File number one:

"The Los Angeles studio and the Shay Lauren/Rachelle Rocks shows mystery."

I searched thoroughly into the forums, yet never found any information that explained the desertion of one of the most promising initiatives by Totem: an studio located in America. Ethnic and racial diversity wouldn't be an issue at all now, but something happened that remains a mystery.

This is a recollection of the known data.

On February 12, 2008, the thread "American Made???" put the topic about american talent back on the table, but not for the first time, of course.

Latter that same day, Rex acknowledge the thread and made an announcement, mostly generalities, about what was comming:

"We made a verbal agreement with a studio in LA to go there to film a few models with them and then let them film more on their own. So it's coming, but still easier said than done. We need to setup a date, book girls and backup (can't risk no show when u cross the atlantic to film), go there (which means not film in our studio meanwhile), there are numerous technical issues (lights, camera, blue screen etc)... We're a small team and we still need to make sure new models are producer, cleaned and processed, more serveurs are added, customer service is going (over 5000 requests a months right now), hackers are kept out, affiliates are happy, program is bug free, more features are added and so on... Please be patient, we're working on it."

As usually with this things, expectation growth strong, but the news were few. On May 12, 2008, in the thread "Finally a black girl", that involved the return of Felina and some chocolate flavor in VG, the relentless petition for diversity got this answer: "Selection of girls has mostly to do with our location. It's not easy to get black or ethnic girls in France and eastern Europe. We're seting up a partnership with a studio in Los angles, first filming should happen in July. This would give us access not only to most American stars but also to more ethnicity. Stay tuned :)"

The waiting for more news didn't take long this time, cause merely four days latter the partnership with the L.A. studio was confirmed. Also seems that the american partner taste for girls was kinda lousy, cause suggestions for girls were asked to the users. On May 16, 2008, the thread "Top Girls wish list" talked about all this:

"So we made a partnership with a producer in los angeles and we're planning to go there to film 4 or 5 girls begining of July. Our goal is to teach them enough that they can film girls without our help in the future, that would give us access to a complete new world of girls on that side of the ocean.

Thing is we're not very happy with the first lists of girls our new partner sent us for July. So I'd need your help in here to get back to him with a list of 10 girls that would really make a difference.

Please be very realistic, known actresses and top models won't work for us, naming girls that don't live in California is useless and so are posts without pics.

This is going to be a loooong week end ;)"

As expected, it was. The community made a beefy list of proposals. The thread was closed latter, and a new one was opened to compile some of the most popular choices in the thread "Top Girls #2", on June 03, 2008:

"Here is the short list we sent to the producers in LA, thanks for your ideas, I'll keep you posted here.

Jenna Haze
Daisy Marie
leah xoxoleah.com
Shay Laren
Stormy Daniels
Jessica drake
Kristen Price
Stormy Daniels
Tera Patrick
Jesse Jane
Dita Von Tess
***** Laine
Tawny Roberts"

The american producers got two of those chicks, shay Lauren and Daisy Marie. And the date for shooting those hotties was revealed a day latter of posting the news on the thread "Filming Daisy Marie and Shay laren this Monday in Los Angeles", on Jul 06, 2008, providing also some interesting details about the whole process and some cheering thought about the future:

"So we're in los angeles to film Daisy Marie and Shay laren on Monday the 7th. The crew here has been working to prepare the studio for over a week already, final studio setup should start around 8:30, girls are scheduled for 10:30 and 1pm.

Our goal is to train the crew in LA so they can film any girl by themselves after that. For Monday, we chose girls that are known to be very easy to work with. A first shooting in a new studio is always very difficult (having the right blue screen, correct lignts, right camera setings, outfits, contracts etc) and working with smart and nice cookies always help.

We're very excited about what's coming, this should allow us to improve the quality and diversity of our collection of girls."

Well, if Daisy Marie was easy to work with, we'll never know, cause the chick never showed to work. (Man, you can't even trust a porn star. What a world!). Rachelle Rocks took Daisy's place: "So Daisy did not show up and has been replaced last minute by Rachelle Rocks. And she really rocks! The two girls are having so much fun together, I wish you guys could be here :)"

This pics by Rex tell a little of the history of that shooting days.

