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Welcome to a side of Second Life you maybe never knew existed.

It's no real secret that sexual activity takes place within SL; even the first-time visitor can't help but to notice the plethora of escort services and bordellos in the grid, nor the cottage industry that provides such things as sex organs, fetish accessories and the like. What some new visitors might wonder, though, and especially those involved with alternative sexuality in RL, is just what kinds of experiences there are to be had, and how they may or may not differ from their RL equivalents. And the fact is that there are just as many types of sexual activities to partake in here as there are in the real world; and with many of the edgier ones actually much more popular than in RL, precisely because of the safety inherent in anonymity and long physical distances there. There are a good dozen all-purpose sex clubs within the universe of SL (I'm interviewing the owners of one of them, Celestia, for ITG in just a few weeks); and there are of course a hundred more small and large clubs for the most popular fetishes that exist, most of them dedicated to the subjects of BDSM, furries, and goth culture.

The "meat processing" facility at Faded Lotus.

But there is another type of sexual activity out there, one that isn't discussed in public nearly as much, and which is a continual subject of controversy in RL; that of 'edgeplay,' as coined by the BDSM community. Wikipedia defines it as "types of sexual play that are 'over the edge' of the traditional safe, sane and consensual creed;" and this is a fairly decent explanation, given how broad the subject actually is in reality. Since it is defined mostly by what it is not, edgeplay can actually be comprised of a host of different activities, all of them in one way or another shunned by the general public: from rape/abduction fantasies to extreme humiliation, bloodplay, scat, even the dismemberment of one's sexual partner. Although acted out through fantasy and roleplaying, the line between healthy and unhealthy behavior is deliberately blurred during such activities; hence the "edge" in its name, and its continual controversy among even the BDSM community.

Claustrophobia, paranoia, fear; another day at the edgeplay clubs.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, a growing community of edgeplay enthusiasts have started appearing recently within the grid; in typical fashion there, a number of them have taken it upon themselves to build free public sex clubs devoted to the subject. They are environments designed specifically to encourage the most inhumane behavior of society, and are not for the weak-hearted; you will see virtual examples of torture, violence and sometimes death at almost all of them, which should be taken into consideration before visiting any of them. Even more interesting, perhaps, is that in most, even the architectural layout was designed for a dark purpose; unlike the majority of the grid, hallways and rooms in most edgeplay clubs are deliberately small and difficult to navigate, and with the basements of the facilities purposely designed as confusing labyrinths. Whether it's on accident or purpose that such clubs so profoundly resemble the environments of first-person-shooter videogames is a subject for speculation.

Don't forget, it's all just a game.

Of course, let's not forget that all of this relies solely on roleplaying; on both the attacker and victim in sexual edgeplay being willing, voluntary participants. Unlike RL, where abduction, rape and death are very real dangers of edgeplay activities, in the grid there is absolutely no way for one avatar to "force" another avatar to do anything, unless the person is wearing a special piece of clothing to let the other person do so, like a pair of handcuffs with a special script built into them. This is the main controversy, frankly, behind edgeplay activities there, is the extra layer of safety and voluntary behavior that is inherent; adherents say that this gives edgeplay enthusiasts a chance to act out their fantasies, in a much more immersive but still safe environment than mere online chat, while detractors say that this merely desensitizes a person, making it easier to carry out acts of legitimate sexual violence in RL.

I'm working on a longer article right now on the subject of edgeplay, for issue 1 of our new monthly magazine, and throughout the week will be posting pieces from it here; reviews (and SLurls) of four different edgeplay clubs in the grid, interviews with edgeplay enthusiasts and more. This will be the modus operandi of ITG, in fact, each month; that smaller versions of our articles will appear here on the blog on a daily basis, then lengthened for the monthly magazine and with a lot more photos included. I hope you'll get a chance to check in all this week, as we take a bigger look into this fascinating and many times troubling community.