I bet your heart'll be broken, I bet your pride'll be stolen

100% hand-crafted? Check. Several puzzles that must be solved to open secret drawers? Check. Programmable computer with on-board memory? Check.

Made entirely out of several different exotic woods? Check. It's an amazing, amazing piece of furniture, and yes--the lignum vitae screws, once turned and locked, "remember" the tune that must be played to open the desk fully, so yes, it's a computer made entirely out of wood. In addition to being an amazing puzzle piece and a phenomenally beautiful desk.

RL pony play is about to take a turn for the psychotic. I fear for the future.

I found kippahs on the Marketplace! (Now, that's not the unusual part. There's actually a few on the...well, okay, four to be precise...on the Marketplace, including this one, which...hurts my brain...but that's still not the unusual part. The unusual part is I turned up Snow's version on a search for items labeled "dolly". I...still don't know how that works.)

So, there's yet another MMO being designed from the ground up--or, at least, Marian Churchland is dreaming about MMO ideals--but this one may be just a little different when (and if) it launches. The Crossing promises to be your usual fight-monsters-solve-quests MMO, but Marian has discovered that her biggest complaint in games is the extraordinary gender separation. In her game, if a character levels up and gets a new armor piece, she wants it to look the same on women, as on men.

This idea? Sad to say, but it's kind of revolutionary.

Based on a mention on Nalates Urriah's blog, I read up on the Dream Promenade project. There are things I like, and things that make me wary. Let's take the good stuph first.

1. Adult = Sophisticated
Adults explore incredibly developed ideas and affect the world around them, inspiring others and shaping the future. Imagination coupled with Responsibility.

I like that a lot. That the main emphasized difference between the underage and the over-eighteen is the level of sophistication. That makes me happy that this project might change the way people on Second Life comprehend the Adult sector.

2. Sensuality
Exciting, compelling and alluring

This is also a great redefinition of "sensuality", in that it's not all about the base definition of "involving the senses", and it's not all about the leap forward to "all about sex", but the comprehension that sensuality--and erotica--involve things that thrill us as whole individuals, not necessarily just things that arouse us sexually.

3. Positive Creativity
A healthy Second Life means a healthy adult SL, which is one filled with the positive energy that comes from creativity and imagination.

On the other hand, this one feels...squicky. How exactly are the owners of the Dream Promenade defining "healthy adult SL"? I'd be comfortable making the broad assumption that girls on spits is not part of what they mean, and I think we can even safely conclude that animation sets like the Predator HUD would be right out...but what about shibari restraints, say? Or facial bruising? Or women in bandages? Or claw marks? Or cuff marks?

(And yes, all those links are quite likely Adult, and potentially NSFW--click at your own risk.)

Remember, this is (supposedly) an art project. As stated here:

1. NO ageplay depictions: includes roles of minors under the age of 18
2. NO nonconsensual sex (rape, sexual abuse) depictions: Domineering sex depictions are permissible as long as they are not obviously promoting nonconsensus...

Now, let me also break these down in terms of products already existing on SL (because, again, this is an art project, so props, clothing layers, settings and the like could easily be used.)
Things like this (the slutty version) or this (the cute version) can easily be understood to reference those over eighteen choosing to play younger--the seduction of the innocent remains big in all worlds, so I don't think that would cross specific lines.

But what about things like the TeenTastic shapes? If I'm understanding properly, this is a skin and shape set based on Yabusaka's Petite mesh avatar, which would--eighteen or not--put someone squarely at maybe a single head height over the belt-buckle of a partner. To my mind, with the skin shown, at least, that makes my brain think "twelve", not "eighteen".

Or what about EGL fashion? Say, shapes like this, designed to be worn with outfits like this, would clearly fall in the below-eighteen bracket, and as such would not be allowed in artistic depictions.

But outfits like this straddle that line, I think. Worn by someone who's clearly emphasizing their adult nature--through that aforementioned sophistication (of text comments or poses), the level of makeup they're wearing, even down to things like the hairstyle or the shoes chosen with this--that would be clearly on the side of above-eighteen depictions.

It's a very thin dividing line they're trying to draw, and thankfully, they seem to be approachable in terms of resident concerns. And I'm sure they'd like "healthy adult interaction" to never include concepts like chosen force, or BDSM in general.

I'm intrigued enough to go visit, and see what's on display. Not sure how much of it will be able to be photographed after, mind, but willing to look.