Reporters Lag Lounge, Ponder Playboy Philosophy
by Pixeleen Mistral on 13/06/07 at 9:55 pm
SL sex palaces seem safe for now
by Jessica Holyoke
On June 12, the Playboy island opened on Second Life. When the Herald first reported Playboy’s anticipated move to SL, the majority of responses asked what possible place the indigenous SL Sex Palaces would have with actual professionals coming in. I was one of the few respondents suggesting that, due to the Playboy Philosophy, there might be more to the island than strippers and sex. Sadly, both sides were wrong.
When I arrived at Playboy on Tuesday, the first thing that rezzed was a placard describing the live musicians performing during the opening events. Wandering around the landing point, the first items you see are signs for clothing and accessories that are both available for your avatar and available for your real life typist. I saw earrings and jewelry that I could purchase in SL and from the RL Playboy store.
Exploring the island, I found other items Playboy-branded available for sale including surfboards by the Surf Shack. One of the concerns about having Playboy in SL had proven to be true. Most of the focus was in marketing the brand to the residents – such as placards directing residents to Playboy’s cyber club, which is their RL on-line content. An interesting cross-promotion, but one I did not check out because the weblink appeared to direct to the join page.
Hitting the upstairs lounge on the first day, I was surrounded by people, a large number of whom were reporters. Due to the huge numbers of residents there, I did not want to try turning on the music stream. But I did attempt the video and watched interviews with Hef’s Girlfriends at the Palms in Las Vegas and noticed various points in the Lounge had the Palms logo on them.
Bring your own pose balls?
One of the storied aspects of Playboy I was hoping for was the Grotto. After a great deal of searching, I found the water-themed cave. And I was vastly disappointed. First, the cave was an opening with a simple waterfall. Second, the real grotto is described as a place of potential debauchery. Upon looking for the hidden pose balls, I discovered that lovers could come into the grotto to hug and sit. Going around the island, there were many hidden pose balls for hugging and dancing. For a magazine closely associated with sex, there was very little sex going on.
Playboy parties are known for bringing out the celebrities. And in the grotto, I did get a chance to meet Gideon Television, Sadako Shikami and TheDiva Rockin. Sure they are bloggers and Gideon and TheDiva are former BigBrother contestants, but in Second Life terms are they any less famous than James Caan or Seth Green?
Some residents I talked to were disappointed in the lack of inspiration of the designs, thinking that the builders could have done better. Does SL really need another surf/jazz lounge? Only if Playboy is willing to spend the money to bring in new musicians or new content would the island be worthwhile.
In my research in anticipation of the island opening, I learned Playboy is planning to publish SL editions of the magazine. I see possible trouble in the casting call – the publishers asks for SL photos and RL photos, both face and full-figured. I have to wonder — how many applicants provide both and how many of the beauties of SL match what they look like in RL?
Prokofy Neva
Jun 13th, 2007
Quite the world, innit, when they have to send in Playboy to clean it up.
GW
Jun 13th, 2007
Jessica Holyoke wrote – “I have to wonder — how many applicants provide both and how many of the beauties of SL match what they look like in RL?”
Well Tenshi Vielle comes to mind she seemed like a bit of a cutie RL from that pic of herself I saw way back when, so that would be a close match to her SL one.
Oh and Sabrina Doolittle had that RL picture of her from that article a while back – she looks like she has potential with a little makeup etc to fit the bill.
Or an even better idea – get them together RL and SL for a double spread I think that’s something they would go for no?
Gideon Television
Jun 13th, 2007
Who the fuck is Seth Green
The Diva
Jun 13th, 2007
OMG! I’m FAMOUS! LoL.
Anyway, for the lack of a spontaneous orgasm upon my arrival, the Matthew Ebel (Hali Heron) concert followed by DoubleDown’s dance party really left me with a warm fuzzy.
