Ishtar Design Many people own (and few admit to owning) virtual seraglios, the 10AF interactive simspace counterpart of a porn stash. Most are collections of scenarios, characters and add-ons that allow people to live out their fantasies. Ishtar Design is one of the larger companies producing material for these seraglios. It is a fiercely competitive field, but ID has stayed on top for a few years now. Partially it is because it is more an umbrella for allied companies and consultants than a homogeneous corporation. Based in Parvati, ID is a modern hypercorp with stringers, consultants and temporarily hired people anywhere needed. But it maintains a hub in Parvati where many of the products are developed and tested, making use of the cluster of erotica-related industries and professionals in the city. The privacy rules there allows it to develop products with a bit less chance of them being scooped by some nosy passers-by. The mainstay of ID are erotic characters. These are specialized AIs with skills suited to different scenarios - everything from massage to bus driving - and carefully crafted personalities and quirks. Because that is what customers really want: appearance is easy to skin (although a truly delicious virtual morph does take much work; this is commonly subcontracted to various playmate designers), but adding enough complexity to make them interesting to interact with several times requires plenty of skill. Some companies focus on the matching between customer and character, using various forms of personality modelling or even ego scans, but ID is still using the old-fashioned method of making good characters. Some are believable, others exotic. Erotic characters are a particular tier of the market. The simplest erotic systems make use of crude scripted characters. Above the AI characters are infomorph hires - often far more adaptable and clever than AI, even when they are mainly controlling a character using macros and telepresence. Infomorphs are however expensive compared to AI characters, and there are enough regulations and unions to make them cumbersome. Above them are the real hedonic professionals, who can demand normal market wages. ID is pursuing the best AIs that are cost-effective but also interesting and easily copyable. Some of the design work consists of merging elements from gamma forks of hedonic professionals and suitable base personalities. ID has some competent psychosurgeons, XP designers and AI programmers on staff. They also have headhunters looking for interesting characters who could be enticed to sell a fork for design components. Some critics worry that ID are making use of too large chunks of forks, spreading personal traits or even memories around the adult mesh. The company hub also maintains extensive testing facilities, where visitors can enjoy new scenarios at reduced prices in exchange for detailed monitoring and feedback. The "deluxe dome" instead aims at providing the most upscale adult virtual entertainment, with erotic guides designing suitable experiences on the fly for the customers. In order to compete with the real sex workers and their own virtual products they focus on careful customization - the library of scenarios, the experience of the guides and the creativity of the "wet surprise department" are extensive. They also offer transfer of favourite characters to sex pods for a small fee. "Real" sex workers disdain this artificial competition, but rarely worry about it as much as infomorph adult workers, who really cut prices.

root wrote:

Arenamontanus, you never cease to amaze me. I've been kicking around how to take Amsterdam and filter it through the changes of identity psychology in Eclipse Phase, and this does a fantastic job of it. Much better treatment than the Incal gave it.

Hmm, the Incal had homeowhores... fill out the desired properties, and the machine assembles a sex pod to your specifications. Sounds like a service in some of the Parvati hotels. (and *so* fun to hack!) As for Amsterdam, one aspect of sex work that might be intriguing in Parvati is the sex worker union. I can imagine that there are some pretty tough interactions between the unions and other groups in the city - everyone wants to maximize their benefit, everyone can mess up the situation for the others yet they need to keep enough stability to maintain the city. "In related news, the Parvati Erotic Worker Union today finally reached an agreement with the Tsu Wing chain of brothels on overtime compensation, narrowly avoiding a strike that would have seriously impacted the Mayday festivities. Mayor Oldehaart expressed hope that further situations like this could be resolved by the new Parvati arbitration board before they went too far." One of my players remarked that Venus was where the triads put their entirely legal front companies. I suggested that Parvati was where the triads who were not very good at keeping legal fronts went. "If there is no law against it, it is no crime!"

Quote:

Congratulations on 1k posts, by the way.

Ha! Thanks for pointing it out, I completely missed it.

I hope they are all insured very well.

Lord High Munchkin wrote:

Don't forget the 'fawning adoration" services, where one can hire sycophantic crowds to hang onto every word one's ego chooses to drone on about (on any subject imaginable... they never tire).

Of course, good sycophants are hard to find. Mere yea-sayers and nodders are cheap, but truly good sycophants make you feel like they *actually* agree and that they feel good about you. It is a bit like geisha services (another thing Parvati undoubtedly has). It takes a lot of social skill to make people feel at home and important - and you can charge premium for it! Another idea: Anonymity masks. These elegant masques, looking like anything from Venetian masks to Roman metal masks to African tribal to veiling clouds of nanomachines, serve as disposable identities on Parvati. Besides hiding the face in an aesthetic way, they also jam meshIDs and other forms of identification - some even deliberately blind sousveilance sensors or send noise into person recognition algorithms. At the same time the mask maintains a consistent anonymous ID while worn, allowing people to contact each other using their masks without knowing who the other are. Perfect for maintaining anonymity in big orgies, yet being able to find desired playmates again. Of course, there is nothing stopping people from exchanging masks, but that is part of the fun...