Musings on Goth Hoochie Bling Collars

No point here - just random musings over a cup of coffee:
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I'm in a bit of a creative slump lately. So I decided to do a little exploring which usually inspires me. I spend most of my time creating.

Now I know I haven't been out much lately. But... when did the world turn into a huge goth hoochie bling collar shop? It seems no matter where I went I ran into shops selling one of the following:

Clothes
Jewelry
Skins
Sex 'fill in the blank' - everything from animations to racks
Poses and animation

Now I'm no prude. But it just seems like there is an excessive amount of this stuff. Is the market really that big? Is the majority of SL that vain and horny? Whats the average age? Mid 20's? I guess that might explain some of it.

Is SL shaping up to be the erotic 3D chat room game? I know the BDSM community has definitely adopted SL.

Now I'm not against all that or clubs. Heck I enjoyed the few clubs I visited. But, I've heard some newbies say "I am trying SL because I heard about the sex". Good-bad-indifferent, I don't know.

With the upcoming video capabilites are we going to see a boom in seedy adult theaters? I notice our existing porn video market leader (using texture anims) is still going strong. Seems like every telehub mall has an ad for it. Again, I'm not against it - just pondering here.

Whenever I try to explain/show somebody what SL is, I inevitably run into some form of sex this-that-or-the-other. Of course they fixate on it and I have to try to explain how SL is so much more than just a sex chat room. But, it is so prevalent that sometimes I wonder if I'm wrong about that.

I faintly remember Eggy quoting Philip along the lines of "Porn is the grease that oils the wheels of any new media" or somesuch. I guess that is where we are headed.

Anyhow I'm off to get my brand new manly man skin, detachable singing penis, clubbin' suit, bling bling necklace, male hoochie hair, animated kicks, goth tattoos then head to an underground d/s club to see if I can collar a hoochie and take her back to my place to play with my new 81 position sex position pose balls while watching a porno on my new TV (V1.6 video enabled of course).

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I hope you got a laugh - no offense intended.
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Hahaha... well I laughed.

"If necessity is the mother of invention, then pornography is the father!"
-Mr. Zephos

Maybe I should post my own thread on this but it seems that more people are willing to work to create so they can get paid because they are receiving less each week. They are receiving less because of non funded event hosting, and weekly pay. So these people may feel that they have to create something that sells and SEX has always sold well everywhere. MAYBE I am wrong, but it seems to be increasing rampantly. Just an idea I had about how things seems to be changing in our SL world. I used to go to other clubs and check out what they do and how nice things looked and the cute events they would come up with, the creativity. Recently, I went around to the same clubs and they are filled with laggin casino machines and sex balls laid all over with ready to pay escorts. I don't want to sound judgemental but is this really what all the clubs are going to now? I have a club for fun. It doesn't sell sex in any form, it sells laughter and great conversation to all. No cliches or specific groups or races. I try to make it comfortable to all. Maybe I don't understand how this is all suppose to work but I like what I do and people love it. If you choose to go the sex route, I wish you the best of luck. I feel you could be making alot of money at it, as it seems to be selling well. I will just be happy and broke. lol. (*These thoughts were only worth 1/2 cent, so don't bother trolling)

It's all Pirates fault.

http://theconvocational.blogspot.com/2004/11/sex-and-second-life.html

You are right that there are large sections of the population and regions devoted to cyber-sex. The BDSM and Furry scene seem to be pretty visible in SL because they have objects or AVs associated with them and thus have more stuff to sell.

I spent my undergraduate years at a school that might have been 25% greek (fraternities and sorrorities, not Greeks) but I just never really saw much of that because of the circles I moved in (geeks and philosophers). Similarly, I know that cybering is a pretty big part of some player's experience, but I bump into it not at all (unless you count noticing sex stuff merchants). Well, okay, the other night I went to someone's birthday party where everyone was in their birthday suit, but that was about as salacious as it got.

Hmm... "singing detachable penis", gotta get me one o' dem

Let's call it Porn Oil for short.

On PG land you get giant checkerboard floating particle spewing light flashing smoke belching ME ME ME builds. On mature land you get animated X-Rated house paint, whore houses and dildo stores.

Although I like the idea that I can buy a virtual dildo if I want to (although I don't have any pressing need for one at the moment), I don't want either kind of build right next to my lovely little Second House.

(Well ok, sometimes you get giant checkerboard floating particle spewing light flashing smoke belching ME ME ME builds on mature land too. But I don't see as many.)

I think part of the problem is that the default avatars are so damn sexy. I think its a rally nice feature of SL that I can secretly zoom in on boobs without you knowing it. Its better than mirror shades at the beach. Wondering around in a world of half naked supermodels, its hard to stick to puritan thoughts.

So to combat this problem, I suggest we petition Linden to revise the avatar parameters so that you can't make such sexy avatars.

Naaaaaaa, let's not.

Buster

Next time you need a break and are wandering in need of coffee stop by the my diner. No shouting of numbers, no money (or sex) balls, just coffee, breakfast and chat. Still, I can't let go of the idea of opening a soup kitchen to comfort the masses of unemployed. Maybe jobs in the sex industry are a better alternative.

