Friday, April 10, 2009

We are all Adults ! Ehrm... are we ?

You probably heard it. If you didn't, I recommend waking up from your winter slumber. The Lindens are busy implementing changes that will introduce a new concept. We had "Parental Guidance" (PG) and "Mature", now a new status will be defined to discern regions (and later parcels) from each other : "Adult". In brief, Adult regions will be reserved for places with sexualy explicit material.
At the core of this development is the idea that visitors should be able to decide whether or not they want to enter that club where people are tortured, raped, maimed or undergoing a whole range of other eyebrow raising activities. The Lindens are not forbidding sex per se, just making sure everybody knows what (s)he will find at the other end of the teleport. While this sounds laudable, one of the measures proposed did cause me to blink. Several times. Adult places might be forced to move to a new, Adult Continent (nicknamed "Ursula"). From blinking it was but a small step to worrying . Would the Pearl be forced to move ?
The answer is likely "no". First off, forced moves would only be enforced on land that is controlled by the Lindens (i.e. the Mainland) and we took up residence in a private sim. Unless the Mayor of Victoriana decides to lose us, there is no reason for us to move. Second, part of the Pearl ethos is that we do not publicly show sexualy explicit material. Private rooms where explicit activities do take place do not count and our rooms are far away from accidental view. It takes quite some effort to reach them and the security system keeps prying eyes away.
That still leaves questions about what exactly would be the difference between "Mature" and "Adult". Admit that this is not evident at first sight. Let's quote Blondin Linden :
"Are there any clear, uncontroversial, unanimous agreed, examples of activities which are "mature" but not "adult"? ANSWER: Nude beaches, Dance clubs with "alcohol" and dancing, combat sims, lingerie shops, private builds with furniture and accessories."
I suppose the Pearl would qualify as a private build and therefore "Mature". The definition of this boundary is far from clear, by the way, as freely admitted by the Lindens. Does it matter if the Pearl should be marked as "Adult" ? Yes, it does, judging this quote, also from Blondin Linden : "Adult content can not be advertised on non-Adult land, so if you want your content found, it needs to be on adult land."
"Found" in this context is "found in the Linden search engine"; we do want to be found, so if we are marked Adult, either the whole sim should be Adult or we must move. We may take it for granted that residents in Victoriana harbour will react squeamish to the idea that their parcels can be mentally associated with the extreme debaucheries that cling to the whole concept of "Adult". To be honest, so would I. An "Adult" Pearl would be avoided by our target audience and ridiculized by the people that frequent the other establishments.
To be scrutinized, closely....

1 comment:

Alweezin Paine said...

I suppose that the only outward visible "Adult/Mature" aspect of Club Pearl is the word "brothel". And even that can be argued to have the same "warning" function as the adult or mature label.