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OK, so despite having been entirely comfortable with virtual communities for a long time, I feel as though I've been living under a rock or something for the past number of years...
Recently I became aware that there's a thriving sex trade in Second Life, and today I just stumbled across [url="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/disgrasian/second-life-hookers-way-l_b_157336.html"]this article[/url] on the subject..

Er... I must be missing something, but WHY on earth would people actually pay for virtual sex? I mean, while I would imagine the experience would be kind of empty I suppose I get people who hook up for free in chat rooms....
But I'm entirely perplexed as to why anybody would pay for this sort of stuff... :speech:

Well, I've never heard of Second Life, and, judging by that article and the 'hooker' samples provided, I don't think I'll bother finding out any more! :laugh: I dunno who's saddest - the 'hookers' or the people who are interested in their virtual 'services'.

Thanks for posting dragon wench - sorta made me glad I'm old! :laugh:

Fljotsdale wrote:Well, I've never heard of Second Life, and, judging by that article and the 'hooker' samples provided, I don't think I'll bother finding out any more! :laugh: I dunno who's saddest - the 'hookers' or the people who are interested in their virtual 'services'.

Thanks for posting dragon wench - sorta made me glad I'm old! :laugh:

lol! Second Life is sort of a virtual 3D universe where people use avatars to do anything from strolling through art galleries, going to dance clubs, buying property, setting up a business... to... paying for sex..
Basically, anything you can do in real life has an equivalent in Second Life..

A lot of people really seem to like it, and that's fine. Not my kind of thing, reminds me way too much of The Sims for one, which I hate, but hey.. different preferences and all that...
But, the escort stuff... that's just totally bizarre to me

Sheesh! Never played the Sims, never wanted to; so I guess i wouldn't like 2nd Life either. Sounds dreadful! Though if you don't like living the life you have I suppose it must be therapeutic...

Mind you, I suppose playing RPGs is much the same sort of escapism... (cough)

Hell with that. If I'm gonna blow my money on something seedy, I'm gonna change all my bills into ones and hit the strip club and keep my dignity intact.

I just don't get the attraction to pixels. It's creeping up everywhere. I must truley be old.

Different people are in to different things - not much anybody else does makes sense to me at all, but still they do those things :laugh:

*wipes sweat from brow

Ahh.. no. No, I don't get that either.

There's no reason to think a real romance is within a thousand miles of the way they're depicted in BG2, much less in DA:O. So why do people agonize over making them work? Why do they care? From a player's perspective, this is the logical extension of those romance "quests" in RPGs, DW. And yes, it's sad, because it speaks to the absence of real relationships--or the perception that they're missing out, somehow, on real relationships--in their realworld lives.

I have explored cRPG romances while being in a serious and satisfying relationship. They were interesting from a roleplayer's and a reader's point of view : exploring the paths chosen for the character's development, writing quality etc. Actually, now that i'm single and quite brokenhearted, computer romances have much less appeal, making me miss the real stuff all the more.

fable wrote:There's no reason to think a real romance is within a thousand miles of the way they're depicted in BG2, much less in DA:O. So why do people agonize over making them work? Why do they care? From a player's perspective, this is the logical extension of those romance "quests" in RPGs, DW. And yes, it's sad, because it speaks to the absence of real relationships--or the perception that they're missing out, somehow, on real relationships--in their realworld lives.

Some people like to watch romantic comedies, read romantic novels and so on.
Stuff like these things does not have to have anything to do with lacking relationships in real life or anything like that.

Could be some just find it fun.

fable wrote:There's no reason to think a real romance is within a thousand miles of the way they're depicted in BG2, much less in DA:O. So why do people agonize over making them work? Why do they care? From a player's perspective, this is the logical extension of those romance "quests" in RPGs, DW. And yes, it's sad, because it speaks to the absence of real relationships--or the perception that they're missing out, somehow, on real relationships--in their realworld lives.

I guess I see how Second Life escort services might be the logical extension of CRPG romances, but for me, personally, it's actually a pretty huge leap.

The reason I say this is because 'romances' in games can often add to a story, they can flesh out background. (er.. pun not intended )

But, this is all in the context of a game, it's not real and it has no bearing on real life, whatsoever. It's no more real than the turgid romantic misadventures of Emma Bovary in Gustave Flaubert's work.

Hiring escorts in Second life is quite a lot different IMO. There are real people behind those avatars, and they are being paid (even if it is in Linden dollars) for their "services."
As I said in my initial post, I suppose I can see people who put their imaginations to work in chat rooms and engage in cybersex. In my view, having a non-physical encounter with some complete stranger whom you have no connection to would be utterly empty... but I still get it; the imagination is far more powerful if unfettered by cheesy pixels. And, like I stated, that doesn't involve money.

Ugh... I'm probably not making any sense at all.. not enough coffee yet.

Or, maybe, as I mentioned, the whole thing is just way too much like the Sims, perhaps that's why it makes me react so negatively.
Don't get me wrong, I figure that it's a case of whatever floats your boat, different strokes and all that, I just know it wouldn't do anything at all for me.

Honestly I'm not surprised. people have paid real world money for gold and items in MMO games. Some truly disturbed people have committed real world murder over MMO items. Really it was only a matter of time.

I wonder what the etiquette is on purchasing a digital prostitute a valentine's day gift?

or the perception that they're missing out, somehow, on real relationships--in their realworld lives.

That's the part which really concerns me, because there was a report not too long ago on three women who had been totally sucked into the game -- two of which were married, and one which were children, all three having online romances. The father spoke of it very much like their wives had disappeared in an online world.

It's very much like people who get addicted to WoW or EverQuest and suddenly disappear into the online world, in my mind. They go into this fantastical land of possibilities and don't want to come out. Or, like students --> we all go online to procrastinate and our minds never really come back.

If you want me to choose between the Sims and Second Life, I'd rather choose the former over the latter. A friend of mine, together with another friend, tried playing it some time ago and found it very laggy. They quit as a result of that. So did I after giving it a go sometime last year. Plus the visuals look way uglier than The Sims 2.

[QUOTE=dragon wench]Recently I became aware that there's a thriving sex trade in Second Life...[/QUOTE]
I remember hearing about this two or three years back at some tech site or comments from certain forum members. Since the game gives the player a lot of freedom to create whatever you want, it isn't surprising something like this will come out sooner or later.

Back on topic, people have weird tastes when it comes to certain things but whatever. Their call. What next? An SL version of "America's Next Top Hooker" (GTA IV ad poking fun of America's Next Top Model)?

DesR85 wrote:If you want me to choose between the Sims and Second Life, I'd rather choose the former over the latter. A friend of mine, together with another friend, tried playing it some time ago and found it very laggy.

Same experience here. I played a bit and got terribly frustrated by all the loading areas around me. I'd walk somewhere thinking things looked a bit bland, when suddenly there would be buildings popping up and stuff. If you're on broadband, that's not something you want to see happen all the time.