Bitten by the exhibitionist bug (an overdue pulp infusion)
Not that I’ve ever had any particular interest in this specific type of paraphilia, but I just joined a public sex group in Second Life. Who knew? Should be very interesting.
As far as the group goes, I’m guessing that what is meant by the word “public” is that organizers round up members for fuck-related events at places that are appropriate for such activities, as opposed to everybody fornicating at a simulated shopping mall or a virtual church or some other place inside Second Life where restrictions may apply. (Although I do love me some good old-fashioned blasphemy from time to time, be it in cyberspace or meatspace.)
But I am wondering, Do I bring a date along to these things? Or do I just show up scantily clad and then pick from the crowd? Or can I do either — or both, for that matter? It’s gotta suck if you just show up solo and find there are no interesting prospects in terms of potential partners. Then I guess one would just have to hightail it out of there via a teleport (a chief means of transportation inside Second Life.)
Speaking of public fucking, for the past couple of days I’ve been dropping by Heaven Above the Clouds, one of the more popular public sex sims in SL. Yeah, you’ve got avatars there just doing it with each other out in the open. You’ve got porn clips playing on video screens. You’ve got access to a cornucopia of pose balls, beds, sofas and sex rugs, and even a few BDSM contraptions. You’ve got sizzling hip-hop tunes pumping in the background.
It’s always a good turnout, to boot. Many among the crowd are newbies (freshly minted SL residents), which is understandable, being as probably one of the first things you want to do when you get into Second Life is get laid. Also aiding in the heavy showing of newcomers, I think, is the fact that Heaven Above the Clouds is so easily locatable via SL’s Find feature. All a fledgling SL inhabitant has to do is hit the search button in the Popular Places tab, and bang, there’s Heaven Above the Clouds listed about midway down the short list of SL’s most notorious points of interest.
Even if you don’t want to get it on, it’s an interesting place to people-watch — err, I mean, avatar-watch. One of my favorite sights to take in is witnessing the apparent culture shock take hold among any number of rookie residents as they get a load of the Sodom and Gomorrah-like atmosphere. You could always spot them, too, as they usually try to linger unnoticeably in the vicinity while stealing glances at some of the action around them.
Yes, Heaven Above the Clouds — it’s a paradise for voyeurs, exhibitionists and swingers. I give it two horns up.
June 26, 2006 05:07
I’m a veteran of both RL and SL public sex clubs, and also write about my SL sex-club experiences at my journal, jasonpettus.com. Thought I’d post a couple of responses to your thoughts here…
1) Definitely go to your first public event dateless; the point of such events for sure is to have sexual fun with complete strangers. That said, there are also lots of couples who enjoy attending such things together, then splitting into individual activities once arriving.
2) Since you mentioned it…yeah, also be prepared for the possibility of not having sex at all. And that of course is just one of the natural drawbacks of sex when it comes to this kind of environment — that most of us still fundamentally only want to have sex with people we’re somehow or another attracted to, even while in a group enviornment where random eroticism between strangers is -supposed- to be flowing like water. This sometimes happens, don’t get me wrong, both in SL and in RL; but more often (especially in the grid) there will simply be evenings where you don’t have sex at all, because you never did meet someone you found attractive enough to actually want to have sex with.
3) Just because you sound curious, I wanted to mention that there’s actually close to a dozen free sex clubs within Second Life; and much like general danceclubs, each has their own specific personality, with specific reasons to visit that club over the other ones. Heaven Above the Clouds, for example, definitely has more people in attendance at any given point than nearly any other sex club in the grid; but since the majority of these people are newbies and lurkers, I find it actually difficult there many times to find a partner I’m attracted to. And then there are other clubs that work the opposite — where you might not find very many other people at them at any given point, but the ones there are much more serious and dedicated to the subject of sex with random strangers. And then some of these clubs are not just public, but also dedicated to a specific subject; like BDSM or edgeplay, couples-only swinging and the like.
By the way, great coverage last week of the Sex in Video Games Conference! You made me all jealous I wasn’t there!
–Jason Pettus/Miller Copeland (SL)
June 26, 2006 07:18
Thanks for mentioning about the other clubs. I am aware of those, however. I’ve got some Flickr sets and reviews of a couple of them, in fact. You should drop by more often!
Also, my coverage of the conference was great? Yikes. I had fun with it, yeah, but I don’t know that I would characterize it as great, although I do appreciate your saying that.
Maybe next year it’ll have a more serious tone. This year I was just so giddy to be there, and I think that was reflected in most of the posts. Also, it was hard to cover the event, being as I had no access to the Net in the conference room, and had to hustle down to the lobby if I wanted to make a post, and then scramble back up so I wouldn’t miss anything, or so I wouldn’t miss the chance to meet or chat with certain people.
But yeah, I could see where my posts would have made you envious, what with all the digital and real-life flesh being portrayed in the pictures I posted, along with all the folks from the gaming industry and so forth.