Bull

I do not understand why this is even an issue. I do not care which gender or race the author of an erotic novel has, neither do I care who controls an avatar here.

A far as I remember for AChat I needed a paid subscription, for RLC I am sure. In Achat you also could not cash out like in RLC, but had the option to acquire permanent virtual goods, which you can actually use (outfits, animations). Which makes this very different from "social badges", in my opinion of course.

I find this whole thread and also the discussions on the legalities very interesting. However, we should focus more on the more basic reason why this is such a fascinating problem. 3DXchat presents an even-levelled playground for every user when it comes to financial investments, if you do not value a few photoslots more or less important. Let’s say you want to play an industry tycoon with private yacht, office, villa and private island. it comes with your basic package. In other worlds you would have to pay a hefty price for this. Either with investing real money, or investing time earning money in-game. Up to now all users are the same. The users basically help each other out acting out their fantasies. If you introduce the possibility to change back in real world money or even earning “virtual goods” you introduce a group of people whose primary goal is not helping each other in acting out fantasies, but getting profit from time spent in-game. This is a main difference between a “fantasy hooker” in 3DXchat and “virtual hookers” in RLC or Achat, e.g. But this applies also to architects and such. Also these “virtual entrepreneurs” make life more stressful for “fantasy entrepreneurs” . This shift in the population changes the vibe or rather the social environment significantly. We do not need another test or experiment on this. Observations and experience in existing worlds like SL, RLC, Achat and others are testimony to that. 3DXchat has a “gift-system” which serves as a system to gather “badges”, which show “social reward”; rather than actual capital which can be used to acquire something with - be it real world money or virtual goods. This system could be refined to improve the immersion in acting out your fantasy (called role playing by others, BTW). Today you can use the gift system in two ways from a role playing point of view: 1. send gift by “postal service”, if the recipient gift is off-line or in another location. 2. give gift in a way only the presenter and receiver of the gift are aware of the act of presenting the gift. Wouldn’t it be nice to have the option of an animation where the presenter of the gift gives a parcel to the recipient? Or think of an engagement ring presented to the fiancee on the knees. And all other visitors of the location could see this. Or think of the hush-hush transaction between a punter and a hooker, or some lads throwing money to their favourite dancer; make a tip jar for the DJ, giving a tip to a waiter, concierge, host … I would propose to have smaller increments for the “dollar bundle gift” 10, 20, 35, 50, 100, 300 xgold. Also show the amount of “dollar bundles” earned as tip in the profile. Even better make another tab in the profile in addition to the tab for gifts. List the tips per category there: “dancing, escorting, waiter, DJing,..., unspecified category) To avoid scaring off new users with long-time users with insane amounts of tip, only give information about the average tip per week and category in the last quarter or year. Ceterum censeo, it would be nice to take out and pay for dinner and drinks of your romantic or erotic interest in 3DXchat. tl;dr 3DXchat presents an even-levelled playground for every user when it comes to financial investments. Up to now all users are the same. The users basically help each other out acting out their fantasies. If you introduce the possibility to change back in real world money or even earning “virtual goods”, this changes the vibe or rather the social environment significantly. Observations and experience in other existing virtual worlds are testimony to that. 3DXchat has a “gift-system” which serves as a system to gather “badges”, which show “social reward”; rather than actual capital. This system could be refined to improve the immersion in acting out your fantasy.

Many escorts use the dollar-bundle-gift for receiving payment. Maybe an animation which costs a certain amount of game-gold could be implemented to "describe" the money exchange (as part of slow dance or make a money exchange category?). And just like the list of gifts which is used now, make a counter for how much money was generated by this animation. Or think of (pole) dancers. Do three different animations for lets say 10, 30 and 100 game-gold. Also implement a counter for game gold earned through (pole) dancing. For role players just add an option to send a tip, no animation required, but it shows on another counter. Also make it possible to invite someone for lunch, dinner or a drink (make some more beverage options with different prices: glass of water, lemonade, energy drink, beer, wine, champagne). Maybe introduce a second way to get beverages in addition to the bottles/bottle boxes used now. Make it an option, that every player can serve as a waiter handing out these beverages in an animation, if they receive the appropriate amount of money. Would it be possible to have in world builder a "door with keyhole" for user-specific rooms? You could then use this concept further to give out keys to doors for special rooms (separee, private rooms, hotel rooms). I got these ideas in the thread below. Avoiding the dreaded micro-economy, but being able to spend money ingame.

The lack of this micro-economy is the very reason I prefer this world to the other ones I know (RLC, AChat, SL). I would not mind, if I would be able to buy someone a bootle of beer or a glass of champagne in-game, however. But the money has stay in game, like with the beverages! Don't give the player anything more like a "badge" like the list of received gifts snow, or a gold counter as described below. For escorts, please use the dollar-bundle-gift option. It is not a silly idea, it is actually a quite bright idea! Maybe they should add animations for this. Throwing some money on the stage/pole dancer, which costs a few game-gold or an animation for money exchange when doing the slow dance representing the exchange for escorts, which also costs some amout of game-gold. You could implement a counter how much game gold a player earned through (pole) dancing and escorting. There will be (some to many) women who want to live out an escort fantasy and not make an actual virtual escort business. Tensions will arise between people who want to make/assist their living online and people, also women, who just want to spend an easy pastime. Builders, designers and such can give their stuff to the community for free or keep their stuff for themselves, no problem. This "micro-economy" is what - in my not so humble opinion - to a great extent contributed to the formation of toxic social environments, which can be experienced in the "older worlds". All the shenanigans and drama which you experience here are nothing compared to the amount of bullshittery going on in the so-called older worlds.

I agree with most of your post, but this is a sure way to set up a highly toxic social environment as experienced in other virtual worlds. Actually the lack of micro-economy is the main USP of 3DXchat for me!

It allowed quite raunchy options for exotic dancers. Sex animations without showing the partner ("Bob" was invisible) provided good views and moves for exotic dancers.