RedLightCenter users issue growing wish list
Since I began covering RedLightCenter about a week or so ago, one of the more interesting places for me to spend time as an observer and MMO sex blogger has been the RLC forums.
What caught my eye several days ago was a recent thread in which a few of the paying members (VIPs) expressed impatience with the lack of variety as far as what they can do in-world. They were pressing RLC staffers to step up the pace as far as implementing add-on features, including everything from dance moves to places to go.
Generally, an RLC staffer responded by saying that new content requires time and needs to be perfected and not just introduced in slapdash fashion, which is completely understandable and reasonable.
It should be pointed out that not all users have had an urgent/impatient tone in the various threads where ideas are pitched. Many have just been calmly issuing suggestions, including ideas for animations for romance and spicier sex. What I personally wonder about is when and if I’ll be able to use whips and chains at some point. Also, where’s the guy-on-guy sex?*
But like I said, not all the suggestions are directly sex related. Users are saying they want a rewarding and interesting experience overall — one that doesn’t always have to involve the bedroom. What they are saying in essence, it seems, is that simulated sex can’t single-handedly make a virtual world go round.
Regardless, I would imagine the influx of ideas and demands leaves animations team members and content creators with their hands full, to say the least. I mean, at the risk of stating the obvious, in Second Life, users can satisfy their own needs and wants by creating their own content without having to wait for the next update to roll out. And if a particular Second Life inhabitant lacks the talent, time, patience or interest to whip up what they long for, chances are pretty good they can purchase something at retail that at least somewhat resembles what they are looking for. And in some cases, they’d even have the leeway to customize it.
I think one good question to ask in light of all this is: How long can RLC’s content creators keep this up? Is there a light at the end of the tunnel for them, or have they embarked upon a Sisyphean task? When does the list of kinks draw to an end, for example? Should the folks behind RLC just hand over some good tools so that users can supplement — or if not, supplant — the efforts of those who are working on content in an official capacity?
Fascinating stuff to keep an eye on!
* If all goes well, I should be doing an interview soon with an exec from Utherverse (maker of RLC) with regard to what’s in the works for upcoming features, including how BDSM and sex for gay males rank on the list of priorities.
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The real problem RLC has and will always have in competing with SL is that RLC probably has a handful of programmers and maybe a dozen artists and animators. They are certainly professional but they likely have no personal connection with the content. I mean how many gay animators are there? Or transgendered or BDSM oriented etc? How will they be able to provide that special content with the authenticity necessary to please those really into those things? SL on the other hand has thousands of animators and artists and scripters and personally invested in those specific lifestyles. This weekend I joined The Latex Dolls. Their “clubhouse” is beyond belief! If Michael Manning did science fiction more than fantasy he would have a world like that. The love and effort and man-hours that went into creating the Latex Dolls Clubhouse is something that RLC simply cannot match and they never will be able to. If you get a chance ask one of the Mistresses to give you a tour and you will see what I mean. RLC doesn’t have a chance.
Tess
“How will they be able to provide that special content with the authenticity necessary to please those really into those things?”
I concur somewhat. But I certainly wouldn’t sell RLC short just yet. And especially at this early stage, I definitely wouldn’t say that RLC “doesn‘t have a chance.” I’d personally never make a speculative claim of that magnitude without at least some hard facts to back it up. Also, RLC is still in beta launch, and so far, what I’ve seen has been impressive. But alas, time will tell.
By the way, on a related note (that I plan to bring up in a post later tonight), I’ve yet to see a T-girl avatar that looked like the real deal (in a virtual sense, anyway), even inside SL, where users — including transgendered inhabitants — have content-creation and customization tools at their disposal.