Thursday, March 22, 2007

Sociolotron - Virtual Sex with Consequences

So, I risk sounding way out of the loop, but MMOs are not really my thing. However, STDs are my kind of thing and now I'm going to write about both at the same time! The adult MMO, Sociolotron is all about social interaction for adults (21 and over please). The game, I'm finding out, has a gigantic STD/infectious disease component whereby players can sexually contract infections which then require cures. I found a really great string about this on Bonnie's Heroine Shiek, where player discuss the consequences of getting a virtual STD.

Below, I've pasted some text from the Sociolotron site's section about "illness" for your pleasure. My comments are in orange.

"There are various diseases in the game and they basically break down in two categories: Airborne and sexually transmitted. The first type of disease is caught just by being close to an infected character and is therefore very insidiously. The second sort of disease can only be transmitted during a sexual intercourse. Diseases also have various degrees of contagiousness. Some may have only a slight chance of being transmitted, others may spread like a wildfire.

All diseases are programmed individually and can show different symptoms and effects. All diseases go through different stages and each stage can have a different effect. [SOUNDS LIKE SYPHILIS!] Some diseases just heal when the end stage is reached, some remain at that stage and some eliminate your character. Some diseases can be determined by just looking at the character since it may show some signs like spots or ulcers, others can only determined by a medical biocorder (a diagnosis device) or other means."

"Healing a disease can be tricky. The only possible cure for a disease is a specific drug that is tailored to this disease. The system provides 10 chemicals as raw materials and these chemicals must be mixed in a specific formula to target a disease. What makes things worse is, that some cures may only heal a disease in a certain stage. It may reduce the stage to the preceding one or it may cure the disease completely."

"Finding these formulas can be a VERY challenging task. Recipes must be collected in recipe books by pharmacists which are precious goods because they can not be shared. Having a recipe for a certain cure can be a gold mine, depending on how common this recipe is." [FAMILIAR PHARMACEUTICAL POLITICS?] ...

"Searching for cure will be one major part of the game, since diseases are everywhere! Consider working together with other characters on this task! Perhaps you found and run a hospital?"

2 comments:

Alicia said...

That sounds really cool! (Gosh I am such an infectious disease nerd!) Maybe they should play versions of this game in sex ed in high school - I bet that would be more fun than having an old lady lecture on using condoms :)

Phalligator said...

I didn't even get an old lady.