Red Light Center’s Web site describes itself as the Internet’s most sophisticated and advanced adult visual reality universe – which is, essentially, a nice way of saying it’s a massive online orgy space for the anti-social.

But I’m not one to base my opinion just on press clippings, so I took it upon myself to dive into this virtual world of hookers and sexual experimentation – strictly for the job, of course.

The first thing I noticed was the $20-a-month price tag they charge in order for anybody to interact in this environment without getting bored (I thought free trial meant free). If I were to pay the $20, I would be upgraded to “VIP” access. But the problems didn’t stop there.

I couldn’t get the program to download to my personal computer, an Apple. Doing a little research, I found out that the program isn’t compatible with Mac systems.

I don’t know about you, but if I was designing a computer game, I would make it available for multiple operating systems, seeing as that would increase my chances of making at least twice the amount of money.

So I convinced my roommate to let me download it on his PC. I then started to fill out the online forms asking me questions about my personality. I thought it was rather interesting, but strangely reminiscent of MySpace.

After that, I spent about five minutes making my generic-looking avatar before exploring the online community, where I ran into problem number two. When I tried to have one-on-one conversations with people, I wasn’t allowed. Apparently, without shelling out the cash, I couldn’t talk to anyone.

At this point, I pretty much wanted to punch the computer screen.

So I decided to walk around and listen to other peoples’ conversations, which ranged pretty much from what sexual positions they wanted to try to where they wanted to go for dinner.

It was interesting, however, to see the variety of virtual nightclubs (which played really crappy music that automatically triggered my avatar to dance), hotels, bars, movie theaters and stores.

The downside to that is my lack of VIP status kept me locked out of half of them, further restricting my research experience.

RLC has been come to be known as a spin-off of the more widely recognized Second Life. Having tried out both games for a short period of time, it is obvious that Second Life, which is essentially the same, except that it is more open, gives more of a virtual interaction experience without the kinky diversions.

According to an article on wired.com, RLC has 40,000 members, ten percent of whom have paid the price to become a virtual VIP.

It also found that men are more patient than women in dealing with the games flaws.

Well, I’m a lot less patient than the average person, so I got frustrated pretty quickly. But when it comes to the RLC, it’s just way too restricting for my taste and budget.

So if you’re a cheap college student, take my advice and bank your twenty bucks in something else. You know, like a real hooker or something.