Red Light Center is one of the most famous multiplayer sex games in the adult gaming space.
Modelled loosely on the famed Red-Light district of Amsterdam, this Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) is enjoyed by over 8 million users worldwide. RLC is a virtual adult playground, similar to the look and feel of Second life, where you can enjoy 3D cyber sex with other real-life players. Or simply kick back and use the world to escape from reality: chill, hang-out and chat to other 18+ users.
We’ve seen many adult game worlds come and go over the years, but Red Light Center is still standing. Its enduring popularity has been fuelled by mainstream coverage as far and wide as Wired, LA Times and New Scientist.
But the question remains, having been around the block for 18 years – is Red Light Center still a virtual world worth exploring? Have the graphics stood the test of time? And what sort of users are you likely to meet on your NSFW adventures around RLC?
Our full Red Light Center review takes you deeper in to the sex-fuelled world of ‘working girls’ and ‘working guys’, where virtual currency has created an eco-system that allows any user to live out his (or her) fantasies in a safe online space — for a price.
Let’s take a closer look!
What Is Red Light Center?
Red Light Center (RLC) is a vividly-imagined online virtual world, first released by Utherverse Digital in 2005.
RLC is all about sex. But unlike other adult games, you get to indulge in sexual encounters with other real-life players who will respond to your actions.
The game world is filled with bright and enticing hangouts where you can hook up with like-minded players. The massive environment is packed with virtual bars, nightclubs, hotels, theatres and even stores where you can meet up and play around. But RLC is much more than just another MMORPG game, and it has the structure (and the game engine) to keep you coming back for more action, of the strictly-NSFW kind.
Having been periodically updated since launch – the last major update was in 2022 – the result is a highly engaging 3D experience that may just leave you wondering: “Where the hell did the last three hours go?“
While the action centers on the main RLC World, there are also the attached worlds of Loki Land and Virtual Vancouver, which are accessed via in-game ‘Transport Centers’.
Your first job is to create a character from the ground-up, so that you have your very own digital avatar with which to explore RLC.
It’s not just your appearance that you can customise. RLC has its very own economy and eco-system.
Using the bespoke in-game Ray’s currency, you can spend on a virtual apartment, buy cool stuff, get virtually high, or treat those you meet in the world. With plenty of spaces to explore and people to hook-up with, RLC is designed to feel alive.
Rays can be directly exchanged for dollars (and vice versa) so you can treat anyone you meet with some of the in-game purchases, or use them for your own filthy escapades…
This is a game featuring thousands of online players from around the world at any one time, all looking for a good time in a virtual hedonistic getaway. Spend virtual money, meet up with other users, or just kick-back and relax in exuberant atmospheres, you can do as much or as little as you like in RLC.
A Sprawling and Growing Game World
Don’t be fooled by the name.
Red Light Center is actually a sprawling online world with many different places you can explore. It’s not just a small little town center.
The main RLC is a large scale and well-structured map with a huge number of accessible buildings to explore, bumping in to other real-life users as you go. These locations are extended to the other attached virtual worlds of Loki Land and Virtual Vancouver, which retain many of the iconic buildings found in the real Vancouver.
Designed under a Metaverse philosophy, RLC allows experienced developers to construct and add their own niche worlds, and other users to access them. This helps to keep the game fresh — pretty important for a title that is closing in on its 20th year(!).
How does RLC stack up against Second Life and other virtual worlds like 3DX Chat?
Obviously, Second Life is the grandaddy of them all and it boasts superior graphics, with extensive meshes developed for the characters. Second Life also now offers hundreds of ‘adult-orientated’ worlds, but these are generally not as focused as RLC.
By comparison, 3XD Chat is fairly polished and more focused on sex, but it is more expensive than RLC, and doesn’t offer a basic free account.
YaReel is something a little different, a halfway house between an avatar-filled chat room and a virtual dating space. Kind of cool, but it has nothing on the scale of the virtual world in Red Light Center.
How Do I Play Red Light Center?
