Virtual reality sex worlds...

[Philsl]

Does anybody know of any virtual reality hardcore sex worlds?
Something along the lines of saints and sinners or second life

[ScreaM]

Bump .

[Varzi Network]

The current VUs like Second Life cost over $10 million just for the graphics engine then you have to build the game which can take 3-5 years for a BETA. No one is going to risk that type of investment considering how terrible Second Life is doing. Being new it had tons of hype which they proved the best these games can do is cost players big bucks to keep them running. Advertisers have just about given up because there is no use paying for virtual billboards virtually no one will ever look at.

Most games that are made for adults end up later being toned down for ESRB teen ratings approval when they realize how little money is coming in. FPS games sold in the US are even removing blood because the ESRB restricts that to adult only. Then we have the UK following suit and making similar restrictions. Pretty soon they will ban crashes from racing simulation games because it can spur excitement.

I really dont understand what you would get out of a Sexual VU anyway. Most people would rather just watch an Anime flick.

[flip]

Is this the type of thing you mean..?

http://www.redlightcenter.com/flashtour.asp

I have a few banners up - no sales yet

[tolik]

Originally Posted by flip

Is this the type of thing you mean..?

http://www.redlightcenter.com/flashtour.asp

I have a few banners up - no sales yet

looks like second life. i downloaded game few days ago - but it does not work at win98se what i currently using for work. and i so lazy or not too much interested for install winxp only because of one game

[Varzi Network]

That looks pretty interesting im suprised anything like it really exists. I just cant see it having a very long shelf life since the market is pretty limited.

Have you checked it out and do you know if its like a Sim or a real VU that expands over time?

[flip]

Sorry man - no idea - I think I found the banner on a site I traded with took a look and had a couple of banner spots free and thought it was worth a run

[Philsl]

Thanks for the info Varzi. I wasn't thinking of starting one I had just read an article that the industry is worth $1billion per annum and just wanted to check it out. I now understand why there are so few hardcore VW's out there with an entry cost of $10 mil.
I found these though
www.naughtyamericathegame.com
www.sudocity.com

[tolik]

second link does not work for me

[Varzi Network]

The costs to build a VU will go down in the next few years but right now technology is on the cutting edge. So much is changing right now with DX10 and developers who want to be successful have to remain backwards compatible with DX9 for XP users. Plus by going the DX10 route your engine works on X-Box too since Microsoft wants developers to push gamers in that direction for them.

[Philsl]

Originally Posted by Varzi Network

The costs to build a VU will go down in the next few years but right now technology is on the cutting edge. So much is changing right now with DX10 and developers who want to be successful have to remain backwards compatible with DX9 for XP users. Plus by going the DX10 route your engine works on X-Box too since Microsoft wants developers to push gamers in that direction for them.

So any successful online VU will cross over to Xbox using DX10. Thats has got to be good for a hardcore adult VU.
I like the concept of the redlight centre.
Do you develop games for the pc and mobiles?

[Mihx]

Originally Posted by Varzi Network

The costs to build a VU will go down in the next few years but right now technology is on the cutting edge. So much is changing right now with DX10 and developers who want to be successful have to remain backwards compatible with DX9 for XP users. Plus by going the DX10 route your engine works on X-Box too since Microsoft wants developers to push gamers in that direction for them.

Neither Second Life nor this Red Light Center thing are anywhere near cutting edge technology in terms of graphics though.
The Second Life graphics engine is ugly as hell and would probably have been feasible six or seven years ago, at least.

Of course the reason they've had to settle for something that looks like utter shit compared to even a low to mid budget PC or XBox 360/PS3 game (hell, even compared to a Playstation 2 game, though of course comparing singleplayer offline games to MMOs isn't quite fair), are the limits the mostly user created content sets in terms of particularly bandwidth but of course also all the advanced building and scripting tools available to users.

I don't know if Red Light Center tries to emulate some of the creativity features of Second Life, or if the seemingly equally ugly graphics on display here are simply due to budget limitations?

Now a virtual sex world with the graphics of something like Assassin's Creed or Bioshock - that would be neat .
Or, since we're seemingly talking about online rather than offline games, the slightly more modest levels of something like Lord of the Rings Online or the upcoming Age of Conan.
Of course that's probably not likely to happen for a sex sim/world for at least another decade - unless they can manage to license a powerful graphics engine (should be possible for less than half a million dollars), and build on top of that.
Somehow though, I can't really see Epic Games licensing out Unreal Engine 2 or 3 for use in a virtual sex game .

Edit: I just remembered something I read about a month or two ago - Sony Home for the PS3. Graphically it looks like it's gonna be pretty decent.
Here's a trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyquAXKeEI0

[Philsl]

If we leave the licensing of the Epic game engne to one side.

I think a virtual sex world with graphics like the ones on Lord of the Rings Online site would make serious money.
Taken that some major adult studios spend millions on film productions I would have thought they would have got into the vritaul sex world arena.
I don't know the exact cost to produce a virtual sex world but using the figures quoted approx $1-$1.2 million would cover all developement and advertising, including getting the engine license.

What type of options would you think would be good for a virtual sex world?

Imagine a Virtual Playboy Mansion World, you take the guise of Hugh Hefner and play with your playmates.You would have a captive audience to upsell too.

