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Headline:

Cybersex rules: Inside the world of ‘teledildonics

Synopsis:

Last week, a woman divorced her husband after he had a 'virtual' affair in an online game. But it won't be long before we're all at it, if cybersex entrepreneur Kevin Alderman gets his way. So are we ready to embrace a world of 'teledildonics', 'motion-capture' love suits, and hardcore software?


When I first deposited Journalist Hellershanks in Second Life, I wanted him to stand out. I gave him a shock of bright- orange hair, and a crisp white shirt, and I adjusted his height to about six-foot-four. He looked pretty good, I thought; but he was still missing something. And so, one morning earlier this month, I sent Hellershanks off to buy a penis.

This is not the sort of thing you can do in most computer games; but then, this isn't a computer game, not really, but more a kind of vast virtual imaginarium. In Second Life, you can do just about anything you like; creating a character and making as many adaptations to this "avatar" and its environment as you can design – or as many as you are willing to pay other more technically gifted residents to provide you with.

It's up to you what you do with that freedom, and how many Linden dollars – which can be exchanged for sterling with your trusty real-world credit card – you spend on it. Some people just socialise in the coffee-shops and dance in the discos run by the world's entrepreneurs; others buy swords and shields and head off to battle dragons, or even transform themselves into dragons to battle knights in shining armour. That's not why Journalist Hellershanks was there, though. Like many of the world's residents – about 48 per cent of the 1.3 million active users, according to one survey – he was there to have sex. And in order to do that, he was going to have to go shopping.

Publish date:

23 November 2008

Author:

Archie Bland

Source:

Independent on Sunday

Media:

Access Interview