You know, even I have purchased a sex aparatus or two. Have I used them? Not as of yet.. Maybe I'm just too old school and prefer the text to the comical movements of a ungulating avatar. I had 2 thoughts when I saw the realtime streaming video first hand in the 1.6 preview. The first was XXX Movie Theaters, the second was XXX Movie rentals. Granted I'm a dirty man, and that would be one of the first things I would think of.

But then I got to thinking.. How long until someone figures out how to stream a webcam into SL? Next thing ya know yer gonna be having movies of RL genitalia all over SL.. It's going to get interesting, that's for sure.

-- Torley: You sure hit it on the head with that quote.


"If necessity is the mother of invention, then pornography is the father!"
-Mr. Zephos

lord i hope not, though a certain amount is too be expected. Thankfully not everyone on SL is a horny 19 year old.

like everything, we may get saturated at first, but if it is absolutely everywhere the novelty will prob wear off and people will get bored, take down their videos, and move on to something else.

hmmm...instead of porn, we can have something **really** controversial up within SL -- like Spongebob videos!

(kidding, disclaimer, not suggesting that we load copyrighted material within SL, no your honor i did not intend, but your honor didn't you see, ummm... DOWN lawyer! DOWN! BAAAAAD lawyer!)

dammit, now i need a new pair of pants...

Whenever I need to supress my urges, I just think of Sponge Bob. Does the trick every time.

I dunno, I make skins not 'cause I enjoy av sex, but because I think it makes the avatar look better

Gonna have to agree with this post, and pretty much everything said in the thread. When I first found SL, there were events of all types at almost all times of day. Now I'm lucky to run into one event that isn't Tringo or playing dress-up in some club. (I don't incredibly mind the Tringo, given that I'm good at it. It does get old after a while, though...) Texas Hold'Em is somewhat catching on, but people seem to be waiting on the no limit table version before they host more events.

I try not to believe that it has to do with the removal of the event payments, but it does seem to coincide with that. Another thing I notice is that while there are a lot of fun builds all around the world, nothing is ever hosted on them. (Barring the temporary setting up of a Tringo or bingo board.) That one can only be solved by those that hold events and those that own those builds. Still, it seems like these things are lending themselves to the game drifting into wearing an outfit with at least partial nudity to a club, setting a dance animation and going AFK, unless you can find a Tringo game and still have a desire to play it.

In case it seems like I'm drifting off-topic, the events and the Goth Hoochie Bling style (not just collars) seem to perpetuate each other. If people are going to events in game on the idea that the only thing to do in SL are things they would never do in real life, they also wear clothes to those events that they would never wear in real life. The GHB style fits both the theme of most of said clubs and the psychology. (You might not notice it so much if everyone took GHB outfit components and put them together to look as cute as I do... just ask anyone who sees me often in-game. )

Unless this was the direction LL wanted SL to move in, it might be a good time to re-evaluate their plan and do things to encourage either a better variety of events or events more targetted to their userbase. The data is kind of skewed in-game - these events are the only thing to go to. That's not a choice of the attendees, that's a choice of the hosts. Maybe a poll would be useful - "If you could choose any type of event, which would you go to?" - listing naked avatar contests, GHB theme club events, and other types of stuff that I can't even think of because it's been so long since I've seen then...

Ah but if you try running other events people don't attend...

People seem not to attend events unless there is prize money - and they *know* what to expect. I've run creative events and sexiest thong in green type events and the latter always has a bigger turnout.

Involve sex in an event and you at least double the turnout as well.

This sort of lowest common denominator stuff is what the public wants - as sad as it is.

Different subcultures may want different things but you can't lose with sex and free money.

And yes the changes in event support have made it worse - you either throw your own money at it - or get a sponsor (Anshe etc). You can't be a self-employed events host any more.

good idea.. for our group's (space pirate armada) next event, perhaps we could make a "sex box" that all the horny crazy pedophines could sit in and go at it in, and the walls of the "sex box" would be so thick no one would notice as they go about enjoying the event as what it should be. (advertise the "sex box" as a "get together place for our more mature friends"




I wonder.... since when did the word "mature" aka someone who is capable of taking responsibility and such.. immediately be in reference to crazy stupid imaginiary internet sex.

Hey, dude, get offa my cloud. I happen to kinda dig imaginary computer sex. well. sometimes. and, aside from my collection of etch a sketches and lightbrights, i'm generally considered mature. ;-D

Hmmm...I don't get the "There are no events" gripe. Personally, I'm involved in a build contest, regularly attend a popular quiz where there aren't even many cash prizes, and if I want to play Tringo I can always find a game (yes, it does get old if you devote your life to it, I'm sure, and I'll bet you feel kind of silly, too). I occasionally attend or teach classes, too. All in all, I find the events list mostly unchanged since event support ended, except that there are fewer no-content events based solely on pulling in $Lindens.

Believe me when I say that this is coming from a completely sex-positive place, but good lord, people don't really dress like this!

