What do I mean by genuine?, someone IMed me to ask. By that, I mean those sims that contain an atmosphere that replicates real life naturist locations. And that means 'social nudity', not 'sex going on three steps away'. Many places in SL don't understand this, and will advertise a sim as a 'nudist beach' when it is, in reality, a sex sim. Essentially, if certain words are contained in their search tags, I won't visit or review it -they simply don't understand what naturism actually is, which is that it's non-sexual, at least publicly. Certainly, the relaxed atmosphere of naturism and social nudity can and does create a sensuality in adherents from time to time, but it isn't 'sporting a huge erection' type sensuality. It's more of a 'retiring to the rented apartment or hotel room and doing what comes naturally' kind of sensuality. For example, both of my children were almost certainly conceived while their father and I were on one of our annual naturist holidays! :)
Since then, we've taken them with us on our continuing naturist holidays, and while they're still of pre-school age, they simply enjoy splashing in the pool or the sea and building sandcastles while a nude Mum and Dad spend some quality time with them. It's time we look forward to having together as a family each summer, and the nudity is incidental to them. They probably aren't even aware of it yet, and simply love splashing around with us.
They're rewarding, challenging, loving and loveable, and ultimately exhausting, and I use the little free time I have to sometimes log into SL and use it as a relaxation tool, a fantasy world in which I can unwind and chill with the game in progress, some music on in the room at home (or via the various SL audio feeds) and with a glass of wine to hand. And sometimes, even when logged in, I don't even 'play' much. I park my avatar on a sunbed, set the radio feed to the music the sim provides, and do some RL work. If someone says 'hi!', or if a friend logs in, I'll respond and chat, but that may be the extent of my SL play on a particular evening.
On other occasions my play is more interactive, but I'll very often stay within the confines of various naturist sims, dance and chat. But even on the more genuine sims, one thing is often missing: children. It kind of skews the whole family vibe found in genuine naturism.
Of course, I'm not advocating 'age play', which I find distasteful, knowing an adult is behind a tiny avatar and often roleplaying, and I'd question the motivations that may often be behind the adoption of a child avatar. Some may be innocent, others less so. On that basis it's good to know the sim is being kept 'clean' by the banning of age play or tiny avatars. Let's keep it that way.
However, despite the fact that I'm using my SL free time to escape everyday life for brief periods, there's sometimes occasions when I think I'd love to be playing with one of my children on a beach, replicating beautiful real life experiences and memories. But I'm not about to 'adopt' another avatar to fulfil this role. So how do we manage to create a more realistic family atmosphere on various beaches (naturist or textile) in SL?
I think I've an answer.
One of my SL friends owns a pet dog in SL. It's not another avatar being a furry. It's an attachment whereby she can walk a sim in SL with her pet dog never far behind her, tracing her footsteps. The dog, I think, can be 'taught' commands such as 'sit', and will animate accordingly. I'm advocating that some of SL's finer computer minds might wish to create similar attachments in child form. I'd love to be able to, once in a while, wander on a beach with a child, and animated attachment child, in tow, and maybe sit on the water's edge watching the child attachment play on the sand. Or maybe head to a shopping mall where -as in real life- a bored child wanders near me, and then attempts to wander off. The RL mums out there will know what this is like, one eye on a new dress, one eye on your son or daughter.
There's plenty of partnered couples out there in SL, and some of them are recreating, to some realistic sense, the female's fertility with the Mama Allpa hud, wherein the female can, and does, get pregnant. So what happens at the end of the pregnancy? Just another box in inventory? I think it would be terrific if a couple (or woman) could attach a child attachment that toddles around in tow. There would be no capacity for ageplay, the child merely being an attachment like a pet dog readily available in SL.
Oh, I know you're going to mention the 'nudity' element. I agree, and I would propose that, at the very least, the toddler comes wearing a nappy/diaper at the very least. Who knows? With some integration between hud and designers, it might just be possible to load clothes onto the child attachment, thereby providing a new revenue stream for designers.
I'd love to know what you think of the idea. Would some of you, as RL mums, embrace the idea of having a 'child' -with none of the morality issues SL has brought up regarding age play in the past- attached to your avatar? Let me know what you think. I'd love to hear other people's views on this.
Ella Keng.
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