Tuesday, April 28, 2009

well, are we adults now ?

Well, the Lindens have lifted part of the veils of uncertainty around the "Adult region" dabate. You can find the main article here (at the time of writing this, the heading of said article stated it was still being edited) and a FAQ list here .
Note that I say "part of the veils". The wording of both documents leaves much to interpretation. reading the list of criteria , for instance, we can safely assume that the Pearl does not "advertise or publicly promote" extreme violence, photorealistic nudity or explicit sexual acts. Pearl ladies do not hip around naked, engage in public fornication or decapitate innocent bystanders. But what is "publicly promote" ? there is a picture of our Dungeon on the premises. Is that promotion of extreme violence? Are the pictures of the other rooms promotion for sexual acts ?
Clearer to the eye is the rule that using sugestive search terms in the description of parcels can result in "Adult" designation. The Pearl calls itself a brothel and thus refers explicitely to sex. We do this, because we want to attract a public that is looking for that kind of entertainment. We do this also to warn people what they may expect to find. Not doing this is not an option, in my mind. Judging the examples quoted in the text, we would otherwise pass muster as "Mature", although the remark about the use of sex poseballs is annoyingly vague. Do our skyboxes qualify as "backrooms" ? I think not: our private rooms are not publicly available and therefore do not "publicly promote". the point is moot, of course, as we would still use the search tags, and on that point at least, the lindens are clear.
Supposing that at some point we would be branded as "Adult", what consequences would this have ? I can be brief about that : a lot of nuissance.
First off, an Adult parcel would have to be relocated to an Adult region. If the Mayor of Victoriana refuses to stamp the Harbour sim as Adult, we would have no option but to move. Would the Mayor be that cruel ? well, it is not a matter of cruelty, but economic sense. i will refer here to the second item on the list of nuissances : only age verified avatars (or people with payment info on file) are able to enter an Adult region. That would mean that some potential renters wouldn't be able to enter Harbour.
A nuissance for us too : some of the ladies and customers have no payment info on file, let alone age verification (which so far has always failed for me, as it is America-oriented and refuses to believe I do not live in a USA state). I can't be sure, but the recent mishaps where people could no longer enter Harbour because of an accidentally changed setting might be a foretaste of the havoc an Adult status change would create.
Bottomline : we would probably be tagged "Adult" and will need ways to adapt to the changed circumstances. I would also suggest that ladies and visitors alike start changing their payment info status , which seems the easiest way to keep your freedom of movement. If not you might find yourself mightily restricted when the Lindens implement this policy change.

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