First and foremost, RLC is available as a Windows download only. It used to be available on Mac-based systems, but sadly those days are long gone. You’ll need a Windows PC to get in on the action…
After downloading the file, RLC wastes no time in showing what it is all about. You can get a sneak peek of how the game functions during the installation process. Once the setup is complete, you can customize your own character, and dive right in… even as a free-user.
Simply select your preferred options for anything from gender and body size to physical type and skin tones. You get more options if you sign up for VIP status, and can probably create a realistic avatar to match your real appearance.
Just a heads up: Don’t expect all users to look like their digital avatars. RLC is a world for exploring your sexuality and kinks. You can’t guarantee that the women are actually controlled by women, and vice versa.
If you’re a VIP, you’ll have access to a wide variety of options for personalising your character. VIP status allows you to fully access the more ‘adult’ features of the game. Obviously, under the T&C’s, to open an account, you need to be at least 18, but since you’ll need a credit card anyway, that’s a given.
Once you enter the game world, RLC plays like any other MMORPG, but you will still need to spend plenty of time looking around and orientating yourself in the world. We wouldn’t advise attempting to get virtually laid until you’re confident with the control system!
When you have a handle on RLC’s geography, you can interact with others and the fun begins. Get around by mouse or keyboard to run or walk. The game is mostly active, and players can use defined keys to select any object or person and perform an action on it. This is particularly importance once we get to the sexual encounters…
Apart from the fundamentals of travel, interaction, and movement, there are a couple of distinguishing characteristics, such as the two-way portal and the Social Center.
The portal allows members to virtually explore the adult environment, while the Social Center is a type of social network in which members can upload and view photos, send text messages, and interact with one another.
RLC has three levels of membership and the one you choose will impact what you can do in the world. The three levels are:
- Free: This allows you to experience the world and interact with others, but without any form of intimacy. Bit like being a eunuch in a world of sexy people…
- VIP: At this level you get access to all of the features and gameplay, including the ability to have sex with any other consenting player.
- Ultra-VIP: This is basically the same as VIP, but you get up to five avatars, an enhanced property catalogue and login-queue priority. Basically, you get to live like a King…. or Queen, if you like.
The VIP membership includes sex features, sending private messages, more clothing options, direct VoIP chat, sending and receiving gifts, directly reaching the friend’s location, and access to other members’ information.
How Do I Get Around in Red Light Center?
Once in RLC, there are three different ways to interact with the environment and any other users that you encounter within it; the action bar, right mouse click, and left mouse click.
The actions bar at the bottom of the screen allows you to select specific animations from a list and, by clicking on them, get your avatar to act them out.
If you right mouse click on an object you are close to, a drop-down menu with certain commands appears, and you can choose actions to see what happens.
If you hover over an object and the cursor turns into a hand, you can left mouse click on these objects to initiate a range of actions.
Other movements within the game are controlled by the WASD keys, the space bar, and the Ctrl key and combinations of these to carry out various movement and navigation functions.
The game is fairly intuitive and has an easily-navigable menu system which includes an ‘Events’ and ‘Discovery’ sub-menu. The Events menu will have a variety of parties going on, and the Discovery tab will show you the various rooms and clubs, as well as erotic tastes and fetishes that are going on, and can be joined.
In many in-game locations the user can smoke hookahs of marijuana and ingest magic mushrooms for extraordinary special effects that can be shaken off at the player’s discretion.
One of the big features of RLC is the fact that you can buy and own virtual property – termed Zaby’s – within the game.
RLC property is classified into several categories, and most properties only require a VIP or UVIP membership to be licenced. Some properties, such as a Business or “Working Girl” operation (more on these later) require a special role to licence. The Property Catalogue contains a comprehensive list of property categories.
Once owned, you can decorate your Zaby to your own taste, and equip it with VR televisions with streaming video or a music jukebox. One can paint the walls and arrange furniture. The size of the Zaby apartments ranges from a small one-bedroom apartment to a huge rural mansion, in which you can have parties, which may very well spill in to virtual orgies.
Ahh, yes, the sex…
How Do I Have Virtual Sex in Red Light Center?
