Simulated intimacy in SL vs the world ..

[Aethelwine]

9 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Maybe they need to combine adult activities with the concerts, to make sure everyone is happy?

My intan used to have adult animations in and the TIS the dances. The regulars always got a laugh out of new couples joining us and finding that out in the middle of the dancefloor 😀

[Ayashe Ninetails]

4 minutes ago, Bagnu said:

That's my point. Giving people the choice of what they want to do in SL. NOBODY is horny %100 of the time.  If we can get people to log in when they are, for sex, and to login when they aren't, for something else, would be the ideal in my mind. The point is to get them joining, and logging in,  no matter what their reason is.  And for those who don't want sex, they don't have to partake, or go to places meant just for that. 

I fully agree with you. I think if they find a way to put an adult spin on a lot of different activities (I'm only using music as an example at the moment since it's already been proven to attract large crowds, damn near break Twitch a few times, and generate social media buzz), we'd be able to carve out a fun niche here.

There have not been, from what I've seen, any fully adult concerts. Lyrics and everything get censored because of course they do. That's one place LL could go in a different direction. There are a million other forms of entertainment where LL could pivot to a more adult direction - film/movies, art, dance, theater/plays, literary events, stand-up comedy, etc.

I don't have any interest whatsoever in just hopping on sex furniture (I'll be honest - it's so terrible and the animations make me LMAO every time 😂), but I'd absolutely attend a good raunchy comedy show. 🤣

[Ingrid Ingersoll]

2 hours ago, Bagnu said:

I totally agree. This has been a huge part of it for me!!!

Not me. SL has always been a creative outlet for me and not about sex at all. I get the way I use sl is not the way everyone does but I'd be sad to see it marketed as purely a place for people to get off to. 

I also think as someone else pointed out, that if they did, the expectation would be that if you're in this place, that's what you're here for. I'm not in sl to make anyone come*. SL is a place where I don't have to care about anyone expectations of me as a woman and I can do what I want.

Edited June 24, 2023 by Ingrid Ingersoll

[Hunny Bunny]

3 minutes ago, Ingrid Ingersoll said:

I'd be sad to see it marketed as purely a place for people to get off to

Where is this coming from? Who's saying it should be? I don't think anyone is advocating for SL to be marketed "purely" as a place to get off or "purely" as a place to listen to music or "purely" to create whatever.

[Coffee Pancake]

12 hours ago, Gabriele Graves said:

I don't have any objection to LL promoting adult activities in SL as long as it's tasteful and doesn't focus solely around sex and make the service look like a porn movie lover's literal wet dream.  That said, if LL had advertised such things even tastefully when I found out about SL, I would have been highly unlikely to have made an account.  Now that I'm here, it's somewhat different.  LL have to consider things like that.  They may gain on one side and lose on the other.

I think you're over reacting and forgetting who LL are.

It took the better part of 20 years for LL to openly state that one might "find friends" in SL, and even then it's only in relation to 2 community pages. They have spent far longer and expended significantly more money trying to trick companies into having remote SL meetings (you know, rather than a video call that takes no time and effort to set up).

 

One would think friendship would be a long time corner stone of the entire platform marketing push, but no .... even the 'find love in Second Life' stuff they do is aimed at keeping the existing userbase engaged far more than anyone external. 

 

LL's marketing has almost zero reach, I mean .. that's actually impressive for a company that has an entire marketing department that have there own keynote slot at SLB, presumably to tell us about all the secret stuff they've been doing. Google "Second Life 20" .. and .. and .. there are 2 (1,2) sites mentioning the OG metaverse is 20 years old, and one of those is a press release or a PR agency .. I mean .. spectacular.

 

I want more steps on the part of LL to acknowledge and embrace the efforts and activities of the single biggest core group on the platform.

I am not expecting a full page advert in the NYT "Second Life has Sex it in! - Sorry it took us so long to notice. ❤️ LL"

[Coffee Pancake]

32 minutes ago, Ingrid Ingersoll said:

I'd be sad to see it marketed as purely a place for people to get off to. 

