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Free L$
Earning some money in SL can be a challenge. With freeplay credit contests some gaming places do offer a nice way to make some serious buck. It pays seriously more than other free L$ alternatives and can be fun to do.
The downside is that you actually will have to do something for your L$.
Below a step-by-step guide on how to get started.
Sorry folks in the grey states: It is not for you. )):
1. Getting in
You'll have to teleport to a skill gaming region and Linden Labs does not let everyone do so. You must be at least of legal age, have valid payment info on file and not be or reside in one of the US states that disallow skill gaming. The rest of the world is fine, the US is fine too, only not these states: Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Nevada, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee
Not sure if you can get in? Simply teleport to a skill gaming region to find out. You will get a message if you can't. In that case, log on to your account at secondlife.com and get payment info on file. Either a credit card or a verified paypal account.
Need more info? Read SL's very own FAQ about this.
You still can't get in? As with everything hi-tech: Did you try logging off and back on?
2. Find the freeplay
You can use the overview of all freeplay credit contests to click a link and teleport straight to the games.
3. Choose a game
You will be confronted with all sorts of games offering a wide range of L$ prizes. If you are new to these games, you'll have to learn to play it. Luckily we have manuals. Choose a game that is rather easy to learn. Clover4 or Eureka! might be a good start.
Where the manuals say you have to pay the game to get started, at these games you only have to touch it to get started. No L$ needed. At some other Freeplay Credit Contests you need to pay the game L$1, but it will be instantly refunded to you. Those with a pink logo start on touch.
Now you can start playing. Just play, it is for free, make sure you use the manuals and make the best of it. You are learning how it works, remember these machines are nothing like gambling machines, it are skill games. Get good at the games, things as placing your wilds a bit strategically have a huge impact on game outcome.
4. Win
The picture here to the left shows a Clover4 freeplay contest machine. The part on top is the freeplay credits contest, below the game itself.
At the contest we see that I - MorendaAljon SLSGO - am the leader of the contest with a score of 53077. the contest still lasts for 23 hours and 48 minutes and whoever is the leader at that moment wins L$50 in credits. Although, you won't see that in real anymore, I changed the duration of contests. All contests now last 18 hours instead of 24.
If no one reaches a score higher than 53077 on this machine, I will win. If you manage to set a higher score you'll become the leader. If no one else beats your score in the time remaining then you will win.
After someone wins, the contest is finished. There is no current leader anymore. The contest is halted until the first player beats the default score on the contest, this triggers the start of a new 18 hour round with that player as the first leader.
You won? Then you gained game credits : The right to play for free on the paid games. You don't have to use them at once, they remain yours for at least a month. So, you could choose to collect a bunch and play them all at once.
5. Cash out
The game credits you won are valid on the same region as you won them on. No worries, you can easily keep track: If you ever forget credits, the system starts sending you warnings.
Find a paid game machine on that region, pay it and play it. If you have e.g. L$100 in credits, you could play 10 games costing L$10, one costing L$100 or one costing L$200 but in the last case receive only L$100 back.
The amount you win on the games is your profit. This of course could be zero, but also over 200 times the amount you played. Surely when you are new to it, try games with a lowish target score and thus also a lowish potential profit but more chance to get it. Later you can vary depending on your preferences.
You can simply query how many credits you still have by clicking the game credit account manager. Here to the right an overview (click to teleport) of the game credit account managers on the various participating regions.
6. Maximize
Winning a handful of L$ isn't that difficult with the freeplay credit contests, serious amounts require more work:
- You need to become good at one of the games offered, or preferable at more of them.
- Select the contests to play at carefully. The lower the amount involved, the less fierce the competition and the shorter the time remaining the less likely someone might still reach the score, the higher the score already reached the more difficult to go over it.
- Cash out with care. If you screw up a freeplay game, no problem, just start a new one, but when cashing out you don't want to screw up your game. Cashing out is typically not a thing to do after a long evening of playing. Leave it for when your head is fresh!
Often overlooked but not unimportant: The region you play games to cash out does offer extra insensives. Winners contests, cumulative contests, cash rewards and so on. Ignore these when you are just starting, if you win something it will get to you automatically. Once you get the thrill you might want to know all details so you can benefit the most. Luckily we have manuals.
Why?
Free L$ is usually not offered out of generousity. Although it does feel right to give something back to the SL community the main goal is traffic, bringing people to the participating locations.
On top of that the freeplay credit contests are a stimulus for people to get payment info on file and thus be eligible to visit skill gaming regions.
We hope to show off that our regions are not the halls filled with gambling machines as many seem to think they are. There are no halls and also no gambling machines. You'll find pretty regions with skill games and a lot of other things to do.
We like residents to learn our games. Perhaps you do play games outside Second Life, and then it is about time you discover the wonderful world of SL skill gaming.
Enjoy it! Play smart and you can make enough to pay the tier for a nice parcel or some pretty outfits. We make SL a wonderful place together, you, me and all around. I feel grateful that I can provide some L$ to help finance yours.
Many thanks to Lora Paolino for talking me into this!
MorendaAljon SLSGO
Morenda and Lora being productive.