~The Diva
Gideon Television’s #1
Jessica Holyoke
Jun 14th, 2007
Seth Green
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Oz
Austin Powers: Scott Evil
Family Guy: Chris Griffith
Robot Chicken: Creator, Writer, voice actor
Can’t Hardly Wait: guy who had sex with girl from “Six feet under”
Artemis Fate
Jun 14th, 2007
“Quite the world, innit, when they have to send in Playboy to clean it up.”
Heh, well I don’t think there’s any dirty mag that goes as far as stuff seen in SL. Playboy is about as clean as it gets with the naughty pages.
Also, I have no idea who any of the celebrities you listed are. Guess I need to get out more.
Doubledown Tandino
Jun 14th, 2007
Kinda odd that you came to give a review of an entertainment event and you didn’t even attempt to turn on your audio stream.
Lewis Nerd
Jun 14th, 2007
I have yet to find someone who *is* impressed with Playboy Island.
Interestingly enough, it’s listed as ‘mature’ but the ‘adult content’ tab is not ticked. Does this mean that Playboy have an ‘exemption’ from the ‘broadly offensive’ guidelines Daniel listed on the blob, or that is setting the standard of what is acceptable for non-verified users to view?
Either that, or a mistake.
Lewis
Tenshi Vielle
Jun 14th, 2007
So, come on, out with it. Who was the development team for Playboy Island?
Also, GW… you’re hallucinating.
aces high
Jun 14th, 2007
I feel it is my duty to tell the woner of this paper that Miss Natalie Niven and Mr Rawley Rousellot have resigned from there jobs at sl newspaper.com.
I like many readers had never laughed so much at what this dynamic package of fun posted on those pages.
Can we get them here …..Please ,i was hooked and i need the hit of what natalie did next
Seth McFarlane
Jun 14th, 2007
Seth Green is a wanna-be.
Now – Seth McFarlane – there’s a celebrity worthy of praise!
Gideon, your days as a celeb ended for me when you stopped doing the Hunter Thompson thing. Please, more.
…and now a word from our sponsors.
Jessica Holyoke
Jun 14th, 2007
I’m so glad to be responding to an article that I’ve written.
To Artemis, I took some of the people I met at the island as celebrities because they were in SL Big Brother. I didn’t watch either SL or RW Big Brother, but I hear that both groups are relatively famous. Unless you meant who is James Caan and Seth Green.
To GW, I have no doubt that there are avatars that are very beautiful women in RL and SL. My point was more directed to the many SL women who’s beauty matches their insides, but the outsides are not quite the same in RL. Plus, just because you are willing to take your clothes off in public in SL, doesn’t mean that you are willing to take your clothes off in public in RL. But I’m sure the people you mentioned are lovely.
To Lewis, I just double checked the land and there is no “Adult content” tab yet to be checked. Additionally, there would have to be adult content in order for that to be applicable. The only adult content I saw was the link to the Cyber Club website, which is outside of SL.
To Doubledown, I’m not a music critic anyway, so my opinion wouldn’t count for much. (Can you really trust someone who’s influences include Guns n Roses and Debbie Gibson?) One of the reasons why I included the schedule of events placard in the photos I submitted was so that other people could see who was playing there. Also, I could barely move at times and I didn’t want to crash.
SqueezeOne Pow
Jun 14th, 2007
Yeah…not surprised. I maintain that most RL companies will fail in SL because they think in RL terms which do not translate.
I think SL is safe for a while until someone figures out how to tie RL products in with SL and make it work in a way the regular internet doesn’t already.
Good review overall, though! Makes me wanna go to the RL Playboy mansion!
Huge "dissapointment" Hurrrrfurrrrrrrrrrrrrnnnnuuuuuur
Jun 14th, 2007
“So, come on, out with it. Who was the development team for Playboy Island?”
Hear all about it from the “man” himself, interviewed by the Miss Piggy of the Whore 100 [better read http://www.ericrice.com/blog/?p=505 to find out more about this little cabal]
-> http://www.managingthegray.com/2007/06/12/playboy-comes-to-second-life/
I dunno…you think these guys [it's always guys no?] sit in a circle playing with each others dicks…
Nacon
Jun 14th, 2007
“the publishers asks for SL photos and RL photos, both face and full-figured.”