You're going to be sadder still when you find out just how much external marketing LL do.

Really. LL don't advertise. Stop imaging some world where they suddenly do AND put sex it on.

From my OP (typos included)

On 6/16/2023 at 11:35 AM, Coffee Pancake said:

Can we stop being ashamed of the massive adult community ?

Can LL start to put some effort into addressing the systemic problems that have undermined such content in SL since say one? (like the simplistic animation system)

 

[Bagnu]

34 minutes ago, Ingrid Ingersoll said:

Not me. SL has always been a creative outlet for me and not about sex at all. I get the way I use sl is not the way everyone does but I'd be sad to see it marketed as purely a place for people to get off to. 

I agree with you. I don't want that either. As I write this, I'm working in substance painter and 3DSMAX, creating something for our Island, and to sell. Then, I'll log in to test them, and maybe have sex later. Sl is a creative outlet for me. Both artistically, and sexually.  I'm promoting the variability of choices. 

[HeathcliffMontague]

"SLex" is just a part of SL for me. As is building, creating, exploring, driving, sailing, interesting conversations with folks from all over the world, hanging out with friends... But it's just a part of it. Nothing I shy away from, nor anything I'm obsessed with or normally seek out. It's something that happens at times when you live your SLife. Another spice to SLife.

[Hunny Bunny]

Targeted advertising exists for a reason and it's everywhere. Your web browser uses it constantly to generate ads specifically based on what things you've searched for. Someone could be looking for erotic stories and discover that SL has actual roleplay communities devoted to it and once they're here they find there's also art and music, architecture, simulated nature, and a whole world of opportunity. A lot of what people think they know about SL's adult content is coming from age-old stories, TV shows and memes that don't show SL in a positive light and from what I see here a lot of people are okay with that.

[Gabriele Graves]

15 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

I think you're over reacting

[Arielle Popstar]

9 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

You're going to be sadder still when you find out just how much external marketing LL do.

Really. LL don't advertise. Stop imaging some world where they suddenly do AND put sex it on.

I might have seen one advertisement about SL on an external site a couple years ago but other than that, zilch. Quite a difference in comparison to IMVU where I see ads for it regularly though I am already a member of it. My first inkling of a world called Second Life was word of mouth in a Facebook world called YoVille and then even more so from IMVU friends.

The reason for that I think is that as much as it might surprise us, SL is really not looking for too many more residents, sexual or otherwise. One thing I have learned from Opensim is that as concurrency increases, server load increases exponentially with the attendant rises in malfunctions and lag. In that latest video Philip mentions SL has "tens of thousands" of servers which to me was an interesting statement considering this world needs that much computing hardware to service "tens of thousands" of concurrent users. If 1 server is needed for every one or two inworld resident that would explain to me why the Lab is not big on a lot of advertising with the risk of needing supporting hardware at that sort of rate. They would therefore be really only interested in new users who are going to be coming in to buy land or at the very least get a Premium subscription.

[Sammy Huntsman]

1 minute ago, Arielle Popstar said:

I might have seen one advertisement about SL on an external site a couple years ago but other than that, zilch. Quite a difference in comparison to IMVU where I see ads for it regularly though I am already a member of it. My first inkling of a world called Second Life was word of mouth in a Facebook world called YoVille and then even more so from IMVU friends.

The reason for that I think is that as much as it might surprise us, SL is really not looking for too many more residents, sexual or otherwise. One thing I have learned from Opensim is that as concurrency increases, server load increases exponentially with the attendant rises in malfunctions and lag. In that latest video Philip mentions SL has "tens of thousands" of servers which to me was an interesting statement considering this world needs that much computing hardware to service "tens of thousands" of concurrent users. If 1 server is needed for every one or two inworld resident that would explain to me why the Lab is not big on a lot of advertising with the risk of needing supporting hardware at that sort of rate. They would therefore be really only interested in new users who are going to be coming in to buy land or at the very least get a Premium subscription.