But then... it was silence for a long time. The expectation that the L.A.studio and the shows taped there turned into dissapointment and latter into indifference.

On August 19, 2008, in the thread "U.S. model release", RAu68 wondered about the whereabouts of the shows and the explicit content. The answer was:

"We're going to process that in September, pretty explicit stuff in there :)" (Hope it's still in there and that the stuff wasn't destroyed during the dark ages that followed the "Bottle incident").

On Octuber 23, 2008, the last news about it that year were a few words that really didn't say anything: "We're working on them this week ;)"

1999 didn't bring too much news either. A sole post, on March 17, 2009, gave some light of hope that the shows still had a chance to be seen some day:

"We're still working on that. We have a frame rate problem with what has been recorded in LA. We got 24 fps instead of 25. We just switched our post production crew to Mac, it should make things easier now :)"

So, the months piled up a brand new year arrived. In the thread "Half-Price Holiday Special", on January 05, 2010, after some debate about the future of the special offer, the VIPs status and other stuff, thegraybeard posted this as one of the many suggestions, bringing the, as in that moment, dead and mostly forgotten Shay Lauren and Rachelle Rocks shows back to the public interest:

"Rex, I know one thing that would make a lot of members happy if it's at all possible.
The Shay and Rachel shoot that has all the tech problems?, I understand there is nothing at the moment that will correct the problems and I understand that it's not top priority at the moment to do so but a lovely suggestion was made by CyberVixen in the thread concerning the shows and that was why not issue the photo shoot pictures ?
It would be a nice gesture on the part of Totem if we could just have the pictures for all the fans since we all realize the shows are not possible at the present and may never be.
Like I said, I don't know if that's possible either but it would sure be a nice move on your part.

Thanks
Graybeard "

The same day, Rex answered: "Shay and Rachel shoot will be published, we're probably going to do our next shooting in January at 30fps and be ***** to resolve that long lasting problem..."

The latest information about this can be found in two short posts dated on Feb 02, 2010:

"Rachelle Rocks went through post production this week (yep, solved all the technical issues) and has been scheduled for release by mid march. The rest will follow ;)"

"Cards made in LA ***** from a few technical problems that we did our best to fix (images were interlaced and 30fps instead of 25 for the techies out there) but the light is great, models are moving and having fun and you'll see what the input of a different (local) director can add. I guess you'll hear first hand comments from the QA soon ;)"

And this story is unfinished yet, but as it was said, it might end sometime next March.

Still, the truth about the abbandoned project of the Los Angeles studio and the partnership with the american producers remains veiled, and maybe it will stay that way...

Somewhere in the distance
Hidden from view
Suspended in the atmosphere
Waiting to come through
Sometimes it's so far away
Sometimes it's very near
sound being carried by the wind
Just loud enough to hear
feel its power within me
Bells ringing in my head
So often I have heard its *****
But forgotten what it said
It's a mystery, it's a mystery
I'm still searching for a clue
It's a mystery to me
shot in the dark
The big question mark in history
Is it a mystery to you?

WOW! Nice "historical drama" read here! Thanks fer the memories...(sniff, sniff)
....However I am strangely filled with the pixel wiggling urge to see Scully do an explicit,"close up on bar" strip Tease & Please, but I DON'T BELIEVE that will ever happen! lol

Thanks DD and plas, for your posts.

Scully, hu?

Well, she's not czech and she's not based in europe, and guess she'll turn down the opportunity to go naughty for us for a modicum salary...

But the same can be said about almost every american pornstar, so what's another spot on a leopard skin? Lol.

Just as a side note to the story above, here some pictures related to a another shooting in the U.S.A. for VG2.

The first picture is about the setting of the studio.

The second one is a part of the "making off" the Linda Tran shows.

Many thanks to Cartref for the info and material provided. ;)

File number 2:

"The pussy and the bottle: The ***** bottle incident"

The history of this forum can't be complete without the most scandalous, most commented and most controversial discussion ever: The Natali Blond clip incident, most frequently brought up as "The bottle incident".

