CNN iReport

I live in SL London and recently a new sim, Soho, opened. An excellent description of Soho may be found in Janey Bracken’s ireport (http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-306062). A new sim is a big undertaking to begin with, and as this one is an adult sim, a departure from the other London sims, I was curious as to how the London team decided to approach the creation of such a place. I spoke with one of the builders, Menolly Reiderer, who introduced me to ozzie Maggs, a person with experience in the escorting and dancing side of Second Life and now an advisor to the Soho team.

Ozzie arrived in Second Life a little over two years ago. She had no real knowledge of what SL was all about, in fact she first heard about it when listening to the radio. After having been in Second Life for a short while she met and became friends with an escort. Through this friend ozzie learned about escorting and eventually became one herself. Ozzie also works as a dancer, which is not the same as escorting. Dancers work in clubs and are paid by tips. A good dancer, as ozzie is, talks to her clients while dancing, thereby creating a personal link between the dancer and the client. Many clients return to see favourite dancers and spend quite a bit of time and money on them. Communication between the dancer and client is in open chat, which can serve as a way of enticing others to join in and also spend time and money. An escort, on the other hand, actively chases after potential clients, making the initial contact by private im. By chatting in im with the potential client an escort is able to attract his or her attention and also discover whatever preferences the client may have. If all goes well the escort will be hired. Dancers can also be escorts but are not necessarily.

Having been involved in the adult side of SL for a while now, ozzie has developed very strong ideas on what makes a well run and successful adult club. I asked her to show me some well run places and also not so well run places, and explain what made them so. Before we set off on our tour, ozzie gave me an overview of the adult club scene and what to expect.

First of all, BDSM is a significant part of the adult club scene and so ozzie explained certain aspects of it. She started off by saying that a Dom (male) or Domme (female) is the dominant person in a relationship. A submissive is someone who has been collared by a Dom(me) and who must do what the Dom(me) commands. For the relationship to work properly the submissive must have complete trust in the Dom(me). Good Dom(me)s know the limits of their submissives and work within those boundaries, but there are some bad ones who will try to break them, and this can be one of the very dark sides of Second Live. Something called a restrained life viewer (rlv) may be used. This gives one person control over another, if the second one accepts to use this viewer. Once an avatar has accepted the rlv a Dom(me) can do such things as block im’s, or not allow tp’ing (although they can still log off), which the submissive then cannot do unless he or she switches to another viewer. Certain aspects of BDSM have entered the club scene and BDSM equipment can often be found in adult clubs such as the Phoenix in Soho.

Ozzie then took me to a club that she considers to be well run. It is popular, with 60 dancers on the payroll. The owner has rules the dancers must adhere to, for instance the amount of money that must be in the tip jar before the dancer removes her top or all her clothes, as well as rules of behaviour. For example this owner does not allow BDSM in the club. The owner is friendly with her employees, but will fire those who do not meet the standards of the club or behave according to the rules.

The rest of the places ozzie took me to were not as tightly run. One was a sim for meeting up. When an avatar tp’s in he or she is almost immediately surrounded by escorts im’ing and trying to catch the avatar’s eye. It seems a bit chaotic and confusing for one who is not expecting it, but an interesting experience nonetheless. One of the escorts read my profile and discovered I write for different blogs, so she began chatting to me about writing and invited me to interview her. This was her way of attracting me as a client, to initiate a conversation related to my interests and single herself out from the other escorts. Any escorts can work in this sim, there does not appear to be a manager overseeing the activity or maintaining standards.

We next visited a BDSM sim. Again, this sim was open to everyone who wished to come in and use the equipment. Some of the avatars in there were bots provided by the management for visitors to interact with. When we visited there were not many people present and not much atmosphere either, so this type of place must survive on chance discovery and the need for a constant stream of visitors, rather than the development of a community clientele.

Finally we visited one of the free sex sims, which is probably how many people not in Second Life imagine SL to be. In this sim pornographic movies played constantly while people dropped in to pick up freebies, such as attachments to help in sexual activity, and then engage with other like-minded individuals. There was even an avatar who was posed on a sofa with a sign above her head saying she was afk but available if anyone was interested. Technically this person was an escort, but certainly a far cry from any of the other individuals we met in the other sims.

Ozzie has now left escorting but continues to work as a dancer, which she enjoys. She is opening a school called “Waltzing Matilda”, to train newcomers to the adult business scene, teaching them how to work with clients and in general how to be prepared for this side of SL . She also continues to work with the Soho team as an advisor.

The adult side of Second Life is famous and in some ways overblown. It is possible to live in SL and never encounter it. You don’t have to participate if you don’t want to, and still have a very fulfilling SL. However there are people who wish to experience the adult aspects of SL and like any business a demand will eventually create a response to supply these services. As with any business adult enterprises can be well managed or badly managed. Sex sells, and it can sell very well indeed to the benefit of clients and workers if approached in a clear-eyed way.

After our tour was over ozzie and I talked about what we had seen and what it is like to be part of the adult industry side of Second Life. She said “Having been in the business so long I have made lots of great friendships. A wide variety of people work in the industry here. People forget there are real hearts and minds who come here. I like to think an avatar is a person’s heart and soul. You can’t reach out and touch them but their heart and soul drives the avatar so in that respect you see the personality of the real person behind it, good or bad.”

1. ozzie Maggs

2. ozzie standing outside her school Soho W1 London (97, 109, 22)