“Learning providers can create entire campuses composed of multiple learning environments. Game designers can create custom games Virtual world providers can provide any type of environment (within similar constraints as the Entertainment Software Ratings Board [ESRB] content ranges, we intend to avoid the issues that Second Life is wrestling with due to the adult/erotic/pornographic flavor of so much of their content).” – Richard Garriott (AKA Lord British).
The above quote, which I covered in more detail back in June 2011 was to do with a project that Lord British was contemplating, that now seems to have morphed into Shroud Of The Avatar, an MMO, so the previous post is now well out of date. However the issue of adult content is rearing its head once more, this time in Cloud Party where more attention is bringing more questions.
Questions regarding adult and mature content in Cloud Party are not new, indeed they have been discussed in the Cloud Party forums more than once. Cloud Party’s community standards are pretty clear on the issue of mature and adult content:
“Sexually Explicit Content We do not allow adult content or behavior, or visuals of explicit sex or simulated sex on the platform.”
Yet there’s another side to this coin, it’s the whole icky factor some have of sharing spaces with children as young as thirteen. This happens in World Of Warcraft, you’re short of a player on a guild run, you advertise for one more and along comes a gnome warrior with purple hair who tells you “I’m 13” and the rest of the group are “WTF!” but of course, in a 13+ environment you’re likely to run into thirteen year olds!
A thread over at SLUniverse raises the issue of the other side of the coin:
“It has some very good stuff. But no cash out and the PG13 rule ..”
“There’s PG-13, and then there’s hanging out with 13 year olds.”
“The point remains though that in Cloud Party there’s no partitioning of age groups whatsoever at present. They could use a General (13-17) and Mature (18+) filtering themselves, even if they omit Adult forever.”
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t, but can a happy medium be reached?
Well the answer is almost certainly yes, but not easily. Adult and mature themes bring with them a whole load of baggage, but so does allowing thirteen year olds and adults to mix. I’ve seen calls on the World Of Warcraft forums for servers to only be occupied by those who are 18+ not because people want adult content, but because they want an environment away from thirteen year olds, sorry kids but that’s how plenty of folk roll.
Sometimes the reasons for wanting these sort of environments is misguided, the 40+ crowd can troll and annoy for example. However content ratings are the way to roll and it’s not an uncommon facet of our lives, we see it at the movies, books, magazines, alcohol, tobacco yadda yadda yadda.
The problem is, content ratings are a pain to implement so it’s easier to go with a catch all solution, especially in the early days when in Cloud Party’s case, they only have eight people working on the project.
One thing Second Life got very right was introducing content ratings. Now I wouldn’t say that the application of said ratings was ideal, a PG sim should never have neighboured a mature sim, I had a PG parcel like that once, the neighbouring parcel on a mature sim was a gentleman’s club, making the PG status of my parcel meaningless, but the concept was the right one.
Cloud Party didn’t start from the same base as Second Life, Second Life wasn’t free to play in the beginning, so it was easier to provide an environment whereby mature themes were welcomed. I’m not convinced Linden Lab envisaged just how mature those themes would get, but it was easier to deal with when people were supposedly eighteen or over.
As far as priorities go, mature content should be way down the list, but in the long run it’s something most virtual environments will have to deal with because adults do engage in adult activities, day in day out and as every man and his dog knows, sex sells.
I totally agree. I just dont want explicit adult content in my face when im doing casual stuff. I want to be able to choose. Everything has its place and most of us dont want s-x stuff arond 24\7… Adult regions\content should only be accessible if we pay with creditcard/paypal.
S-x is natural and where there r ppl there will be s-x and relations. But too much in SL…i have a neighbour on a mature sim /linden homes who has huge pornographic pics on his parcel. No fun.
One of my earliest SL memories was walking around a shopping village, nicely laid out, nice buildings and then I stumbled across a store with a giant phallus at the entrance and thought “No need for that.”
Everything has its place and ratings help people filter the environment to be most suitable to what they want.
Your neighbour should be more respectful even on mature that’s a tad silly.
Sex is as natural as breathing, a grid without it is not a grid where i want to be!
Actually, Cloud Party isn’t under a PG13 lock down. The rules are nothing to gross or explicit, but adult content (in the sense of most movies or TV shows) is fine. Those under 18 get to take their chances, much as they do with free to air or cable TV. However, if you want explicit sex, 20′ phalluses or exploding blood and guts, go somewhere else…
Yes you’re correct, the website has a section whereby they say they try and keep things at a PG-13 level.
However it has been suggested in other discussions that mature content is allowed (which is not the same as adult content).
Booo about no exploding blood and guts, there’s always potential for that!
I’ve blogged before about my displeasure of seeing stores with a huge phallus on top of them in Second Life.
Would I be correct in assuming you’re the Mykael whose store is featured in the blog?