Ren Reynolds has started a research project.

Then it struck me that there might be at lest one comparator that could be common across worlds which might cast a slightly different light on in-world currency values, and that’s sex. More specifically paid for in-world sex, and potentially the ultimate unit of measure may be the ’15 min quickie blowjob’, giving us the QBJ index.

He points out that, given that not all games are swords and sorcery games, the QBJ index may be an economic indicator that can exist between all games, no matter the genre. That being said, different games can affect this indicator in different ways.

There are also interesting exclusions for example: “Please, note that I am NOT Gorean”. Age play below 18 seems to be a big dividing line too, many, possibly most will not engage in it. My fave exclusion is “Will not remove her tail or ears for You”.

Ahhh, research. The wife pointed out that, while Ren was gathering information for this story, he spurred conversation on the Sex in Games List which led to this (admittedly interesting) exchange.

From the sex in games list: “To a certain extent, the escorts and dancers in SL are a product of the specific SL economy: A sparsely populated world with thousands of islands and areas and malls and shops and clubs to explore, but with very little people in most of them. It is clear that attention and company are amongst the most valuable goods there and that paying an escort or dancer is then the easiest way to get attention and find someone to chat with. Some escort explicitly offer rates for chat or other forms of non-sexual company.”

Or put another way, attention is the currency of online worlds (Dr. Cat said this first), and the fact that Second Life is so large and people are so hard to find increases the value of the QBJ. This would seem to be related to (or perhaps conflict with) my conclusions that online worlds need to be cozy to succeed. I just don’t know if I buy it. Is it really so hard to find someone to talk to in Second Life that you have to pay for the privilege? In my brief visits to the game, I didn’t have any problems finding people to chat to — without having to part with any cash for the privilege.