I mean I saw many articles, since Zuckerberg was talking about Meta. SL, Roblox and Fortnite got tonnes of free press, due to Zuckerberg's idiotic idea. Lol. Sorry, but it was. I mean he spent billions of dollars on something, that absolutely failed. 

[Arielle Popstar]

Just now, Sammy Huntsman said:

I mean I saw many articles, since Zuckerberg was talking about Meta. SL, Roblox and Fortnite got tonnes of free press, due to Zuckerberg's idiotic idea. Lol. Sorry, but it was. I mean he spent billions of dollars on something, that absolutely failed. 

Well my Yoville and IMVU experience was 15 or so years ago and mentioned SL in the sense of it being a great adult community where they had working male parts! That is why I am here.

[Coffee Pancake]

2 minutes ago, Arielle Popstar said:

The reason for that I think is that as much as it might surprise us, SL is really not looking for too many more residents, sexual or otherwise. One thing I have learned from Opensim is that as concurrency increases, server load increases exponentially with the attendant rises in malfunctions and lag. In that latest video Philip mentions SL has "tens of thousands" of servers which to me was an interesting statement considering this world needs that much computing hardware to service "tens of thousands" of concurrent users. If 1 server is needed for every one or two inworld resident that would explain to me why the Lab is not big on a lot of advertising with the risk of needing supporting hardware at that sort of rate. They would therefore be really only interested in new users who are going to be coming in to buy land or at the very least get a Premium subscription.

There is no 4D chess to this.

LL don't spend money on advertising SL. You can hear this from the VP of marketing directly at last years SLB, he will likely say the same this year while talking about all the exciting not-advertising they are doing.

LL are in no way "trying to stay small". They want growth even if it breaks everything. Those are good problems to have.

Small creators are hurting badly. Private regions are in decline. They just reactivated mentors. We really are bouncing along the bottom and trying to put a brave face on things .. while the dev side performs a mad sprint to try and make up for 10 years stagnation and technical debt to update the core engine and make a mobile version.

 

[Hunny Bunny]

9 minutes ago, Arielle Popstar said:

Well my Yoville and IMVU experience was 15 or so years ago and mentioned SL in the sense of it being a great adult community where they had working male parts! That is why I am here.

Same, and IMVU had working male parts but they were contraband and after the music ring thing I blazed out of there never to return.

[Sammy Huntsman]

Just now, Hunny Bunny said:

Same, and IMVU had working male parts but they were contraband and after the music ring thing I blazed out of there never to return.

Ngl, I first came here cause I read an article in a business magazine about Anshe Chung. Signed up got in and couldn't find my way around or even get out of mainland. So I got bored and well came back in 2011. Yeah I didn't know what I wanted to do, so I just winged it the whole time. 

[Arielle Popstar]

1 minute ago, Coffee Pancake said:

There is no 4D chess to this.

LL don't spend money on advertising SL. You can hear this from the VP of marketing directly at last years SLB, he will likely say the same this year while talking about all the exciting not-advertising they are doing.

LL are in no way "trying to stay small". They want growth even if it breaks everything. Those are good problems to have.

If they are not spending money on advertising, they are not trying to grow. End of story. Reactivating mentors and the mobile viewer are small things that are costing them little and at least makes it look good but if they aren't putting the word out, at best it results in a slightly better retention....maybe.

[Arielle Popstar]

4 minutes ago, Hunny Bunny said:

Same, and IMVU had working male parts but they were contraband and after the music ring thing I blazed out of there never to return.

Yes same, I got tired of buying special rooms and having them ripped from my Inventory every few months until I got mad enough I braved through the steep learning curve here. That was what motivated me.

[Luna Bliss]

8 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

LL don't spend money on advertising SL. You can hear this from the VP of marketing directly at last years SLB, he will likely say the same this year while talking about all the exciting not-advertising they are doing.

That is just not a fair analysis, Coffee. They are applying their talent to those already within SL.They have spent countless hours watching Oprah and Marianne Williamson YouTube videos so they could convincingly encourage us to be mentors via "paying it forward" and "feeding our soul".

