RedLightCenter: Making money out of sex
MMORPG games are getting old or it seems to some users. We are now on the verge of having another genre explosion appropriately known as multi-user online realities. To tell you the truth, Linden‘s Second Life is kind of bordering on this one. It’s a user’s second life, alright, but there are no monsters to kill. No missions to accomplish. More than a game, it is actually a reality.
There is another one called RedLightCenter. Unlike Second Life, which occasionally gets a doze of violence and sex, this one is all about those things, add to that, drugs. Utherverse Inc. CEO Brian Shuster, owner of the said MMOR, mentioned that the formula for success is rather a simple one:
Sex is something everyone can participate in. By starting our first virtual world with that, we’ve overcome a major problem. There’s an issue of having a critical mass of users and having things to keep them involved. It’s the problem of Second Life. It’s a massive expanse with nothing to do.
In case you’re wondering, Shuster is not new to the skin business. He spent his last few years running several X-rated websites that brought in an estimated US$ 10 million a month. He shared that with RedLightCenter, Utherverse was able to keep costs low. The entire project just cost him US$ 8 million. As of today, Utherverse employs 42 people for each office in Vancouver, Canada and Brazil.
Regardless of your views about RedLightCenter, it is still part of the bigger MMORPG genre. And as to why these things keep getting bigger and bigger, Shuster had this explanation:
It’s not an intellectual argument, it’s an emotional argument. It’s the very early iteration of ‘Web 3-D.’ I don’t scuba dive anymore, because I can’t get up at 4 AM and get all that equipment out. But I can do it online, and when I’m done with the experience, it feels like I’ve experienced the thing. From a mental health standpoint, people engage in something that’s real.
Via LATimes
MMORPG games are getting old or it seems to some users. We are now on the verge of having another genre explosion appropriately known as multi-user online realities. To tell you the truth, Linden‘s Second Life is kind of bordering on this one. It’s a user’s second life, alright, but there are no monsters to kill. No missions to accomplish. More than a game, it is actually a reality.
There is another one called RedLightCenter. Unlike Second Life, which occasionally gets a doze of violence and sex, this one is all about those things, add to that, drugs. Utherverse Inc. CEO Brian Shuster, owner of the said MMOR, mentioned that the formula for success is rather a simple one:
Sex is something everyone can participate in. By starting our first virtual world with that, we’ve overcome a major problem. There’s an issue of having a critical mass of users and having things to keep them involved. It’s the problem of Second Life. It’s a massive expanse with nothing to do.
In case you’re wondering, Shuster is not new to the skin business. He spent his last few years running several X-rated websites that brought in an estimated US$ 10 million a month. He shared that with RedLightCenter, Utherverse was able to keep costs low. The entire project just cost him US$ 8 million. As of today, Utherverse employs 42 people for each office in Vancouver, Canada and Brazil.
Regardless of your views about RedLightCenter, it is still part of the bigger MMORPG genre. And as to why these things keep getting bigger and bigger, Shuster had this explanation:
It’s not an intellectual argument, it’s an emotional argument. It’s the very early iteration of ‘Web 3-D.’ I don’t scuba dive anymore, because I can’t get up at 4 AM and get all that equipment out. But I can do it online, and when I’m done with the experience, it feels like I’ve experienced the thing. From a mental health standpoint, people engage in something that’s real.
Via LATimes
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