Originally written by qDot for mmorgy.com

(This article is part of a multi-part feature on the viability of different business models for virtual world porn. Links to other articles will be added to this one as they are finished.)

Competition in real world versus virtual world porn in an interesting dichotomy.

Let's look at the main resource in content driven porn industries: the model (as in, the person in the movie, not the business model, which is also a model, but like, not a person... I'm a blogger, I don't need a thesaurus!). In a real world porn business, models are a renewable resource, at least, as long as we as a species keep managing to both spawn and jack off to pictures of each other. However, each resource is also depletable due to issues of age, amount of, er... "use", amount of augmentation (fancy word for surgeries), so on and so forth.

One might think this different for virtual world scenarios, but a lot of the same rules apply. First off, age does factor in, but not the physical age of the model. Virtual models don't get old and don't die. Hell, they can get younger if you want, just depends on what outfit you have them in. However, the world moves at the speed of technology, and that's where the problem with age lies. Though the models themselves have nothing to worry about, but the second the world you are using to produce your content patches for something like the rendering engine, the playing field is flattened again until all of the skin/animation/set makers can catch up with the new features. Using anything else looks dated, and following the expiration date theory of an earlier article in this series, dated content in virtual worlds isn't a viable product.

Then there's the post production process, which is where the real world and virtual world tend to come together quite a bit more. Post-production is where you take the raw content you've filmed and turn it into the pretty, wonderful finalized piece that you will sell to the masses. The field here is divided by two factors, money and creative talent (though obviously, enough of one should be able to produce the other). In terms of money, what's needed here is hardware and software. As money is MUCH easier to come by in real world porn (due to pretty insane profit margins, even after 2257 compliance, salaries, distribution, etc...), you'll find top of the line editing equipment and software, as well as highly skilled editors, artists, designers, and the like. After all, your content is only as good as your touch up skills.

In virtual world porn, the same idea applies. The profit margins on virtual porn will be scaled much farther back, so hardware will probably be the same machine the original content was rendered on. All the software to do basic touch up work can be found for free (VirtualDub, GIMP, etc...), but otherwise low-end programs will most likely be used (I'm trying to assume legitimacy here, but it's pretty obvious most of this is going to be pirated anyways), and the rendering engine of the content production software will be relied upon for making things look good the first time around. That last point also extends into the fact that most amateur virtual world porn producers may have no idea how the post-production process should work, leaving them to either ignore it completely and go straight from content creation to market, or else do a mediocre job of fixing content with what skills they have. With the massive importance of post-production, this means anyone with a modicum of artistic or software skill has a MASSIVE advantage the second they come into the market.

Let's take an example. Look at Sakado Shikami's erotic content versus portrait work by artist Kriss Lehmann.

Both use the Second Life rendering engine, but have a different level of both pre and post production skills.

The real question is, which one would you rub one off to? ('Neither' is a valid answer)

Originally written by qDot for mmorgy.com

Since they're brought me more hits than any other site (thank you misguided google searches!), I feel it's only right to give them a little more space here.

Kotaku has a great feature on the World of Whorecraft porn site, including a photo gallery of one of the models from the game.

There's an interesting quote there, too:

The six episodes, which range from 19 to 30 minutes long each, have logged a total of 20,000 purchases and about five times as many bit torrents, something Dez says he can't profit from or control.

I'm wondering what the ratio is versus normal porn torrents, due specifically to the content and the knowledge of the targeted demographic. It's gotta be pretty high.

From our "somewhat unsafe but who cares it's cheap and does the job!" department:

Well, it's got a remote, and it's got a motor, and it's $40. However, you'd also need some sort of trusty extraction mechanism to get it back out, but once you figure that out (I refrain from making the obvious suggestions so that I won't end up in "stuff I stuck up my butt 'cause of qDot" court), hey! It's $40! Other remote mechanisms sell for way more, and this has a DIRECTIONAL remote too! Nothing says lovin' like fucking with your partners sense of balance (assuming the motor is actually that strong and that you could feel the direction, but really, anything good with a remote used on someone standing should fuck with their sense of balance).