Hahahahahahahhahahahhaha… ahh sad perverts don’t seem to realize what kind of people are on SL.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Pixeleen, Uriz, Prok, and Tenshi signed up for that fantasy crap, which crave for attentions.
Nacon
Jun 14th, 2007
PS: oh… and their sim look like crap. Not worth for another quick visit.
Artemis Fate
Jun 14th, 2007
“To Artemis, I took some of the people I met at the island as celebrities because they were in SL Big Brother. I didn’t watch either SL or RW Big Brother, but I hear that both groups are relatively famous. Unless you meant who is James Caan and Seth Green.”
Ah, I never even bothered to acknowledge to existence of big brother in SL, much like I do to big brother in RL.
Incidentally, I went to the sim, it seems really sub-standard for a professional corporate sim, as far as I can tell, no actual publishing company was behind it, just a few individuals and at that, no one i’ve particularly heard of. Really it’s amazingly bland, it’s just a store, a club, and a few choice locations, and none of them are particularly wow. The store is a bag of laughs though. They charge hundreds of Lindens for their pants, shirts, and jewelry (not all together mind you, each). I think some of the shirts were 400L$, and some other things were even up to 600$, just for one article of clothing.
It is kinda funny, that this international symbol of sex is one of the tamest areas compared to the rest of SL. They don’t even have nude pictures on the walls, that’s almost a required staple in most clubs these days.
Jessica Holyoke
Jun 14th, 2007
To Artemis,
Your comment may point out one of the sad things about the Playboy sim. You cannot fault IBM and Nissan as much for having substandard builds because they don’t make content, they make computers and cars. Playboy is a publishing company and they are more interested in being a clothier. I was slightly off put by being asked to pay $950L for Playboy earrings and necklaces when people would have to really zoom in on them to see them.
Prokofy Neva
Jun 14th, 2007
Jessica, you’re failing to understand how the system works, and you’re going to have to triple check, and accept that you didn’t understand it, or get its history.
Indeed, there already is a NEW check that has been installed as an option on every single land menu already, and now the search has been changed, too. This was put in a few weeks ago when the Lindens first started talking about makimg a correlation between a checkbox for “mature” and “adult verification”. Indeed it is there.
That NEW checkbox indeed says “mature content” and that *means* adult content — this is not to be confused with sims with the rating “mature” or “PG” already given to them from birth on the auction on the mainland, or awarded to them by owners of islands. This is about *parcels* you can *toggle* — ratings on the mainland given by Lindens can’t be changed.
This check-off box then will make a parcel show up on search.
Before this change was made a few weeks ago, for many years, you had to make sure to check off “search in mature regions” in SEARCH PLACES to get it to pull up all the Mature, i.e. non PG region parcels put in search. That function then was dumped.
Generic searching now pulls up all regions in both mature and PG as sim designations. For example, all Ravenglass Rentals parcels in SEARCH in either PG or Mature now pull up with a search on that term. Only those parcels checked off “mature” will NOT pull up.
NOW what the checkbox for search called “search in mature” does is pull up *only those parcels* marked mature — for 18 and over adult content.
GW
Jun 14th, 2007
-In response to GW, Jessica Holyoke wrote “My point was more directed to the many SL women who’s beauty matches their insides”
- yes i know what you mean I just brought up the two women as they have both had RL pictures posted to the Herald in the past.
- and you also mentioned – “But I’m sure the people you mentioned are lovely.”
Well they are sorta well known here on the Herald I believe
- Tenshi Vielle is a op/ed poster of articles to this very site – reporter? well maybe.
- Sabrina Doolittle is part of the duo that write for what I assume is a very popular SL style blog called Lindenlifestyles.
- And I know they would get along famously based on a glowing (snicker) op/ed article Tenshi wrote about Sabrina a while back, it received 100+ comments and made for very entertaining reading (a bit hard on Tenshi maybe)and caused me among others vist the lifestyle site (well put together I thought though not tailored to guys much).
