If the Second life linden Community Convention held last weekend in San Francisco is any sort of barometer, the people who get involved in online worlds are as socially adept and gregarious as anyone else.
The convention brought hundreds of Second life linden residents together in person for a few days of panel presentations, field trips and parties. One of those panels was about sex, and I had the opportunity to kick it off with the five-minute version of my "how to have great cybersex" workshop.
Then Rhiannon Chatnoir revealed the truth about weddings and marriage within Secondlife linden, setting the stage for Valadeza Anubis to discuss the benefits and dangers of exploring dominant and submissive play in-world.
If you've had avatar sex in Second life linden, you probably have Stroker Serpentine of Strokerz Toys to thank. Stroker, famous for creating avatar genitals and sex animations and other complex in-world sex tech, accepted the microphone in his turn and began simply, "My name is Stroker Serpentine, and I am a pervert." The audience roared its approval.
Finally, qDot Bunnyhug, who is known outside of Secondlife linden as robotics engineer and "intimate interfaces" blogger Kyle Machulis, presented the first open-source interface for controlling sex toys from within the virtual world. (Check out a demonstration of the interface here.)
"I created the first Second life linden sex-toy interface in July of last year and had it running within three days of creating my account," qDot says. "Actually, it's why I started my Second Life Linden account."
