How Important is Sex to Your SL?

Someone in another thread said LL is "running a porn site." The sex industry is definitely more widespread in SL than RL, but is it the main draw here? Do you think most people in SL cyber? Regularly?

Personally, it doesn't work for me; I've explored it, and I just don't respond that way in this environment. I have friends in the sex industry, BDSM culture, ageplayers and yiffers, as well as friends who, like me, don't cyber at all. I know it's not part of everyone's SL, and it seems to get overstated in the forums, but how big is it (pun intended)?

How Important is Sex to Your SL?

Answer: It doesn't even figure on the radar for me. Next question.

There is a lot more to sex in SL than cybering - it's difficult sometimes but I seem to manage to avoid it most of the time.

Lewis

Not that important. I'm married in real life to my Second Life partner.

Wait a second. There's sex on the internet?! WHY DIDN'T SOMEONE TELL ME!!!!!

EDIT: My vote was "never", so I did contribute something.

MM

This is true. He utterly rejected any of my advances. He's such a tease.

Well, the whole economy is built on it. Without hookers and cybersex, SL would crash and burn.

Otherwise, I agree it doesn't respond well in this environment. If nothing else, SL, with all of its incompatible user created content, is too dysfunctional to efficiently allow the minimal relaxation people need for arousal. As for cyber sex chatting, I don't understand what people get out of it. How fun is someone flustering in your ear trying to mimic the last porno he's seen?

Then again, cybersex and the promise of pleasure is SL. On the one hand, the gravitation towards sex probably gets stronger in any game/online environment the less there is to do, on the other, SL with its hugely malleable environment becomes a haven for people who are really looking for something better. The day an online world successfully dedicated to eroticism is launched, SL is dead, dead, dead.

I disagree. The hottest sex in these sorts of worlds seems to go on in places where the pursuit of it is a bit taboo. And it IS a bit taboo in SL - its tolerated, but its not the purpose of SL at all. Probably adds to the appeal, plus the fact that a majority of people aren't likely to enter a purely sex dedicated world, but have no problem with a place where they can "walk on the wild side" here and there. I wouldn't go to a sex dedicated world either - it would be fricken boring.

While that's one way to look at it, I prefer to think of human beings as sexual animals. We are. People cybered in Ultima Online, with the worst graphics in the world and no poseballs People have cybered in text-only IRC for years, without any graphics whatsoever.

So when you take an open-ended world like SL with the tools we're given, what's one of the first things someone is going to try to do? Yep - propogate the species, only in a non-reproductive virtual way

SL Sex has been a big part of the pie for a long time, but I think it's gained more momentum since the TSO invasion ramped up last year and then the unverified invasion in June. (Not complaining here, merely observing) Different people come to SL for different reasons. What seems like an overload on sexuality now is really not the way it's always been. SL could survive just fine without it -- it just wouldn't be quite as popular.

I've had a lot of trouble finding places that suit me because whenever I type in a search it's constantly sex. Nothing against it I just don't find virtual sex to my taste, great if it works for others. I've had some attention from ladys in the game which I still question if that represented their counterpart.

I wrote regularly though I haven't gotten any lately, as to how important it is? Depends on the person your with really.....

Human beings are sexual creatures, to completely remove yourself from that is almost surely a mistake. This is not to say we should oversensationalize this aspect of our natures. What I mean is if you enjoy it, do it, but just like in real life too much of anything can be unhealthy.

Some folks see no need to cyber as their needs are entirely taken care of in the offline environment. Some folks do as their needs are not fufilled. I take no shame in saying I seek companionship online, I live in a town where the male to female ratio is something on the order of 7 or 8 to 1, on top of that I work between 10-11 hours a day. The dating game for me is needless to say painful .

As to how potent cyber can be and not understanding it, it all depends. Depends on who's doing it, and how good your immagination is. If you can curl up for hours in front of a good book, and be moved by the emotions therin, odds are you can get arroused by chat as well. If your more of a TV than book person, Pixelslapping may be more your thing (however unlikely). Other types of people can't do much without tactile touch. Takes all kinds

Once upon a time, people wrote saucy letters to their beloveds. That's responsible for some of the finest love / erotic prose and poetry we have today. People always have, and always /will/, express their affections - physical and otherwise - through a written medium, as long as writing exists.