Originally written by qDot for mmorgy.com

(This article is part of a multi-part feature on the viability of different business models for virtual world porn. Links to other articles will be added to this one as they are finished.)

Titties are Timeless (as any fan of the Titté brothers knows). Unless they're pixelated, that is.

No one usually thinks about porn having an expiration date, but then again, no one usually takes virtual porn into account. In terms of sexual stimulation through visuals, we've got 3 categories to worry about.

• Photographic/Film
• Art
• Virtual World Based

I'm sure there's a debate waiting to happen between the 2nd and 3rd items on this list, but humor me for now in thinking that they are two different subjects. I'm also assuming basic, mainstream porn here, as fetishes are an article unto themselves.

First off, photographs and movies. I consider the depreciation curve (The curve showing the number of people who find a type of pornography to be the most enticing, the "expiration date" of content being the point at which the curve reaches zero) on either of these is the lightest of the three mediums we're analyzing. The human form has't changed much since we discovered we could record it through burning chemicals on things, and there's certain things about all eras of media based porn that can still turn the mainstream audience on. Fucking was fucking in the 20's (and had those wonderful black and white photos to document it), in the 70's (there wouldn't be so many John Holmes documentaries and re-releases of Deep Throat if people weren't still into the stuff), and still is now. On top of this, there are people that specifically crave certain eras of porn, or it may eventually turn into an emergent form of art.

Art itself is much the same. The talent of an artist means that the pieces they create can have a timeless quality about them. Art created before photography/film is still quite erotic to some. To break into the fetish discussion for a moment (I said I wasn't going to get into it, but, well...), art can also be the only way a certain fetish can be rendered visually, meaning it can have a very deep mental impact regardless of quality (VCL, I'm looking at you here).

Virtual World Rendered porn, however, has a STEEP depreciation curve, because it works at the inverse of Moore's Law for visuals, and relies almost purely on mental and experience aspects (i.e. porn produced from a scene in which the admirer was also a participant) to keep it sexy in the eye of the beholder. Basically, you know that the top-notch rendering you are looking at right now will, in some very short amount of time, suck. Unlike vintage photography or films, there is much less of a chance that someone without experience based relation to the material will find a technologically-dated render sexy. New platforms will come up, new rendering technologies will be released, so on and so forth with the way that all technology works.

When you create a piece of Virtual World porn, the depreciation started immediately, and your content has a much more tangible expiration date on it. This can be countered by the promise of "Oh Shiny" revenue from people new to virtual worlds (or, to put it bluntly, those that don't know any better), but that is also a number approaching zero as more people become familiar with modern technology

Originally written by qDot for mmorgy.com

(This article is part of a multi-part feature on the viability of different business models for virtual world porn. Links to other articles will be added to this one as they are finished.)

Yup, 'sbeen a long time since I sucked the sexy out of something like I'm about to do here.

As you saw last week, I geared up MMOrgy for it's re-entry back into the world of relevancy with a post about a press release I got from a new virtual world porn studio. Now, far be it from me to say that I did it first, but well, I did it first. Or would've done it first. I just have no follow-through.

Right around the time I started MMOrgy as a virtual world sex blog, I had multiple business vectors also planned out, as can be seen in the follow DOA domains:

• escorts.mmorgy.com - our very own brothel! Was gonna take Isabelle for a spin at being a Madam in the hottest little whorehouse in SL.
• studio.mmorgy.com - our very own porn studio! Making bank off takin' pictures of virtual T&A, then laugh all the way to the LindeX/IGE.

So, outside of my usual 5 minute attention span for any project and general lack of caring about non-engineering projects well after I get them started, what stopped these things from coming to fruition? Well, while researching exactly how and why I was going to execute on this plan, I ran into many roadblocks that ended up in me scrapping the whole thing due to lack of time. This series will outline my thoughts on the viability of virtual porn, the reasons why I decided it wasn't for me, and some of the business model ideas I have yet to see used, but think would work (Yes, free ideas, yours for the taking!).

Business Models of Real World Porn: Why Virtual Porn Seems Lucrative

First off, I don't claim to know a damn thing about running a real world porn business. I've been around countless people who do, and I know they'll be very happy to correct me if I'm wrong.

