afraid you’ll be lucky, all the tables were taken when I visited. I think that is in part to their incredibly reasonable rates; a table costs just L$150 per month for 25 prims, a trailer L$300 for 50 prims and so on.  Renters can also use bid boards and participate in the auctions too; bid-boards cost L$50 per day, and auction podiums are L$75 a pop.

Here’s wishing a heap load of Kitty-luck to Morbid and Lucius and everyone at Gachatopia.  

I can’t wait to see what the forthcoming holiday seasons will bring for us Gacha-addicts at this astonishing location! 

Like what you see and want to go visit? CLICK HERE! 

**Note: The next Gachatopia LIVE auction will be held on Sunday September 8th at 1pm**