Turn-Ons: Linden Dollars, Nonhuman Avatars; Turn-Offs: Mechs, Furries, Exploding Pigs, Anshe Chung
by John Paczkowski
Posted on May 11, 2007 at 9:53 AM PT
“What sort of man reads Playboy?” Playboy has long posed that vaguely rhetorical question in the pages of its monthly magazine. Well, now we finally have the answer. He’s a Second Life entrepreneur, an established man of experience and poise, comfortable in his furry avatar with the taste, talent and unrelenting drive to make it in a virtual world where conflicts are resolved with exploding pigs. Oh yeah, and he loves hot avatar-on-avatar action!
Linden Lab’s Second Life, the metaverse’s premier destination for folks missing a first, is getting a new tenant: Playboy. The world’s largest-selling men’s magazine will open shop in the Internet-based virtual world sometime in June. What sort of form it will take remains to be seen. A metaverse mansion and grotto? A retail outlet peddling Playboy Bunny avatar skins? Or perhaps a simple casting call for the girls of the next “cultural zeitgeist”?