Red Light Center is a fun way to interact with real-life users, but let’s be real: most users are here for a reason. And that reason is virtual sex.
But how do you actually initiate sex in Red Light Center?
Unlike Second Life, where the user needs to buy genitals for their Avatar, when you develop your avatar in RLC, it comes with the appropriate body parts, all raring to go.
As a VIP member, straight from the off, you are ready to rumble, and the avatars are loaded with the necessary animations to get some great virtual sex going. Non-VIP members need to level up to get the full experience.
To initiate sex, you can approach other players by right-clicking on their avatars and selecting ‘Add to Friends.’ After you’ve flirted with your chosen player a little, you can invite them to an intercourse session.
How very formal!
This can be in their own location, or any of the public playrooms that RLC has prepared in advance for your sexual excursions. You’ll need to accompany the individual to the location of your choice by right-clicking on their title in the chatbox, and then clicking on « Go There (Avatar name) » to meet them in the rendezvous area.
You can then use the action menus to perform different acts with each other.
As for places to have sex, well, given that the game is orientated towards hook-ups, there are plenty of places to get it on.
The RLC map offers a choice of hotels, clubs, locker rooms and even underwater caves which are ideal for cybersex sessions. Once you encounter someone that is up for a good time (and it won’t take long!), a range of different sexual positions and preferences can be selected from a menu on each user’s interface. Then it’s time to get the party started.
Make sure you get your headphones or earbuds on as each user can hear the other, so you can supply your own sound effects for maximum immersion… if you so choose. 😉
Needless to say, the graphics of these sexual encounters don’t stand up too well against the latest sex sims, but the fact that you’re interacting with a real-life user makes them just as engaging.
How Does the RLC Currency System Work?
You can buy goods and services within Red Light Center, and this is achieved by using a bespoke currency known as a Ray.
Using the Ray’s currency, you can spend on a virtual apartment, buy cool stuff, get virtually high, or treat those you meet in the world. And yes… you can pay for virtual sex.
There’s also an extensive modding system, meaning you can spend your Rays on user-generated content, like fresh new outfits for that next virtual night out…
Rays can be earned through various means or purchased directly, and your total number of currently available Rays is displayed prominently on your main Social Center page. You can also see how you earned and spent your Rays by clicking the Transaction History link on the page.
Rays are attached to real currency – dollars – and can be purchased instantly through the CCBill system. The minimum purchase is 250 Rays for USD $20, but you can buy as many as you want.
You can earn Rays in a number of fairly elementary ways such as posting pictures and having your blog read, but if you really want to earn a decent number, you really need to take a job role in the game. These jobs, or roles, vary in complexity and therefore the amount that you will get paid for them.
Which brings us to an important part of RLC, the different types of users…
What Are The Different User Roles in RLC?
There are a number of different user roles that you can take up in RLC, each with its own attributes and functions. Adopting these roles will define how you spend your time in the game world, and the type of connections you form with other users.
The main roles that a user can sign up to carry out include:
In-Game Guides
These are primarily responsible for assisting new members in finding their way around, giving tours, answering questions, and resolving minor disputes between users.
Greeters and Ambassadors
Greeters are responsible for making new members feel welcome and ensuring that everyone has a good time. Greeters assist members in having a good time and partying. They introduce new members to existing members so that they can get to know them sooner. Greeters are paid employees, whereas ambassadors are unpaid volunteers.
Protector
Protector is the highest position that most members can advance to. This is someone who has demonstrated a strong commitment to the community; they are essentially moderators.
Protectors are tasked with assisting guides, leaders, and all other members. Protectors enter situations that leaders or others are unable to control. Protectors attempt to reason with members before removing them from the game, if necessary, after a sufficient amount of time and warnings.
Supervisors and Moderators
Because of the contentious issues raised by any game involving virtual sex, the use of moderators is essential. Supervisors and moderators come in three basic forms.