The simplest viable business model for internet porn is content production. Here's a high level view of what is needed to make the most no-frills, no-fetish, stereotypical straight-male-demographic-aimed original content porn site I can think of. For sake of simplicity, this also assumes that the person starting the business has at least some technical skill in creating websites, editing movies/pictures, etc.

• Get a computer - US$500-US$1000 to do basic stills and movie production
• Get a camera - Cheap! US$100 if you're poor, it'll still work, and hell, some people like that Polaroid quality...
• Get a model - Not Cheap! Especially depending on the scene. US$100's at a minimum

• If in US:

• Get the model background checked - Not too expensive these days, but you'll need it for your 2257s. Not sure about other countries.

• Get all 2257 compliance documentation - There are services to get these done, but once again, US$100's, 'cause if you're not in compliance, expect US$!!!!s from federal lawsuits.
• Get legal representation - US$100's if you go prepaid* Place to take the pictures - Since we're going simple, as long as you've got a bed somewhere, you're covered.
• Take pictures of model - Assuming you don't have to get them coked up, you've already paid for this. However, you still have to rely on them to show up, be ready, not look like hell, etc...
• Get a website and enough hosting to not have to pay per gigabyte of bandwidth - Stupid, stupid cheap. Less than US$100 year
• Create secured members only area, full tour layout, graphics, etc... - Doesn't have to be real fancy. Probably US$100's 'cause you can find some geek who will do it for free for the promise of free nudie pix.
• Get credit card merchant account, deal with chargebacks (people defaulting/claiming they didn't make the charge, which becomes YOUR problem) - US$100's a month, especially because most credit card companies are ridiculously skiddish about taking in porn accounts due to chargebacks, so merchant accounts will cost orders of magnitude more.
• Keep site up through attacks (this happens pretty often)- Depends on your hosting, but you'll need a decent admin or service. US$100's per month.
• Create and distribute advertising, manage incentives programs - US$100's in fees to advertising services for VERY few click-throughs and even less conversions.

You can see how many US$100's I threw around in there. While it seems like taking a picture of your sister's slutty sorority girl friends and pasting them all over the web might be the short path to cash, to do it right takes a ton of seed cash and work.

Thus we enter the world of virtual porn, by which I mean porn generated using character models and settings from a prebuilt MMO. Watch the steps melt away!

• Get a nice computer for rendering - < us$1500
• Camera provided with software
• Models provided with software - Hell, /you/ are the model! You can do the whole damn thing by yourself if you want to. All you are limited by is the number of clients you can run at once.

• For sake of argument, say you're in Second Life...

• Skin - US$6-10 for a texture with all the trimmings (nipples, hair if needed, etc...)

• Genitalia - US$3-8, less if it doesn't need to "work" (i.e. just there for pictures, non-scripted)
• Clothing - US$3-6 for a few sexy outfits
• Set - US$3-6 for the furniture, damn near free if you have even the most basic of building skills.
• Land - US$10 per month at minimum, just to make sure you have a nice place of your own to put everything in.
• The top 4 can also be converted into time resources if you have the skills to make your own. Only land will always cost.* No legal - Yay for art laws!
• No background check - Yay for assumed legality!
• Website - Same as above. US$100 per year for hosting, and you probably won't have to worry about attacks quite as much depending on your content
• In-World Distribution - Pure time-sink, unless you go for a pre-built publication solution, in which case, US$3-10
• Money Exchange - Why take credit cards when you can just convert virtual currency? You'll lose a chunk per conversion and also live and die by the swaying of the market, but no worries about chargebacks.
• Web Advertising - Time resource. Work blogs (like this one, or many others that will simply post about new shiny porn) for free advertising.
• In-World Advertising - Usually nominal, if service is good enough, can quickly spread by word of mouth.

Seems like a no-brainer to the casual observer. All you need is a nice computer and a little bit of knowledge about your favorite MMO with something decently sexy in it, and you're ready to go. Right...?

(Stay tuned for the next article in our series, "Titties are timeless...")