I voted 'tried'. I did.

More proof of concept and experimentation than anything else.

Amazing what people could do with:

llStartAnimation("motorcycle_sit");

(this was before custom animations were possible, obviously)

I voted "I only come here to cyber." cause the option was there.

I've never "cybered", other than the occassional and a little flirting....that's fun. But just wondering about this.....I'm happily married in RL so I think I might feel guilty in SL if it went to the next level. Is this weird of me to think of it in terms like that? I'm really curious..... What are y'alls thoughts? I'm open-minded so I'm not totally against it I don't think.....

Not weird at all... That sort of thing is completely up to you and your conscience. If you want to do it and it doesn't make you feel bad, that's great... If you feel bad about it, or it causes issues in RL, then it's not so good... but nobody's going jo judge you on it. *glares at people - you know who you are*

I think that those who "only come here to cyber" are less likely to be represented in the forum population then those at the other end of the spectrum.

I think frequent cyber is big for a *very* small portion of the population here, and yeah, I think it's overstated. The openly sexual side of SL isn't generally my cup of tea either - but I do enjoy teasing, flirting, and I'm not totally beyond cybering if the person clicks for me. But I'm picky and so I clicked the "rarely cyber" option

I do think its a side option for the majority of people who wouldn't normally do it with just *anyone*, but might, if the right situation presented itself. (with someone they really clicked with, and enjoy in all kinds of ways, not just sexual) But would more likely fall into a category of "rarely cyber" but do, when the situation is just right. I think this is a majority of SL'ers. They don't generally do it but will occasionally, in certain situations.

There's quite a bit of SL romance that goes on (hell look at the SL partnering/marriage business here - that's as big as the sex business I think and not to be discounted as connected) and I think it's silly to think they might not be having a bit of adult fun here and there with a special someone they enjoy a great deal, in the context of a normal adult relationship. No they don't have orgies or frequent sex parks usually, but I am willing to bet, this is where most of the SL sex goes on. Just look at the map late at night and wonder what all those little green dot pairs are doing...

I have to say some of the people make some very creative things for sex however I cannot take it seriously as I see nothing romantic or sexual between two avatars despite someone being behind the avatar. To a lesser extent I find it quite humourous but to a major extent it's actually quite disturbing if someone takes it serious and believes it will replace love. To me it is nothing more than an addiction someone suffers and it will only harm them in the 1st life. Other than that it's completely up to the person what they want to do.

Never wanted to try it. To me the concept seems absurd. Like some spoof of a racy film staring Barbie and Ken dolls. No thanks.

I suspect you're right, tho we're starting to see good numbers for both "rarely" and "regularly." I'm surprised by all the "never"s, though it took me over a year and a blatant proposition from the other party to get to "tried."

Hypatia, I'm not discounting relationship-sex, I'm sure that is where most cybering takes place.

My utterly unproveable hypothesis is that slightly more than half of SLers cyber rarely if ever, though an overlapping group of similar size have at least tried it. What's more, I doubt there's much variance among different av types--children, furries, etc.

I think it's worth considering, that while the sex scene is marginal at best in your typical MMO, like EQ or WoW, it's freaking huge in SL. I understand that 'text-based' has earned a certain popularity throughout the years, but when it comes down to it, it's a niche phenomenon. What's the reason for the invasion into SL? The graphics galore and all of its empty dreams.



Oh, for sure. And the game will be judged on how efficiently the tools can be utilised.



SL right now holds two major types of populations. There are the content creators and there are the sex fiends. If the latter disappeared the creators would be still be left. SL would survive of course, and return to the status of niche poduct with a few thousand subscribers.

For some reason I read that as 'spoon racing film staring barbie and ken dolls'.

More on topic: It's not about the animations. It's about the person to person connection. To me two avs bumping pixels looks rather silly but it's about what's in the chat/im more than anything else.

Hey, just because I create content doesn't mean I can't be a sex fiend!!!!111!!!ONEONE!!

*nods* I reckon that the "only cyber here to come" are more likely to be represented here.

/carry on humour.