A whole year has gone since that, and the repercusions are still present and generating controversy. Mine is not at all the intention to open the can of wurms again nor to restart a discussion about something discussed to the exhaustion before. I'll remain as factual as possible.

On the other hand, it's a little difficult to write the story down, cause most of the posts related were placed in the platinum forum and i won't bring quoted chumps to a relatively open forum. Ok, here we go.

The "What"

The whole scandal is about the few last seconds of a clip in the Natali Blond's card "Street Style", clip a0491_33405, where she is playing with a little bottle of lotion and, seemingly, inserts the tip of the cap of the mentioned bottle in her vagina, simulating a brief masturbation. The view is not frontal, so i can't say for sure if it happened. The angle doesn't helps. Still, Stanzeflasher assured that it was a pretended insertion and he was there, so i will go with that and with what i can tell after watching the clip many times now. Anyway, that is just my perception, you might want to watch the card for yourself and come to your own conclusions.

The "Who"

The user jununger, a moderator at the time, made the aforementioned clip paramount making his perception of it public in the forum with the thread "You just crossed the line Totem!", on January 24,2009, comparing the bottle with a sex toy and alleging that Totem had a no toys, no insertion policy violated by the clip, and demanded the removal of it at once. As usual, the opinions clashed about the topic. Not see any case to bring them up again, let's just say it went nasty.

On January 25, 2009, Rex said that it was ok for them to let the girls playing a little with themselves, but that toys were out of the equation and reconigzed the clip as an "slip". That might settled down the issue, but jununger accepted nothing but the deletion of the clip, that was and it's still on, (thankfully, i'll say), and restarted his effort to erase the clip from the face of the planet. More ugly controversy followed to that and the thread was finally closed, but not before jununger resigned to his position as a moderator on the thread "My official resignation as Moderator at VirtuagirlHD.com", on January 26, 2009.

The "Consecuences".

The bottle incident would be nothing but a long time forgotten thing, but the outcome to that was the beggining of the censured shows, starting with the next Natali card released after the Street Style one and almost every single card that followed to that, when the ***** fadings and untimely cuts began to spoil the pleasure of many and generated the most prolonged period of discontent and controversy that still goes on. That's why the bottle incident is a recurring reference in the forums, even if the incident itself might not be the ultimate reason for the downfall of the explicit content, it started it.

The "Weird".

How it gone to the "No toys in VGHD", the original incident, to the banishing of aspects like fingering and the general reduction of the explicit content to a pale shade of it former glory is a mystery and very unclear to date.

The conspiracy theories are plenty, overly discussed and unrelated to this thread. The only fact would be an statement from Rex, on February 27, 2009.

"Where we draw the line is a never ending topic, no matter where we put it, it'll always be not enough for some users, or too much for others. If you feel it's never enough, I understand the frustration when watching a clip fading out when you felt the girlk was going to do more. I don't know which clip we're talking about exactly, so I don't know what she was doing next, could be smothing that crossed the line, could be the photographer saying cut or anything else. In an ideal world, what happen in the studio strictly follow the line, but it's not always the case and it goes both ways (girls being hired saying they do pink ending up being really shy). Current line for VirtuaGirl is a little rubbing, teasing and even fingering are ok, a little masturbation could be fine too given it stays short and tastefull."

For almost a year, the statement about the "current line" was hardly fulfilled or completely discarded.

The "New Line or when the past becomes the future".

And here we are, after almost a year, now with a silver line on the horizon after so many months of controversy.

With the thread "Help us define "tastefull erotic"" by Rex, on February 02, 2010, good news came that probably will put the bottle incident and all that followed that into a resting place for once.

By Rex, on February 04, 2010.

"A 5th level is going to be added to the player with the release of DeskBabes and we were thinking a few clips of VirtuaGirl could now and then enter in this category, pretty much what we had before the "bottle" incident."

By Rex, on February 09, 2010.

"the whole team had a meeting and we all agreed to let the girls go a bit further when they feel it (as long as it's short and tastefull). next girl is coming this friday to the studio, along with a pole dancer teacher that we just hired. I'll be there to see how it goes :)"

As for now, some newer releases are no longer plagued with the bad fadings and cuttings, and all that is left is to wait for the new software and the promised fifth level that could bring us the past explicit quality back and, hopefully, even better than before.

