Interested in the hedonistic virtual sex paradise of Red Light Center?
Want to know more?
Mooted as one of the best adult games available for both PC and Mac, Red Light Center once earned itself a nomination for the most innovative company of the year. It has over 4 million registered users and regularly tops many lists of the most addictive virtual worlds.
Is that hype justified?
In this Red Light Center review, we take a look at standard gameplay, the types of virtual sex available, how you can get involved, and what it costs to play.
What is Red Light Center?
The Red Light Center (RLC) game is a 3D virtual reality world and online community.
It is one of the most popular multiplayer sex games, comparable to other favorites such as Yareel, Digamour, Second Life or 3DX Chat.
The RLC environment is modelled on Amsterdam’s red light district and features a rich world of virtual entertainment. Venues include hotels, bars, clubs and stores.
There are expansions to RLC which extend the original world beyond the borders of its initial concept.
The most popular of these is Virtual Vancouver which includes lifelike landmarks and recognisable buildings.
The main Red Light Center is linked to these additional cities via a transport network which users can access.
The game’s developers have opened up the infrastructure of their software to allow further expansion of additional worlds to connect to Red Life Center, potentially making the game an infinitely expanding one.
The game is populated by players who operate an avatar of themselves to navigate the city and interact with other users.
Far more than just a game, Red Light Center has been combined with the powerful social networking site, Utherverse, which makes RLC a popular community game.
There is the functionality for the game to host social events, stream concerts and shows. Users can also attend workshops, classes and book festivals.
As a result of the community driven focus, the game offers users the opportunity to network with other players and has even been show to be a useful dating site for some.
The social networking aspect includes ways you connect with and message other players.
Like Facebook, you can add players as Friends and manage your relationships in the same way that you manage your property, clothing, pictures and gifts. You can even publish your own blog as your avatar self.
An active forum is at the heart of the community and certainly helps newbies to establish themselves in the game.
However, it is the adult content that drives most players to register an account and return to this virtual world.
The environment allows players to buy and sell sexual services from other players and indulge in plenty of options for animated cybersex. There is a huge range of locations including bordellos, hotels, apartments and even underwater caves and locker rooms.
The action is mutually controlled and can end up with some surprising results. Positions and styles are also varied.
As well as being able to initiate sexual interaction with other players, you can also indulge in some otherwise illicit activities including taking drugs like marijuana and magic mushrooms.
Owned by Utherverse Digital LLC, the game was released in 2006 and has around 4 million registered accounts.
With a tagline of ‘Expand your Fantasy’, Red Light Center is known as a hedonistic virtual playground where players can live out their fantasies in a safe environment.
How to Play Red Light Center
In order to play RLC, you need to download a copy of the software to your PC (see ‘Technical Specifications’, below).
You can register an account and access your profile and settings without needing to download the game. This is useful if you want to look at your RLC messages on a device which hasn’t got the game installed.
However, if you want to play the game then you need to have it installed on your PC.
The download is simple enough to initiate and the set-up wizard even gives you a FlashXML tour to give you an overview of the game whilst it installs.
Once you have installed the game, you can take as much (or as little) time as you like to set-up your avatar and profile. You can custom build your own virtual life, personality and appearance to your liking and you are in complete control.
Once you are ready to step into this virtual world, you can navigate RLC using your keyboard or mouse to walk (or run) around.
The whole environment is interactive and you can click on virtually anything to perform an action on it; including people. When you meet new people, you can simply open a menu by right clicking on them which launches a series of options.
You can chat using the in-house system, add them as a friend or initiate an action. You can even use the VoIP service to speak to them live.
There is plenty to keep you occupied in this richly imagined virtual environment with just your own creativity limiting you from living out your fantasies.