A Community Supervisor is responsible for assisting, training, and moderating lower-level guides, as well as recommending promotions and assisting leaders. They are protectors or leaders who have been promoted to this position, and they have the same duties and responsibilities as the leaders and guides, with the addition of these responsibilities.
Community Moderators were created in response to the increasing number of community members that needed keeping in check. In addition to serving as guardians, community moderators are also available to assist everyone. They assist guides, leaders, and protectors with any issues or complaints and serve as the primary conduit to the higher staff. They also assist members with any complaints and problems.
Staff Moderators are Utherverse company employees who hold a position that enhances staff involvement with in-game issues. They supervise and assist the Community Moderators and Supervisors in their duties, with the ultimate aim of making sure that Red Light Center remains a friendly welcoming adult playground for all.
WG – Working Girls and Working Guys
Ahh, a role you don’t normally see in MMORPGs!
One of the most important and lucrative roles in RLC is that of a WG – a Working Girl or Working Guy. These are accredited RLC members who provide virtual sex sessions to other RLC members.
WGs can provide basic sessions with sex animations and text chat, as well as enhanced sessions with voice, webcam, and include various fetish services. WGs of all genders and sexual orientations are welcome at Red Light Center.
WGs are given official badges to wear, to help advertise themselves, and can offer their services and rates in the WG directory.
From here, regular users can contact and hire the WG for intimate sessions. The role is basically a digital escort.
WGs are paid in Rays which they amass and can either use to buy property or sell for real dollars. They might even choose to reinvest the Rays in to billboard advertisements scattered around the game-world!
VIP users can become a WG by signing up via their account settings. Once accepted, you can start promoting yourself and looking for virtual punters. There are two promotion plans, the Free plan, which is restrictive on advertising and the premium plan, which allows far more choice in advertising and self-promotion.
The premium plan currently costs 50 Rays a month, but an active WG would expect to earn that back very quickly, so it’s always best to opt for premium if you want to become a Working Gal/Guy.
Utherverse vs Red Light Center
This is an area where many RLC newbies get confused.
What exactly is the difference between Utherverse and Red Light Center?
The fundamental difference is the content that you will be exposed to.
RLC is an adult-orientated virtual world that promotes virtual and cybersex in its meeting spaces, while Utherverse is available as an online meeting spot for anyone over the age of 13. Needless to say, if you are looking for adult content, you need to be playing RLC rather than the Utherverse version.
Utherverse is also launching its WebWorlds platform. This will be an MMORPG aimed at commercial users and is designed to be a place for users to meet for business. On that basis, it definitely won’t be hosting any sexual content.
If you want to access the adult content, or get your kink on, you’ll need to load up Red Light Center.
Is RLC Based on Amsterdam?
Only loosely.
A lot of the architecture is distinctly Dutch, and it has the same kind of vibe (of Anything Goes). While RLC may be inspired by Amsterdam, it is not a virtual recreation of the city’s famous red light district.
Much of the game world is customised by individual users.
Exploring the Virtual Worlds in RLC
If you get tired of the main RLC world, there are other locations to explore — including the additional worlds of Loki Land and Virtual Vancouver — giving you plenty of space to meet up with like-minded users.
The most advanced of these game worlds is Virtual Vancouver – plainly chosen for virtual immortality because Utherverse Digital Inc is based in the Canadian city. The digital recreation is a lot more cultural than the main RLC world, and is filled with notable landmarks from the real Vancouver.
This section of the RLC universe is more focused on art galleries and meeting places, like coffee shops, so don’t expect the same kind of explicit content here as with RLC.
You can browse a useful directory of RLC venues over on Creep3D’s Virtual World Web directory.
What Could Be Improved In Red Light Center?
Obviously, the closer to reality virtual games of this nature get, the more involving they become. The overall user-experience (UX) of Red Light Center could definitely do with an overhaul.
While the movement and actions – including the sex animations – work fairly well, there is no doubt that the game is feeling its age.
Since the game is constructed using the powerful Unity software package, which is always being improved, we’d love to see a future version of RLC that brings the game up-to-speed with some of the more sleeker virtual sex worlds in the genre. The last major update was in 2022, but the graphics are still a little… underwhelming.