- oh ya insert “sarcasm” tag here for those that are out of the loop and/or think I am serious
Sadako Shikami
Jun 14th, 2007
It was lovely meeting Jessica in the Grotto and posing with her on Gideon’s lap! Great article, btw – my friends were all wondering at my pan of Playboy in SL, it’s good to know I was not the only one underwhelmed. Of my entire exploration of Playboy island, my time in the Grotto talking to other SL residents was the most fun. I think that sums it up.
I was hoping to see Playboy bunnies aplenty, the kind that look like the real thing … and was disappointed. It may be that they’re using the freebie “height meter” to keep them at 5’7″ to 5’11″? I could have smothered them with my bosom, and I’m considered short in my trade.
I joined the casting call group to catch some of the chatter, and heard quite a lot of desperate avatars hoping to be bunnies or Playmates, with rumors of $50,000L to the first virtual Playmate, published in the SL version of their magazine. I’d love to see that casting call, since SL is full of way-better-than-Playboy women. I see an E! Show called “Pixel-Girls Next Door” in the future!
However, the requirement of a RL photos and ID put me off: I love my privacy. I’m just a 29-yr-old work-at-home mom who lets her inner-20-yr-old out to play in Second Life. Definitely not Playmate material. Now, if Hustler opens an island … I’m in there!
Jessica Holyoke
Jun 14th, 2007
So lets start this again,
Lewis stated that Playboy had “Mature” ticked off but not “Adult Content.” I went back to the island and I did not see an option for “Adult Content” although I did see an option of “Mature Content” which was checked. I’m sorry that I looked for “Adult Content” and not “Mature Content.” I guess I should have not been so literal when people tell me things. But that also means Lewis was wrong in his original post that “Mature Content” was not ticked off because it is. So other reasonable people are confused about these terms.
And in all honesty, when I saw the “Mature content” tab in search,I took it to be the same “Mature region” option that was always there in Search.
So at this point, I’m agreeing with Prok, but wondering why I missed the changes or if the changes were not well publicized.
For me, this raises many interesting thoughts, why is there a “Mature Content” option now, in addition to a “Mature Parcel” rating? Why confuse the two terms? If the Lindens meant adult content when referring to age verification, why not label it “adult content”? Because now, we have “Mature” areas, but these “Mature areas” may have “Mature Content” but they may not? And more people would know what “Adult content” means over “Mature Content.”
So thank you Prokofy for pointing out another bad Linden policy implementation.
Prokofy Neva
Jun 14th, 2007
The Lindens view it as “making more granularity” by bringing “mature down to the parcel level” and don’t see it as a contradiction.
dannyboy lgihtfoot
Jun 14th, 2007
I made it along for long enough to have a quick look around. it was disappointing.
I switched on my music channel, but was amazed to discover that the music was as banal as the video
all in all the Playboy island looked like the worst SL has to offer – a lag-heavy party where a bunch of people get together to celebrate a bunch of people getting together. i’ll be bacj in 60 days time :L)
Stacey Sugar
Jun 14th, 2007
The SL Playboy website had a sign up form which you entered your email address and they would send you an email when their island was live. I didnt receive anything, and my junk email filter had been turned off :/
Lewis Nerd
Jun 15th, 2007
“But that also means Lewis was wrong in his original post that “Mature Content” was not ticked off because it is. So other reasonable people are confused about these terms.”
Click on the land tab at the top of the screen, Options, there’s a tickbox for “Mature Content”, which Playboy clearly is, and it’s *not* ticked.
Incidently, neither is the “Show in Search” box. I mean, that’s a fundamental basic requirement of anywhere that expects to attract visitors.
Traffic… 4337 at present… I used to get half that daily on my tiny sandbox. Not what I’d call entirely impressive either.
Somebody needs to give Playboy a lesson in Second Life marketing. Clearly they didn’t do their research before or during the build.
Lewis
Jessica Holyoke
Jun 15th, 2007
Actually, this is interestingly going back and forth on that Mature Content tab.