Technical Specifications
The minimum system requirements for Red Light Center are:
- Processor: Intel Pentium III 500 MHz or equivalent
- RAM: 512 MB
- Operating System: Windows Vista/XP
- DirectX: DirectX® version 9.0b
- Sound Card: DirectX® certified sound card
- Video Card: Nvidia GeForce 2 or better – ATI Radeon 7000 or better
However, the game works best with:
- Processor: Intel Pentium 4 – 1.2 GHz or equivalent
- RAM:1 GB or higher
- Operating System: Windows Vista/XP
- DirectX: DirectX® version 9.0b
- Sound Card: DirectX® certified sound card
- Video Card: Nvidia GeForce 2 or better – ATI Radeon 7000 or better – Sis 315
You will also need a DSL or high-speed internet connection.
The software takes up around 390MB of space.
The game can be played on Mac but users will need to download something like Boot Camp to launch a Windows based application within the OS.
A version was available for download to Mac users which made use of the Wine translation software but is no longer being supported by RLC.
Who Uses Red Light Center?
Of the reported 4 million users on Red Light Center, it is estimated that the majority are based in the U.S. with Switzerland, Poland, Brazil and Canada also having a good share of the user base.
Beyond these main nationalities, there aren’t many countries which aren’t represented in the game including those from Asia, Europe and South America.
Though the majority of users are men, there is a good proportion of women using the site from across a wide age demographic.
For many, it is one of the exciting aspects of the game that you don’t know who is controlling the avatars you meet.
Just as your own avatar may be a different persona and gender, so too are those of the rest of the well-populated multiverse.
Is Red Light Center Free To Play?
Yes, but the best features are behind a paywall.
You can download RLC for free and set-up a basic account to navigate the world. Whilst this will give you a flavour of what RLC has to offer, the best features are only unlocked to those users who pay for VIP status.
VIP members get:
- All sex features unlocked
- Ability to private message other members
- Wider range of clothing options
- Ability to view images and profiles of other users (art gallery)
- One-to-One VoIP chat
- Ability to send and receive gifts
- Instant porting to friends locations
You can even upgrade further to Ultra VIP status which gives you an enhanced property catalog, immunity from standard population limits, 5 avatars and exclusive access to other features.
Pricing for upgraded membership is as follows:
| Membership Duration | VIP Status | Ultra VIP Status |
| One Month | $19.99 | $29.99 |
| Three Months | $56.97 | $85.47 |
| Six Months | $107.95 | $161.95 |
| Twelve Months | $203.90 | $305.90 |
Membership fees are re-billed automatically.
The Currency of RLC
The Red Light Center uses its own game currency called Rays.
These can be used to purchase virtual items and services from within the game.
This can include gifts for other players, clothing for your avatar, items for your apartment, the services of another user and much more.
You can earn Rays by spending time within the game environment or as a working girl/guy and selling your services or for other actions.
Rays can be purchased directly from RLC and they are also traded in a real-world market.
As a result, there is an active economy in Red Life Center which is growing all the time as people find new and creative ways to forge themselves a commercial role in the community.
Red Light Center Review: Is It Any Good?
Red Light Center has developed over the last twelve years from an interactive 3D virtual world into a mature social networking platform.
With a vast userbase, the software offers much more than just a gaming experience. Instead, RLC is a fantasy pleasure dome where you can interact with real people and form real life connections.
The complexity of the worlds that have been imagined is both rich and diverse and we hope that developers take up the challenge of expanding this online universe.
When it comes to the cost, the subscription fees are low when compared to other games that purport to offer a slice of virtual life and they remain perfectly affordable.
We also like the fact that the economy within this world is a thriving one that rewards regular members.
Overall, RLC is a great example of how online communities with a common interest can be built to create a satisfying gaming experience of a virtual world.
Certainly, the game has plenty of life left in it still and hopefully yet more to come.
Get started with Red Light Center here.
Featured image and all images via Red Light Center.
Red Light Center Review
Summary
Red Light Center boasts an interactive 3D virtual world; one that is full of cyber sex. With low subscription fees and a vibrant economy, this is a hedonistic world that mirrors real-life adult sex work (and other illicit dealings). It’s pure escapism, and wickedly addictive.