[Varzi Network]

Originally Posted by Mihx

Neither Second Life nor this Red Light Center thing are anywhere near cutting edge technology in terms of graphics though.
The Second Life graphics engine is ugly as hell and would probably have been feasible six or seven years ago, at least.

Do a search for FarCry they have a new Engine its cutting edge. Its going to be used in Entropia Universe and many other dated games. But if you understood the complexity of whats in these games its not like other multiplayer games. The players are making things happen and the worlds are evolving where most older technology like WoW is static. So changes in these older worlds requires constant development cycles and world events to expand the universe and story background.

For example in Entropia players can discover DNA strands and migrate herds of mobs to their land. Some lands contain very exotic animals and others are fluff for noobs to grind on. Currency is released into the world based on real dollars being put into the economy. You can setup shops with virtual billboards and signs to advertise that make use of real world multi-media content. None of this requires anything from the developer side its fully automated aside from the usual tweaks that all games have.

There was an MMO originally backed by Atari called Horizons it was years ahead of its time. Yet the game never turned into much of a success due to limitations in technology and lag. Parts of the world were dynamic and players actually built most of the world themselves. The drawback was MAJOR lag in heavily populated areas which is still a problem with any game using dynamic content. To this day the game is still running and some of its features still put WoW to shame.

But even if you have the best graphics it wont automatically bring you most of the market. Runscape is a prime example its almost like Legends of Zelda and still has a huge market share in Asia.

Philsl im not a developer im a man with a passion (addiction really) for games.

[Varzi Network]

Originally Posted by Philsl

I think a virtual sex world with graphics like the ones on Lord of the Rings Online site would make serious money.

Lord of the rings was a total failure.

[Mihx]

Originally Posted by Varzi Network

...

But even if you have the best graphics it wont automatically bring you most of the market. Runscape is a prime example its almost like Legends of Zelda and still has a huge market share in Asia.

Philsl im not a developer im a man with a passion (addiction really) for games.

The reason I consider graphics of great importance in a virtual "sex world" is of course because sex - or porn at least - is a very visual thing for most people, so having close to life like characters would certainly be a great benefit in my opinion.
And obviously having nice looking environments (including lighting, textures and all that) to match the characters would obviously be a big plus.

Second Life obviously has to live with the graphical tradeoffs because of all the user created content that has to be streamed, but I think a virtual world with sexual interaction wouldn't necessarily need those user creation features - or customization (character or otherwise) could be based on developer created prefabs of high quality, and obviously pre-installed with the game client as well to avoid the streaming related tradeoffs.

And yep, I'm an avid gamer - offline and online - so I am aware of all the titles you listed, including the upcoming Crysis.
From a virtual sex world, I could certainly accept a whole lot less in terms of graphics and still be more than pleased .

[Mihx]

Originally Posted by Varzi Network

Lord of the rings was a total failure.

I think it's a tad too soon to claim it a "total failure", it's only a few months old afterall. I can't count the number of times disgruntled players have declared MMO X, Y or Z dead, yet they still have thriving - if not necessairly large - communities.
I certainly enjoyed many aspects of LotRO (not least the graphics) significantly more than WoW - and I don't think anyone, not even Turbine - ever expected WoW subscription numbers.

I quit playing though - but I always do that . I've yet to find a game (with the exception of a few racing sims) that's been able to hold my attention for more than a few months.

[slaxxx]

Well in a sexual MMORPG, people would just exchange virtual money for real money? So everyone would basically have credit card processing just from signing up? It seems to me you could sell access to a room (sorry I don't know these MMORPG terms) with access to a members area, and that's it.

Can any MMORPG players clarify that?

[Mihx]

Originally Posted by slaxxx

Well in a sexual MMORPG, people would just exchange virtual money for real money? So everyone would basically have credit card processing just from signing up? It seems to me you could sell access to a room (sorry I don't know these MMORPG terms) with access to a members area, and that's it.

Can any MMORPG players clarify that?

Sounds to me like you're thinking in too traditional terms here - at least if by "members area" you're referring to a sort of in-game paysite upsells.
While that's certainly an option, I think you main source of income should or would be from recurring subscriptions for access to the game world (not unlike regular MMORPGs, though I imagine you could probably charge quite a bit more with a virtual sex world).

Other things to make money from would be to charge additional real world money (converted to an in-game currency bought on the website, just like with Second Life, or in-game secure billing if that's an option) for access to various services inside the game world, and eg. for customizing your character with clothing or various bodily features bought in virtual stores, or even furnishing your own virtual home if that's a feature of the game world.

[slaxxx]

Yeah but I'm not gonna develop my own MMORPG- so the subscription money for access to the game world only goes to that one company. But if there's a virtual currency in the game that is worth something in the real world, then there's money to be made for webmasters.

I guess I'm just not seeing how you can jerk off and play an MMORPG at the same time, so what would the point of a sexual MMORPG be if not to get porn in the game? Would enough people really pay for a large virtual penis that you could make a business out of it lol?

And if you sold access to camgirls or something in the game and charged virtual currency for it- that is still giving everyone credit card processing.

I realize there was gambling on second life but now that's banned- so just selling virtual clothing/body parts/whatever doesn't seem that worth it to me in an adult MMORPG. Maybe people really would buy that, I dunno- seems like a strange thing to get enough people to buy for this to be worth it.