Second Life: SEX

Part of the adult aspect of Second Life™ is sex and with any luck RL too. To participate most people want anatomically correct avatars… (OK: the word ‘correct’ is subject to interpretation.) There is a variety of genitalia makers. I think it is generally accepted that the Xcite!™ brand is the top of the line. I’m not saying there aren’t other great brands. Or that everyone loves Xcite! There are those that hate Xcite!

Xcite! Store has moved.

Xcite! Store has moved.

But, years ago after researching all the various genitalia I decided on Xcite! I bought my first nipples and twat in 2009, about 18 months after I joined SL. Hey, it took me months to decide on just my skin… Those were the days when I had little to no income from SL. So, these were big purchase items. You could’ve rightly called me Scrooge. 

I started with X3 and when the X4 arrived (Dec 2010) I upgraded. With the introduction of mesh I began to wonder when a mesh X5 would be released. We are getting close. The male X5 is already here and it is mesh. I’m deciding if I want to buy it for my boy Nal alternate…

New (sorta) Xcite! Store

New (sorta) Xcite! Store

The female X5 is not yet out. So, I signed up to be in the early release group (signup signs are in the new store).

The STORE

If you haven’t been to the store for a time, you’ll find the main shop is gone. The Eventide East region is empty, except for a couple of ‘landmark’ signs saying they have moved.

The main shop is now in Eventide. This used to be called the Premier Shop and Upgrade Center.

They advertise fireworks every night… I have to wonder if that is a double entendre… since they are selling adult products… Well… one can hope.

The Genitalia

X4 owners will be able to buy X5 and then get rebates on the X4. As I recall that was true of the X4 upgrade process too.

New Male Genitalia: X5

New Male Genitalia: X5

The X4 starter packs are now marked ‘No Transfer’. You buy an X4 now, you will still have to pay full price for an X5 then collect the rebate on the X4. So, if you ‘have no pussy…’ only buy now if you want to deal with learning the 4 then the 5 and feel you can get your money’s worth from the 4. It’s a difficult call as we have no idea when the female 5 will release.

Female Genitalia X5 Release?

Female Genitalia X5 Release?

The early information I’ve seen suggests we will have many more ways to customize appearance. That is often true of mesh items. They are making it possible for males to design their own penis tats. I can’t imagine what all the RL aspects of having a penis tattooed would be. So, it has to be easier in SL.

There is also the question body support. None of the male genitalia carry a Slink, Maitreya, Belleza, or other mesh body compatibility logo. With a guy’s penis that probably isn’t a concern. I mean… it just sort sticks on… a form fitting close fit isn’t required. At least I don’t think it is…

X4 No Transfer

X4 No Transfer

The female genitalia down there is going to require a good fit to look right. I had enough problems getting my X4 and its pubic hair to look right and it still isn’t perfect.

I haven’t looked at enough female genitals on various makes of bodies to say how different each body is. But, if the X5 weighting in this area doesn’t match the body you are wearing, I suspect there will be problems. So, I would like to see some compatibility logos.

Summary

I’m looking forward to what they have done with their new release.

5 thoughts on “Second Life: SEX

  1. Unfortunately Xcite! chooses to go no-mod with their products, which instantly makes them a no sale, for me. If they change that for X5 female bits I’ll take a look, but given the state of SL at the moment I’m not holding my breath.

    Seems the large majority of people are going no-mod with their products, which really hampers my creativity. And creative potential is the main reason I play SL, personally.

    • I am not sure what no-mod you are talking about. I can modify most of the Xcite! stuff outside of scripts. Modifications can be complicated because of the integration with the web site for color matching and other settings.

      Much of the new mesh stuff is rigged mesh, which is ‘system’ or ‘technology’ limited when it comes to editing. That is not a designer choice. If one wants to go with fitted mesh, in-world editing is excluded by the system. I find many designers provide the UV Maps to allow user customization of textures, which is about all that can be changed in rigged mesh and that is just the state of tech.

      • I need to be able to put in my own scripts for the avatar designs I put together, and also find it much more convenient to be able to apply textures using SL’s built in texture/colour application tools, since the process for matching up textures and previewing them on the items themselves before uploading is really really useful.

        I don’t expect the scripts to be modify, but I do require the items to be so for the sake of convenience, at the very least, and to allow for the implementation of my own scripts and textures. Appliers are not capable of making up for this limitation, due to technical limitations, nor should they need to when the tools for applying textures and more is already in SL. Appliers do have their uses in complicated multi-face texture application, but they work best in conjunction with modifiable items.

        What’s interesting is that while it appears the X4 lineup of their female genitalia is no mod according to their marketplace listings that I was looking at before, the X5 male genitalia does appear to be mod according to their listing, which gives me hope the female ones will be as well. And heck, maybe the X4 ones are mod and the listings are just set wrong?

        What I was referring to about many people going no-mod with products are the most popular body creators currently on the market, for example. Maitreya, Belleza, and SLink all are heralded as the big three, as far as I can tell, with bodies. All also make their bodies no-mod.

        But, anyway, besides all that jabber I just wrote about why modify capabilities are useful, I don’t get why so many creators prefer their creations to be no-mod? I mean, I’ve respectfully poked a couple creators or their CRs, and the whole “it’s not resizable anyway” thing often comes up. Which is true, it’s not, (at least, not without using your shape sliders to change bone shape and stuff, but that’s different and unrelated to mod perms). But even if you mistakenly believe resizing is the only capability modify perms give you that appliers can’t make up for… why make it no-mod, even in that case? If it doesn’t make a difference, why not just leave it mod? That’s the default state of things when you upload them. I feel like there’s something I’m missing, because people are choosing to untick the modify box for a reason, and “it doesn’t change anything if it’s ticked or not” is not a valid reason to choose to do something instead of not doing it.

        One of them mentioned that it prevents their customers from messing up their items. Bit of a weak excuse, in my opinion, but okay, fair enough. Even in that case enabling the creativity of those that do require mod capabilities would just require the release of a separate “professional” version that does have mod capabilities, but there’s a pushback against that idea as well… and… ugh, I just don’t get it. And it’s frustrating.

  2. These are kind of things I’ve wondered about when it come to tech and options as far it goes in improving avatars.

    Back when Sculpty prims became available to SL, it was obvious that creators would use this to improve. But when Mesh Prim came, it wasn’t limited to being prim object, it could replace avatar’s mesh. So creators would have to ask themselves the question whether it’s wise to just limit the mesh creation to small body parts or go create a full avatar system?

    There has been some mixed results so far. It’s still possible to have a full avatar system with all the options that could’ve done with few body parts from different vendors. Sadly this hasn’t happened yet because the amount of works involved.

    • I do hope Bento will help out a lot with this, opening up the capabilities of what mesh can do. But we shall see. To fully realize the idea I think you’re proposing here would require some serious collaboration, but would also be awesome.

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