[Bagnu]

2 minutes ago, Arielle Popstar said:

They would therefore be really only interested in new users who are going to be coming in to buy land or at the very least get a Premium subscription.

The only issue with what you're saying, is turnover rate.  To be sustainable, and profitable, SL has to have enough residents (spending) to meet a target net income for LL.  People leave, and new residents are needed to fill in the income gap.  Not enough residents, and SL will fold.

Does anyone actually know how many servers are used, and the resident/server ratio?

[Luna Bliss]

1 hour ago, Hunny Bunny said:

1 hour ago, Ingrid Ingersoll said:

I'd be sad to see it marketed as purely a place for people to get off to

Where is this coming from? Who's saying it should be? I don't think anyone is advocating for SL to be marketed "purely" as a place to get off or "purely" as a place to listen to music or "purely" to create whatever.

To add a serious post to my previous tongue-in-cheek one, the problem is that if you advertise sex or relationships on the internet the general public will THINK this is what's being advocated -- a crude type of sex, like porn.  This is why we need to be careful advertising either sex or relationships to the public...because if we did...this would attract those who want crude sex...and it would indeed become what Ingrid described.

[Coffee Pancake]

Just now, Luna Bliss said:

To add a serious post to my previous tongue-in-cheek one, the problem is that if you advertise sex or relationships on the internet the general public will THINK this is what's being advocated -- a crude type of sex, like porn.  This is why we need to be careful advertising either sex or relationships to the public...because if we did...this would attract those who want crude sex...and it would indeed become what Ingrid described.

But they don't advertise and that's not what I was asking for.

 

[gwynchisholm]

42 minutes ago, Arielle Popstar said:

Well my Yoville and IMVU experience was 15 or so years ago and mentioned SL in the sense of it being a great adult community where they had working male parts! That is why I am here.

What got me into SL was smallworlds, which had a describable “passive” furry scene. The game had monthly collectible items that were like animal suits, not really a furry avatar but close-ish.

And someone mentioned SL, which I had heard of before but not really explored, had this whole massive furry community with more detailed avatars for that. And that got me here, pardon a gap and then back here again. So like showing up here and not only seeing that community is here, but there’s also an adult oriented aspect to it, that was very interesting. I think attributes like that draw people in from other games when they’re looking for something more than what their platform of choice offers, and then they see the rest and it cements that in more.

I think a lot of the less public Smallworlds staff and big name players came here when that game closed too, I see a few people here in old forum posts with names I remember.

[Luna Bliss]

11 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

14 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

To add a serious post to my previous tongue-in-cheek one, the problem is that if you advertise sex or relationships on the internet the general public will THINK this is what's being advocated -- a crude type of sex, like porn.  This is why we need to be careful advertising either sex or relationships to the public...because if we did...this would attract those who want crude sex...and it would indeed become what Ingrid described.

But they don't advertise and that's not what I was asking for.

Even advertising the real relationships that occur within SL would be a problem. I just don't think the public is ready for that yet, as it's on the internet where porn is, and so they see it that way.

Bellisseria is perfect -- couched as a game -- people playing house, setting up homes.  This is what should be advertised more.

BTW, there are loads of people in SL who see the potential of virtual realities as as an amazing venue for people to understand themselves through relationships. They are in that SL section of the population you like to make fun of by imagining they see themselves as the "better people".  This is what we should be advertising, people into virtual reality who already have the societal seal of approval (those who are or were in various academic professions).

[Hunny Bunny]

6 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

Even advertising the real relationships that occur within SL would be a problem. I just don't think the public is ready for that yet, as it's on the internet where porn is, and so they see it that way.

Bellisseria is perfect -- couched as a game -- people playing house, setting up homes.  This is what should be advertised more.

BTW, there are loads of people in SL who see the potential of virtual realities as as an amazing venue for people to understand themselves through relationships. They are in that SL section of the population you like to make fun of by imagining they see themselves as the "better people".  This is what we should be advertising, people into virtual reality who already have the societal seal of approval (those who are or were in various academic professions).

If I want to play The Sims I'll go play The Sims.