@Oquijan
"How it gone to the "No toys in VGHD", the original incident, to the banishing of aspects like fingering and the general reduction of the explicit content to a pale shade of it former glory is a mystery and very unclear to date."

Not a mystery at all... before the incident the Q&I team never checked or commented on the level of explicitness. That's why the bottle clip could "slip"... after the incident the Q&I and the editors were instructed to watch the "line". Unfortunately they started to delete way to much and fade at any hint of fingering...

Now, one fact that seams to have been totally missed in your recap of the events is the crazy mistake I made... I totally missed Rex topic on the 25th and only saw his comment that the clip would stay... Let's just say things would have been extremely different today had I not missed that one topic created by Rex! *bummer* ;)

Over a year have passed... and hopefully this is the last we ever hear about the "bottle incident"...

Thanks for the info, jununger. It does bring a little light into the censure interrogatives. Still, i guide my recaps for what i can dig out in the forums. If you have a link to a post about the Q&I and the editors part in this, i'll be thankful if you can post it.

Yeah, i left a lot out of the story, it's not a pretty one and since it has been a long time and many active members in the forum were here during the incident, they are very aware of what happened then, the behaviour of all the participants and the repercutions that followed to that, like a year of bad releases, angry divisions among the community and changes that are still taking place.

Mine was just the intention to explain the bottle incident to those who sometimes are left wondering what was all about it when it comes into a discussion, but leaving out all the polemic stuff. It's old news. What's done it's done.

Hopefully, since some cards are starting to be reprocessed, the content of the mutilated shows might also be restored at least a little bit. That, imho, will be the thing that could definitely bury the Bottle incident and turning it into just an anecdote. ;)

Very interesting thread and love your digging! I find the search engine too restrictive for digging, good you found a way around!
Hope to see some more and please guys, let this topic be lead by Oquijan and have him bring some more interesting facts!

i do really like your post, i been a member for a long time but i don't always have the time to read the forum, so i can only chek it once in a while, read your post is great because is like having a resume from all the important things that have happened, well tks a lot Oquijan!!!! Excelent work!

@deszu
Very interesting thread and love your digging! I find the search engine too restrictive for digging.

I agree, the search engine not always shows what you want, even when you have read and know the post that you're loking for :S

Thanks for your generous comments, Deszu and splxs. Glad that you find the thread interesting. ;)

I'll post some new material as soon as i can. ;)

Thank you Oquijan. As both a new member and a history junkie, I find your thread fascinating, and your description of the events surrounding the "bottle incident" has cleared up some of the puzzling references I had encountered on some of the other threads.

Thanks for your comment, horatio14. ;) More stories coming soon. ;)

!

wow, I didn't know what to expect when I decided to visit this thread, but it's very interesting. I didn't know anything about the bottle incident, but now that I do I guess none of it surprises me. That lines been an ongoing issue here. Anyway, cool topic, Oquijan.

Very interesting thread Oquijan,Thank You for Your input.

Here is another piece of information.
2009 is the First Year that Totem did not shoot a special Halloween or Xmas Card.

Thanks, 54lonyludy, DareGirl and Wyldamimal for your posts.

Unluckily, i won't be able to pursue with the thread for the time being. Hope someone can keep the digging going from now on. ;)

See You, when we see You, Oquijan, Keep Well !!
Didge.! :)

Thanks, DD. I won't be active in the forums, but i'll be around. ;)

Sorry to hear that Oquijan. Your contributions to the forum will be sorely missed (by me at least).

I wish you all the best in all your future endeavours.

Spacephantom. Thanks, friend. As i said, i won't be leaving, just won't be posting anymore. I'll be around, feel free to PM me at any time. ;)

The rest is silence... ;)

I hope Oquijan doesn't mind but for the new users i thought i post a pic how the software once looked, especially as we are getting a new version today with V1.0.4.5
I use modified skins here not the original ones. This is just to see how the options were placed and how the calendar looked.
Here is one of of the calendar clad in my transparent Ariel skin.