People Watching

Voice Chat Discussion Group of D/s People

There must not be anything which can compare to watching people interact in a virtual world in which you can control everything. Remember, Second Life is more than just a game. The universe within is created by the users and the users are real people. Sure, some of them are unicorns or dragons. Some are "furries" or demons. There are robots, faeries (did I use enough vowels?), Homer Simpsons (doh!), dogs, minotaurs, petites, owls, all manner of mythical and reality based creatures. In the end, they are all human. Real people. Full of surprises. Even the noobs are full of surprises. You would be amazed at what you might find wandering around the metaverse. Let's see what sort of diversity SL has to offer in that area.

Sure, I stayed mostly within the human end of the spectrum, but human avatars have lots of surprises to offer. I took one evening and struck out on a quest for a hangout place for me and my submissive. I had hours to spend and I strove to remain in the background for the most part, not barging in to any conversations nor joining in with RP (Role Play). After all, I was observing and striving to get to know these locations and the people in them.

When you enter a new location (and there are thousands of them called sims), you are often automatically presented with a notecard containing the group/sim rules, along with a landmark. The notecard with the rules will give you a basic rundown on the group which occupies that particular sim. Most of what I was looking for was a "hangout" place that catered to the D/s (Dominant/submissive) lifestyle. If you are curious about that lifestyle, please see most of my earlier posts. So I used the built-in search function of SL and the search terms "D/s lifestyle". After all, this is what I and my sub enjoy doing; hanging out at these sorts of places. What I found was diverse and intriguing. I found places where dozens of people just stood around and were seemingly silent. I would have my voice chat feature activated, yet nobody was saying anything. There was not so much as a peep in the local chat either. I'd have to assume that people were either mass asleep at their keyboards or chatting in private IMs (Instant Message). Not exactly what we are looking for.

At one time, we had a sim where we had a hangout spot and it included a spot where people would rez in when they came to visit. The Cherry Street shopping mall and nightclub had a greeting area. People would find us in search of either Places or Classified ads, click the search results link and poof, they were rezzed in right to that hangout spot. The place was so active that me and cat would just sit there and wait for them to pop on in and greet them. Often times we would have friends visiting with us and with the addition of random people teleporting in, it was an active and friendly D/s place to be. Unfortunately, first life financial burdens forced us to let it go (see any past posts about the region called Styll). So ever since then we have been seeking out an equally inviting, D/s friendly place, without much luck. But I will keep looking when I have time. And on this night, I had the time.

These sims or regions were all rated for Adult content meaning that unless little Johnny stole his dad's credit card and ID, the avatar was over the age of 18 and able to view any sort of content these places would care to display. So you had to be ready for just about anything. Fortunately in the D/s community, extreme sights and concepts are considered undesirable such as death, dolcette, dismemberment, etc. So I never knew what I was going to find once I clicked on a teleport link. And that's what makes this type of exploring so entertaining. You never know what might pop up.

Come Visit and Use This Girl

This evening I discovered places with lots of people jabbering away about sex and desires. Avatar accessories, places to shop, permission requests to dress, permission requests to speak, jokes, inside jokes, etc. It was wonderful. One place I ran into had games I like to play such as Greedy Greedy, and the place was a RP place where you didn't have to wear a special group tag stating you were in character. In character was the only way you could exist in that location. I like that. Your character is you; who your avatar is. Simple. Some places have where you need to wear an Observer tag and if you are in the group, are you a predator or are you hunted? Complicated. My solution is, "stick around and find out". But I do not make the rules at places like these.

Other places had submissive women that were there for the dominant's use. They would be stripped bare and ready for sexual usage. Some were sex slaves that where bound to a device and naked for your inspection, ready for auctioning off. There are dozens of slave auction places in SL. These are not to be confused with RL slavery. These SL people have the option to live out their fantasy as a sex slave for a limited period of time. It's a strangely fulfilling fantasy, but fantasy nonetheless.

Temple of the Open Collar

There was another place I visited where lots of people would hang out. It is the place where the Open Collar was given out. Open Collar is a free (open source) coded collar that most dominants use to give to their submissives. It allows for quite a bit of control of the submissives viewer, which is the portal to the virtual world. In other words, my submissive has given to me total control of her online experience. I utilize the software built into these collars, worn by the avatar, to control her. I know, this doesn't sound at all romantic but trust me, it's a very powerful tool and takes a heightened amount of trust to hand over that sort of control to your dominant. The Open Collar place had a lot of people in it but the conversations were either mostly silent and some of the public chats were quite juvenile.

Not so with Domination Palace. If you get a chance, go there. Lots of D/s couples and singles mingle there and they all appear to be mature about it. Refreshing. Me and cat have been there a few times and she hangs out there a lot. It's very close to the ideal D/s hangout we are looking for only it's a bit too sexually oriented for my tastes. Still, it's not necessary to participate all the time. Lots of good "scenes" going on though at any given time. Give the place a try. It's at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Oud%20Holland/204/64/1802

My Kryptonite

Finally, there's no place like home. We SL users are all in control of our environments (so long as we pay for it) and I have the most wonderful family and partner/submissive/SL wife. She keeps me coming back for more. Per my SL daughter's suggestions, we have formed a group, The Turbo Family, and we are going to organize and take a massive portrait of everyone. Hopefully by next week, I'll be able to post that picture to this blog. It can be tricky getting everyone together all at once, and there are plenty of little Turbos running around, but we are going for it. Check here for updates.