Lucky Chair Fans: Your Hopper Helper is Here!
If you’re as addicted to hopping lucky chairs as I am, there’s finally a workable HUD (heads-up display) that will help you find the best chairs in Second Life. It’s a device designed and scripted by Gwendolyn Cassini, a scripter and shop owner (Cassini Creations stylish women’s clothing and hair). It lurks on the right side of your screen and sends you right to the lucky chair.
Not only is this a handy device, it also represents a hand-selected list of some of the best lucky chair sources in SL. No recycled freebies here! You can get your own at Gwen’s shop (click the shop name in the previous paragraph and ride the SLURL to her shop) or from allied shop owners. If you don’t have the HUD yet and you want to know if your letter has come up, join one of the many lucky chair groups, such as Super Awesome Lucky Chair Wow! or Jennifer Word Crew. Call up groups on your personal pie chart or search in your Communicate display or the Search button at the bottom of the screen.
But be warned: A lot of the groups have been taken over by paid letter callers who repeat the same commercial messages over and over without telling you which letters are up or what’s in the chair. My favorite is GIRLZ RULE, owned by Jennifer Artizar, who has banned paid callers. That group, along with Gwen’s new HUD, make chair hopping fun again!
So what is this thing called a lucky chair? They’re the little red chairs with letters on them that you’ve seen in shops, at malls and casinos and other commercial site. Some merchants also use a sleeker Euro-influenced design but I like the homey red armchairs better. If the first letter of your avie’s name matches the chair’s letter, you win the prize in it. The best chairs are usually in shops where the owners have loaded them with their own items instead of using repurposed freebies or other worthless prizes. Lucky chairs are good promotion devices and traffic builders. It’s gotten so now if I visit a shop, especially one with home furnishings or clothing, and there’s no lucky chair, I feel cheated.
Some owners get creative, too. At the Goth/Gor/Asian-inspired Falln Angel Creations shop, owner Azriel Demain has created a lucky gallows. Click the pole and your avie hangs from a noose while you win one of her creepy-cool creations, like an exquisite poison necklace.
Lucky chairs: one of the reasons you can have a nice Second Life without spending a lot of lindens, and a big reason why i have more than 11,000 items in my inventory.
August 24th, 2007 • 
Evansmom Goodspeed • 
comment | August 25, 2007 at 00:54 | individual comment-link
Suddenly the value of a small business owner having a lucky chair may be severely degraded. Hmm.
comment | August 25, 2007 at 20:28 | individual comment-link
Why would you think that, Nobody? In fact, this will help build quality traffic because it’s real residents who did this. Please explain!
comment | August 25, 2007 at 22:03 | individual comment-link
Quite simple, actually. People camp the lucky chairs more easily, don’t buy anything and don’t even stay long enough to really affect the traffic rating (which, thankfully, will be changing sometime in the future). That isn’t too good for the person who owns the lucky chair. No real benefits.
comment | August 25, 2007 at 22:32 | individual comment-link
Oh, I disagree with you vigorously, based on what I have heard from shop owners. If we follow your thinking, then we should also eliminate the lucky chair calling groups, which alert members to which letters are up, what’s in the chair, which store and where it is.
What’s more debilitating to the whole lucky chair process — which if it goes away because of changes in traffic ratings as you hint at; perhaps you would like to explain that, too? — is the movement lately of shop owners to pay residents to call their chairs. Most of them repeat the same stupid marketing message over and over without saying which letter or what prize is up. Likewise others who recycle freebies in their chairs or use business in a box items of no real value. But a shop owner who has one or two chairs in his/her store and offers quality prizes will often have a group spendng time in the shop waiting for their letters to come up, and that stickiness is what leads to shop exposure. Also a new movement among some malls to have 85 chairs, not one of which has a quality prize in it. That will devalue the lucky chair as a marketing and promotion effort and more than this well-designed HUD offering links to a select list of top-quality locations.
If you are a chair owner or a dedicated chair hopper and you have a different experience I’d like to know it. But I stand by my statement that this HUD — desigened by a shop owner who DOES have a chair AND a mobvend and who has seen both increase her traffic and sales measurably.
comment | August 25, 2007 at 22:36 | individual comment-link
Sorry, typing too fast and too late at night. My last sentence should have read “But I stand by my statement that this HUD — desigened by a shop owner who DOES have a chair AND a mobvend and who has seen both increase her traffic and sales measurably — is a good marketing device, and shop owners who offer good prizes would do well to offer it in their stores and to try to get their shops on Gwen’s list.”
comment | August 25, 2007 at 23:00 | individual comment-link
I’ve expressed my opinion. You’ve expressed yours. I’ve had stores with lucky chairs, I’ve played that game - and all I’ve seen are a bunch of people who zip through and don’t actually buy anything. That ruins it for everyone - and I see the HUD as an enabler. I frequently give stuff away at stores, but no more lucky chairs.
comment | August 25, 2007 at 23:05 | individual comment-link
Oh, and as far as traffic ratings - I can’t wait until they actually change those ratings. Camping, including lucky chairs, is a poor indicator. The people who defend it have successfully gamed that system to death - which is fine, I suppose. Me? Not my cup of tea.
Obviously you disagree. That is completely fine. I don’t ask that people agree with me. I’m not here to convince you. I simply expressed my opinion.
comment | August 25, 2007 at 23:19 | individual comment-link
I’m a small shop owner and a lucky chair fanatic.
As a chair hopper I think an important part of the lucky chair groups has been the socializing that occurs while one waits for their letter to come up. I still see groups congregate around a chair with a unique quality item as the chair is flipped repeatedly and I enjoy chatting with others about the latest news and happenings. I would much rather spend time in a small shop with a one or two chairs containing something super special than in a laggy mall with a chair farm.
As a shop owner it is a fun way to make my products available and I’m confident that once girls wear my silks they’ll come back to shop becuase I know they have and I know I’ve gone back for shopping once I’ve tried the goods out. It is the chairs with quality items that get the attention becuase they contain something worth having. So for me it isn’t so much about getting my traffic up as it is about connecting with others who are interested in my creations.
Gwen’s HUD makes it easier to get to the chairs worth sitting on. As for the people zipping through…that happens, but if it is a good chair they’ll be back and they’ll bring friends.
comment | August 26, 2007 at 00:03 | individual comment-link
Thanks for letting me know you do have experience with this. I use lucky chairs as a way to find shops or sims I wouldn’t otherwise, and I have actually found some good shops where I’ve spent lindens, having liked what I got in the chair. Sure, some people abuse it. But I think a freebie in whatever form is good.