What I mean is this: it's really hard to buy clothes in this game that aren't, well, slutty. Now I have my share of slutty clothes and I wear them at times; there is nothing wrong with them. Its just that occaisionally you want something more normal to wear. Like a shirt that extents below your belly button, for example. About 98% of the womens blouses available are some variation of the "tube top" or some type of halter. Maybe more clothing designers should try making some normal clothes for a change. Just a suggestion.

I prefer the term "sexy" over "slutty", but maybe that's just a male point of view

Many avatars in SL represent what their users wish they were, not who they really are. My avatar looks like it does a lot of sit-ups. So people who make clothes are thinking about what people wish for. That may be why the clothing selection is not very realistic.

If there's a market, the goods will appear. One would hope.

Buster

So these stores are pretty much like RL malls. Sure malls dont sell 'skins' but they sell products to enchance or improve the look of your skin or to tan your skin. TONS of media and products about sex are available in RL malls. Sure you dont have poses but you have media like magazines, books and tv that influence the way people 'carry' themselves, dress and act. Not sure why gambling was left out, I was begining to think SL stood for SLots. SL is like concentrated RL powder with alot of the more 'attention getting' aspects of it in high concentrations. Ever notice the lack of flat chested women in comic books? Same thing. If you have a second life and more control over it, why would you create Ward and June Cleaver?

My avatar looks like it does a lot of sit-ups, too. As does it's rl counterpart since, well, it does alot of sit-ups. But the rl wardrobe is the reverse of sl, porbably only 10% revealing versus 90%. Most of the time you just want to be casual and comfortable and chic and still look good. My favorite sl shoes are my converses. Wore to Chinatowns closing, didn't want aching feet with all the dancing.

It's funny that people are saying that the virtual sex aspect is somehow a bottom-feeding (no comments on that please!) step-child of the glorious posibilities, but it's really a complicated issue that this virtual role playing helps untangle. I haven't experienced any cyber stuff here (I'm still stuck on the welcome island while I trade out my pre-panther mac to a XP PC) but I will see what is up with all this, should be fun!

Of course, you know, there was a SHITLOAD of sex in SL BEFORE the economic changes. But what do I know.

I do plan on designing clothes eventually, and I'm going for Japanese street fashion first. Most of that stuff will fit the call for non-Goth Hoochie Bling style. I've seen tons of stores that copy major American retailer styles (including trademarked logos), so if you can't find boring (but "fashionable" clothes to wear, you're not looking hard enough.

As for events... the overuse of sex in events is why you don't get people to show up. Here's what I would try if I had both the time and money for this... I would set up a trivia or other game (something not Tringo or poker) in a PG sim. I would put up a sign detailing the rules and prizes outside of the building the event is held it. (Or somewhere everyone can see it.) Nudity, language, or disruptive behavior would get a swift boot and probably permanent ban from the event (if I intended it to be regular.) Something like this does exist in the game currently and gets a decent turnout - Payment Podium. The problem is that it only runs once a week, and we're stuck with naked avatar contests for the rest of the week.

Funny coincedence, as I just posted some comments along these lines in another thread (see /invalid_link.html).

I don't like the darth of beautiful non-slutty outfits too. And I really would like to see the situation changed. Not, that I want the slutwear to dissapear. I just want more shops that sell beautiful, classy clothing like that you'll find in the better shops in RL. Additionally.

I don't have big hopes, though. SL is - for most residents - some way to fulfill dreams, to live a life that's different, more satisfying and enjoyable than RL. For me too. So they like to make their avvie beautiful - or to make it stand out from the crowd. Same with me.

Problem seems to be, there are a lot of young girls online (and men posing as young girls, it seems) and there seems to be a large group with them for whom the concept of 'beautiful' in an avvie seems to tend to the slutty, or at least sexy side. Don't get me wrong: I see a lot of beauty in attractiveness to the opposite sex, too. And it feels good to wear sexy clothes to me. But there are other concepts for beauty, too. I like to be sexy too ... sometimes, not always. I don't want to sound to old (I am ) but there are other forms of female sexieness to me than showing a maximum of skin and sporting an avvie with D cup breasts.

To all of those out there, who never tried it out: A well cut pant suit, a medium length tight skirt, a full length silk blouse CAN be quite attractive to the opposite sex! Even some of the younger specimens ...

This is definitely not how the opinion of the majority of residents feels. So a designer of clothes - even someone whose own concept of beauty is somewhat more stylish - who wants to earn some L$, better targets this majority. I fully understand that from a business point of few.

I just wish, that there were a least some designers testing the waters if there might not be a small market for some more classy womens clothing ...

And please ... not only formal wear. There are a lot of really nice formal dresses available in SL (THAT seems to be a market). But it just feels a little (no, not a little, 'very') awkward wearing a dress with a large prim skirt, while doing some experiments in a sandbox.

Heh damn, i definately didn't remember SL as being like this when I took a break a year ago... so where's the sex at? heh seriously though, I guess that's what people want and hmm nothing wrong with goths btw