When Lewis asked about the Mature content, I went back and checked and both “Show in Search” and “Mature Content” were checked. I know because I looked at “any category” near “Show in Search” to see if that’s what you meant by adult. I went back there today to see if there was something else that you were referring to and found both boxes unchecked. Someone is toggleing the options on and off.
Lewis raises a somewhat good point. In my article, I reported how the main options of Playboy are very non-sexual, the big selling points of the location were clothing with the bunny logo on it and music, and that otherwise, there was not much going on. However, the feeling seems to be that because the island is called Playboy, its automatically “mature content.” Why? Is it because of the magazine that is being heavily promoted? Because neither the old show “Playboy After Dark” or the newer TV show “the Girls Next Door” are considered 18+ only. Just because it has a Playboy label, doesn’t make it “Mature Content.”
MSGiro Grosso
Jun 15th, 2007
For starters, all of those who are looking for who was responsible for building it I say use your super sleuth SL investigative skills, find the sim owner and read his profile. It’s not hard to locate the information. On top of that if anybody Google’s “Playboy Second Life” in the news section you’ll see who in the first sentence.
I’m happy to talk about the decisions that have gone into getting Playboy into SL with anybody who asks, but I think the easiest way to sum it up is like this:
If you’re a fan of Playboy and it’s content, especially the Playboy Advisor, then you know that they advocate taking it slow and easy opposed to blowing your wad right off the bat. Who wants to act like the virgin on prom night? Playboy is taking their time over the long haul. So we start with a brand experience, which we knew would have its critics, but by the time this is over we’ll get you closer to the exclusivity that is Playboy like has never been done before. Did the critics think THIS was really all it was going to be?
If anybody is curious as to what’s going to happen next then join the “Official Playboy VIP” group in SL. That’s not self-promotion. It’s just an easy way to get the straight dope. We already have a couple hundred members so hop on the train. Sales have been very strong and real traffic (not the crazy SL #) is in the thousands after 48 hours. We’re all pretty happy with it and this is just the start.
Marc
Lewis Nerd
Jun 15th, 2007
Did we think that this was all that Playboy would be? So far it’s more than many people want.
Lewis
Jessica Holyoke
Jun 15th, 2007
Like it or not MSGiro, what was presented was how Playboy in SL was it started. A major media company comes into Second Life after weeks of anticipation to give us nothing more than we could really already experience. That’s not the way to build exclusivity. Why come to Playboy when you can come to dozens of others similar sims? Other than being ‘Official Playboy’ there was no other draw to the sim.
dannyboy lightfoot
Jun 15th, 2007
When I first saw Playboy were coming into Second Life my first thought was that they would be an obvious fit in a world in which you can enlarge your penis for a pittance and blow your load with a sexy seductress who happens to be the playfully articulate alter ego of a 19 stone programmer from Arkansas.
Having visited the (frankly underwhelming) island during the launch it occurs to me that Playboy are actually going to have to work much harder than most other metacorps to find and sustain an audience in Second Life. There are so many people here already doing what Playboy do, and doing it free from the constraints of being associated with a credible(ish) real life brand.
I hope MSGiro is right and that Playboy is playing a long game. I checked out what was on offer at the launch party, and it felt worryingly like everyone had got together to celebrate the fact that everyone had got together to celebrate the fact that… etc etc ad infinitum. That might be the essence of a good party, but sooner or later Heffner and his narcissists will have to get out of their whirlpool jacuzzi and face the hangover.
archie lukas
Jun 23rd, 2007
On the whole
……………….a damp squid
Pity really, there’s so much potential wasted
and that e-mail that was coming to tell all residents when it oipened (if you signed up) never came.
I think they need some guys or girls who can.
Rather than a bunch of pony tailed posers.
Catero
Jun 25th, 2007
The Playboy sim is one of the most lack lustre initiatives ever.
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Frances
Aug 13th, 2008
Hayy Everyone I Need Help Because I Have The Playboy Mansion Game On My Ps2 And I Dont Really Know What The Playboy Philosophy Is And I Dont Know How To Complete That Mission So Could Someone Please Explain To Me What The Playby Philosophy Is Please Someone Help Me