Today is the day LL “throw the switch”, so to speak, on Adult Content – from today, all commercial / advertised content related to Adult Activities must either be located on the “Adult” continent of Zindra or on a private island sim which has had the Adult Content flag set.
Exactly how much confusion is likely to come out of this has yet to be seen – but my honest opinion is that, despite the wailing, gnashing of teeth and rending of garments by many in the BDSM community, there won’t actually be very much confusion at all and that life with more-or-less go on as normal.
I say this because, despite LL’s truly abysmal handling of the entire affair in terms of the lack of clear-cut announcements, bringing the changes to the attention of the community as a whole, the confusion evident within their own ranks (Cyn, Jack, Blondin all issuing contradictory statements at one time or another – or even at the same “press conference”), the unwillingness to engage more directly with those with genuine concerns (who admittedly had themselves to fight against a wealth of misinformation circulating within the BDSM community relating to things such as Age Verification, and who were frequently shouted down as a result)….the fact remains the those who will be most affected by the changes are now sufficiently aware of the changes – thanks to the BDSM commuity itself – that the “flicking of the switch” will barely affect them.
And that’s perhaps the saddest part of these changes: not so much that they had to be made (I’ve never actually had much against the changes in principle) but in the fact that despite the utter ham-fisted manner in which LL executed the entire “programme” the overall lack of confusion will cause those most responsible for the repeated blunders of communication, understanding and implementation within LL to give themselves a self congratulatory pat on the back and walk away in the mistaken belief that, despite all the naysayers, they clearly did “communicate” “clearly” and they obviously “listened” to the user community – and therefore see little reason to change how they “manage” such interactions in the future.
One thing I did find interesting in a quick-fire trip around Zindra some 24 hours before the switch-over was the large number of “Mature” rated sims their that were still attracting relatively new avatars (less than 3 months old) with NPIOF. Now, granted said avatars may have been age verified, but I do have my doubts as to whether they are – and the fact that they were happily enduring the already noticable lag on Zindra suggests that there will at least be some confusion after today, as people find their way barred to places they’d visited 24 hours before. Or maybe I’m doing them a disservice, and they’re aware of the changes and were making a quick “last visit” before the doors closed…
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 