Red Light Center

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Red Light Center is an X-rated sandbox MMORPG created by Utherverse. It is essentially an adult playground, where you can meet other people and interact with them as you would in the real world.

It should be noted that Red Light Center is also a Social Networking Site. There is a great deal of interconnectivity between the actual game and the Utherverse Social Center (Not Safe for Work) - selecting someone's profile in-game opens a tab on your browser of choice. Social interaction forms a significant part of the game, and some people come mostly for that aspect. There is also a possibility that the technology, particularly the in-game prop editor, could be used for other purposes.

Red Light Center is quite similar in concept to Second Life, the main difference being the focus on sex. It shares an emphasis on user-generated content and social interaction.

Tropes used in Red Light Center include:
  • Allegedly Free Game: Creating and retaining a Basic account costs you nothing. However, you will not be able to get naked, which limits sexual activity to dancing, kissing, and massages. For that, you need a VIP account, which is free for the first 7 days, then you will need to pay for it.
    • It is also possible to pay for your VIP account using in-game currency ("rays"). A month of VIP service costs US$20 or 350 rays per month. Making this much per month is not that difficult for an industrious player. And as you can even sell rays for cash and then withdraw the money, you could even turn a profit.
  • Barbie Doll Anatomy: Averted HARD. All avatars have actual genitalia. Which they can use.
  • Bi the Way: Highly common.
  • Brains and Bondage: For one, it's a game on the internet, so most people will be nerds to some extent, and basic bondage play is built into the code. Beyond that, more complicated bondage play will require at least a basic grasp of the prop editor and a decent imagination.
  • Bribing Your Way to Victory: You can buy rays, and if you want to own property in-game, chances are you'll need to invest at least some money. Though, as noted above, you may be able to get your investment back, and then some.
  • Calling Your Orgasms
  • Dominatrix: Plenty of 'em. Though an unusual percentage are either bisexual or lesbian.
  • Everybody Has Lots of Sex: Well, the VIP account holders.
  • Everything Sounds Sexier in French: The prerecorded vocal sex responses for female avatars have a noticeable French accent.
  • Ghost Town: Many of the core areas are usually deserted.
  • Happiness in Slavery: Permanent BDSM master/slave relationships are quite common, and run solely on the honor code. If a slave wishes to leave, there is jack shit the master can do.
  • Interface Screw: RLC is notorious for dropping players at the most inopportune times, such as right in the middle of sex. The social site does offer a way to contact someone, but there's no guarantee they'll respond.
  • Lolicon: Played with. You can make your avatars child-sized. However, when you actually have sex, your avatars automatically change size to match one another. This is probably done due to the difficulties of animating sexual encounters between differently-sized avatars.
  • Noob: If you have a Basic account, you will be treated like this, if they even pay attention to you.
  • Polyamory: Fairly common. Even if you have an in-game relationship, most players won't mind if you have sex with others while they're not on.
  • Power Perversion Potential: If it wasn't originally designed for sex, you can probably find a way to use it for sex anyway.
  • Rule 34: Pretty much any kink can be found in game.
  • Uncanny Valley: Averted for the most part. The avatars themselves fall on the unrealistic side of the Valley, and the animations are quite fluid. The idle animations in particular are worth mentioning - if you do no action, avatars will move their bodies, generally acting in a flirty manner.
  • Virtual Paper Doll
  • You All Look Familiar: There are only four basic body types - male, female, transsexual male, and transsexual female. Facial features, hairstyles, and skin color can be customized to some extent, as can clothes. As for the rest, it's locked. This is the price for fluid sex scenes - working in things like different breast sizes and body types would require a ton of work. This isn't generally a problem, but if two avatars of the same gender use the same hairstyle and skin color, it can be hard to tell who's who during sex.
    • Height is also customizable, though when interacting (kissing, dancing, sex), both avatars shift to medium.
    • For the furries out there, you can also add wings, ears, and tails. These do not disappear during sex.