Morality in Virtual Worlds, Part 2

I thought this Journal needed a visit to an actual Gorean sim, but such a location did not seem to be my cup of tea. There was only one solution: ask my sister Kathy to do it! Kathy blushed, demurred, hemmed, and hawed, but in the end gave in. I suspect she secretly wanted to be carried away by a brawny man. Well, to each her own. I’ll let Kathy take it from here:

Having heard of the wonders of the Kingdom of Sand, and the availability of a “Visitor” tag, I made my way there. Item one: the lag was horrendous. About 50 avatars were in the sim, and movement was sluggish beyond belief. Unlike the usual tourist trap, where the ride always ends in the gift shop, here the shop is to one's right at the teleportation point. One can buy all the silks, nipple piercings, and such any girl needs. In the center are various jars containing visitor tags, information on the sim, and such. To the right is a library (I expected to see the usual pamphlets with the collected wisdom of John Norman. You know: "A woman does not reach her potential until she has been properly rogered by a real man." Must have missed it.), which also contains the teleportation site for the RP area below.

Here is a picture of the arrival area, high in the clouds:

No doubt about it, the sim is beautiful. Here is the walled city, with some vaguely ancient Greek-looking structure below:

I'm not quite sold on the Middle Eastern theme as being particularly Gorean, but I suppose it goes with dancing girls and slave markets.

Dancing girl:

And slave market:

I left as the bidding for the young lady was getting started, and the gentlemen started heaping abuse on her.

The visitor tag was helpful. I tried to stay out of the way as much as possible - obviously, I'm not a fan of the whole scene, but, even so, interfering in their RP is just rude (I'm like a Captain Kirk who actually obeys the Prime Directive and doesn't sleep with the natives) - but, let's face it, I wasn't dressed like a native and I wasn't acting like a native, so it was useful to have the observer tag. I did overhear a funny conversation between two participants and a visitor. Player 1 was explaining to the visitor that his typist's large hands hindered his typing. The visitor's vocabulary consisted mainly of "LOL" and "LMAO." Player 2 was desperately trying to keep things in character and remind Player 1 of the need to keep in character, and was thus sounding confused about the relevance of the keyboard. Roleplaying: it's a tough job.

I'll turn the post back to Rhianon for a last word. And thanks, sis, for the assignment - I've got sand in my Ferragamo shoes.

Everyone who participates in the Sandy Kingdom does so voluntarily. Even so, is there not something wrong about "selling" a human being? Even a representation of a human being? - RJ