RLC is currently only available on PC, and the company could dramatically increase their user-base by making a mobile-friendly version. Alas, it seems unlikely we’ll be getting a mobile version anytime soon.
Is RLC Safe To Play?
Yes, mostly.
Utherverse Digital is a professional developer and has invested a lot of resources in to keeping the game safe, secure and protected from malicious third-parties. But as with any game where you interact with other real-life users, you have to keep your wits about you.
Revealing any personally identifiable info is a big no-no for most players. Although some users have ended up meeting ‘outside’ the game world, and even getting married!
In-game safety is pretty good, to be fair. Through the extensive use of guides, protectors and moderators, any unsavoury users are quickly weeded out, and if a user experiences poor behaviour, it is easy to report and action will be taken quickly.
Make no mistake though, RLC is definitely not safe to play in a work or public environment, and if you fancy spending your lunchtimes chatting with online users in RLC, your boss is likely to be marching you the HR pretty quickly.
RLC is overtly sexual in nature and is best suited to private playing areas, so accessing it through a PC in your local library is likely to draw gasps of dismay from those around you.
What Does It Cost to Play RLC?
The program downloads and installs for free and within a few clicks you can set up the game.
Once you have created a user profile and set up your avatar, you can delve right in.
However, if you are a free-to-play user, then you will be restricted to chatting and exploring the environment. To go further with other users – and by that we mean having virtual sex – you will need to pay the monthly subscription to become a VIP or even Ultra VIP member.
At the time of writing, VIP membership will cost you $19.99 a month, and Ultra VIP membership is a little more at $29.99 per month.
| 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 |
Part of the fun of RLC is the interaction with others – whether they be WGs (who charge) or normal users for whom you could buy drinks and gifts to help attract them to you.
If you want to buy property, you will need to either earn or purchase Rays, and so there is likely to be an ongoing spend to really appreciate the gameplay, but that is likely with almost any MMORPG.
RLC System Requirements
You will need to be running a Windows PC to access Red Light Center.
RLC can be pretty heavy on memory, but it’s nothing that a PC from the last couple of years can’t handle. Utherverse advise that the minimum system requirements to run the game are:
- Processer / CPU – Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Equivalent
- Operating System – Windows 7 or Higher
- RAM – 2Gb.
- Hard Disk Installation – 3 Gb.
- DirectX – DirectX® version 9.0c
- Video Card – Must support DirectX® 9, with a recommended minimum of 64mb on-board memory.
- Sound Card – DirectX® 9 certified sound card
- Connection – Multiplayer via Internet DSL or High-Speed Internet connection.
Remember, the more powerful and faster your system is, the better the gameplay will be.
This becomes particularly apparent if you enter a part of the game world with lots of different users interacting. Heavily populated orgies are much more likely to drain your system resources than a one-on-one encounter in a private apartment!
Is Red Light Center Worth Playing?
Red Light Center may have aged over the last couple of decades, but it’s still one of the finest examples of a multiplayer sex game done well.
At the most basic level, RLC is a well-constructed virtual world that is akin to Second Life, though not quite as polished.
However, RLC has the added incentive of virtual jiggery-pokery, which includes ‘guided’ sessions with working girls. It’s much more catered to sex, and on that level, it certainly delivers. You can get a similar NSFW experience on 3DX Chat, which we’d argue has better graphics and realism.
For the RLC die-hards, moving to 3DX would be sacrilege. After all, this is a game about community. You forge your own path in the game world, and all of the sexual encounters that it entails.
Undoubtedly, RLC is a fun game that isn’t as hard on your wallet as some other games in this genre. Through the inventive gameplay and safe environment, it is suitable for any horny adult gamers looking to get their rocks off with other real-life users. And it’s cheeky enough to raise a few smiles along the way.
Sign up on Red Light Center to get started with your own digital avatar.
That wraps up our RedLightCenter review. Have you played the game? What did you think?
Let us know what you thought of RLC, and whether you’d recommend it to our readers!
