Sex in Second Life Part 1 (NSFW)

With the worldwide attention the SexGen lawsuit's been getting, I thought this would be a good time to give readers who are new to (or unfamiliar with) Second Life a taste of what sex and BDSM is like in our little virtual world. In this first chapter we'll take a look at sex beds, including the SexGen series and its competitors. This article is also accompanied by a video that demonstrates the products mentioned.

An Introduction to Sex Beds

A sex bed is a piece of virtual furniture that contains a variety of animated poses that enable one or more avatars to engage in different romantic activities. Almost all of the beds work in a similar manner: You click the bed to bring up a menu and choose a pose that suits what you would like to do on (or near) the bed. After you make a selection, the bed generates the appropriate number of differently-colored "poseballs." Each participant "sits" on a given poseball by right-clicking the ball and picking a command in a little pop-up menu. This moves your avatar into position and triggers the associated animation.

The main thing that distinguishes a sex bed from stand-alone poseballs or a single-use piece of sex furniture is that it is multi-purpose. It's one bed that can easily switch between different animations though a menu-driven interface. This reduces poseball clutter and conserves prims. (For those new to Second Life, a "prim" is the smallest individual piece of an assembled object in Second Life. Each piece of land in the game can only support a maximum number of prims, so furniture that serves more than one purpose- or that looks good without using too many prims- is very desirable.)

SexGen

The famous SexGen line, designed by Briggi Bard and marketed by Stroker Serpentine, is certainly the most common form of sex bed- so much so that "SexGen" has become a generic term in Second Life that refers to any sex bed (likely to the chagrin of Serpentine and company). The thing that sets the SexGen line apart from others is the large number of options in terms of preloaded animations. You can purchase either a fully-assembled SexGen bed or a "base," which is really just a little cube that you link to an existing bed of your choice to provide SexGen functionality. Pose sets are available in different packs- for example you can get a Boy/Girl pack with heterosexual positions, or a Girl/Girl pack for lesbian poses. You add new animation packs to your SexGen bed at any time by setting the pack down next to your bed and running through a simple one-time upgrading procedure. Strokerz (Stroker's store in the Eros sim) also sells fully pre-loaded SexGen bases that contain all available poses. I purchased the SexGen Platinum last year for L$12,000 (around $44 USD at the time), and placed it in a lovely modern bed from Virtual Modern Designs. While SexGen bases and the various pose sets are pricey, they're high quality and generally stable. SexGen is also the only line of beds I know of that includes animation sets for three or more avatars out of the box.

Note that all major sex bed lines are customizable in varying degrees, meaning you can add your own poses purchased from other vendors. While it appears to be possible to add your own poses to a SexGen bed, it's a rather complicated and (to my knowledge) undocumented procedure, requiring a lot more notecard editing than is required for competing products. Unless they've made updates since the SexGen Platinum of last year, SexGen also does not support some common features like facial animations, Xcite/Sensations arousal, or Lockmeister/LockGuard support (all topics to be discussed in future articles). They're just poseballs.


devPose

Riann Maltese's devPose beds are both gorgeous and flexible. She doesn't sell animation packs separately like you can get for SexGen beds, but you can add your own animations for up to six avatars. The devPose line is easily the most customizable of the bunch. You don't have to edit any existing notecards to add your own animations; instead you just drop in the animations and a new notecard based on a provided template, edited to reflect the correct settings for your pose set. devPose beds have full support for LockMeister, Xcite!, Sensations, and facial animations, making them more flexible than SexGen and also more attractive to BDSM enthusiasts.

If you wish to use your own bed, a separate devPose base is available, just like with the SexGen line. You can find devPose products at Riann's store, Deviant.


MLP

Multi-Love-Pose (MLP) is an open-source menu-driven sex bed system developed by Miffy Fluffy. MLP-based beds work the same as devPose and SexGen, but they're limited to a maximum of two avatars, and there is no support for advanced features like you'd find in devPose. The price is right, though- there are many free MLP-based beds floating around out there (I can even give you one if you IM me nicely) preloaded with a few animations, and you can add your own. The customization process for MLP beds is less complicated than for either SexGen or devPose- but this is partly because of MLP's simplicity.

A word of warning: I've seen a number of freebie MLP beds on sale around the grid for L$900 or more. Shop wisely or you might find yourself paying lots of L$ for something you could have gotten for free elsewhere. The following picture is the freebie "Maroon Sex Bed" which I have seen people reselling at different spots:


Sensations

Since Earalia Nolan dissolved her Mistress Knows Best line to join forces with Amethyst Rosencrans's Sensations, the pair have set out to directly compete with Second Life sex juggernauts Xcite! and SexGen. In addition to expanding their selection of scripted genitals, Sensations has made their first step into the realm of multi-pose furniture with the Love Wave. This is a 2-prim scripted device running a version of the MLP scripts modified to support Sensations arousal and facial animations. Adding your own animations is relatively easy, since it's based on the MLP system, but it also has some of MLP's limits: 2-avatar max, no Xcite! or LockMeister support.

The Love Wave, like both devPose and SexGen, includes some cute cuddle poses for intimate downtime:


LockGuard

Lillani Lowell's LockGuard development kit started out as simply an easy way to provide LockMeister-style animated chains and leashes for BDSM products. Well I've heard that the next major release of the development kit, LockGuard 3, will include MLP-style support for poseballs, making it one step closer to an all-in-one solution for designers of erotic furniture. The relative ease of developing LockGuard-based items indicates that LockGuard 3 is going to introduce a lot more players into Second Life's sex bed market.

Recommendations

• SexGen is great for people who have a lot of money to spend and aren't interested in supplying their own animations. You can get preloaded SexGen beds that include a ton of poses, including some for 3 and 4 avatars.
• devPose is my personal favorite, because the pre-fabricated beds look fantastic, and because it's easy to add my own animations. Also, the Xcite!, facial animations, and LockMeister support help add some realism and additional role-playing flexibility. They're less expensive than SexGen, but come with fewer animations out of the box. Finally, with support for up to 6 simultaneous avatars (when you add your own animations), devPose is an obvious choice for those into group scenes.
  
• At only 2 prims, the Sensations Love Wave is an awesome option for people with very strict prim limitations. It's got more features than the freebie MLP beds, but it's not yet as flexible as devPose. Last time I checked, the Love Wave cost half the price of one of the pre-built devPose beds, so it's a good compromise.
• MLP is the way to go for people on a budget. No frills, but customizable to some extent, and you can't beat the price.

The Video YouTube Doesn't Want You To See!!!

To support this article I produced the following film with several of my slaves. It features (in order), a Lap Dance chair by Ilana Debevec (not mentioned in this post), a SexGen Platinum-based bed, the devPose Classic bed, the Sensations Love Wave, and then a series of devPose BDSM pieces that we'll cover in a later article. I uploaded the video to YouTube last week, but after two days and 2,000 views it was removed for adult content. I now have it up on the web site PornoTube, but I don't think they support embedding, so here it is, hosted from my own site. Be warned that it is explicit. Enjoy.


FreeVideoCoding.com