Wednesday, February 15, 2012

The Return of Bay Club

Furry clubs in Second Life generally have the same theme: provide music everyone can dance to and goofing off after a hard day of work. Also "Tail Sales" come into play to raise money for the clubs, and offer you to "buy" that furry you always wanted.

Then came the Bondage and Yiff club, or Bay. The BDSM slant, which was almost lacking (except for Furr in Chains) came alive with Entangledwolf "Entangled" Snowpaw’s club and hard work to keep it up. I was put off a couple times as he was busy with something, but I did get a chance to interview him and here’s what he had to say.

When he first started, he had a mere ¼ sim when he got the idea from his buddy Red. Even by just messing around and positive word of mouth, 2 weeks later Entangled’s basic version of Bay became more popular than Furr in Chains the other furry BDSM club in existence. When Entangled got on his feet and decided he wanted to go further, he stepped forward and bought the sim from Red and created Bay.

I asked Entangled how his club became popular and rose above the rest. He answered, "Well I attribute this to a few things.... one better advertising and the funding needed to run a club. People rarely realize how much these places cost." Entangled said running a club his size costs 325-350 US dollars a month, "They build themselves a club then when they open, lack funding for contests, streams, or anything else."

He mentioned that he modeled his club after IYC based upon the layout and how well managed the club is. Based upon logistics and layout and the need for empty spaces, also that IYC is a large club to draw people to.

Bay indeed did become a popular draw for furries and a hot spot. Sadly Entangled had some health issues and had to close the club for a few months. Lots of people were sad when the old bay closed down. Amazingly however when word came around SL that Bay would reopen its doors, lots of furries jumped for joy hearing their fave hang out was being brought to life.

Entangled was saying the traffic isn’t quite as high as before. However there’s always new furries and humans coming into Second Life as fresh blood to hang out. Entangled also said that a major challenge is finding staff to maintain his club as sometimes older players of SL get bored and leave. I asked him what he’s hiring for. He answered escorts, bar staff, security and DJ's. I asked to make sure, and Entangled said humans are welcome just like the furry crowd. However to work at Bay you need a furry or neko avatar. Simple enough if a human wants to try out a bartending job.

So even if you’re not into BDSM, but you’re looking for a nice place to hang out, or even if you do like BDSM, stop by Bay and meet new friends furry and/or human.

I might be there to serve you a drink. Entangled rehired me when he reopened Bay. ^.^

Grease Coakes

1 comment:

  1. Sadly, this venue has been purchased by Leopard Adored/ TP Fizzle. It seems the place is now used to advertise his "company" Vivid Animations, Leopard has a long history of running clubs down to the ground. WFA (Wold Fur Association) The Cor and a few others that soon closed after he up rooted staff and then ran them the ground, no club he has every owned has lasted more than a year. He tends to treat residents as disposable. So sad for BaY, it was a very nice place under former ownership.

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