66's current PR is founded on giving the customer the idea this launch is all about them; a newly advanced service that's there for the punter; boosted by functionality added specifically to enhance his fantasies. And to some extent it IS - more choice can never be entirely bad - but there's a BIG counter to that needs to be talked about; stuff that's entirely missing from the operator messaging. Mainly the further evolution of the already troublingly convoluted and now micro-payment infested monetisation hierarchy. 66's latest site proffers a once inconceivable wealth of this.
A previous post of mine (#516) simply didn't do justice to just how all-pervading it is. It's become, IMO, truly central to the nagging negativity that persists for the site's retooling - despite all the good vibes of the (it must be said well considered) PR talk. The bugs the new place has/had are nothing next to the, much more debilitating, labrinthine payment levels. Everything considered the punter is given one main impression on the new site - that
this is a system set up to extort as much as possible in as many ways as possible without offering any variation to anything fundamental onscreen. It screams confirmation that babeland is not here to service its customers the best it can but instead is intended to grant babes the easiest exploitation of the right punters. There for insiders not for 'us'. Expanded capacity to the benefit of the operators more than the average punter (i.e. more babe streams unviewable fta than ever before).
I mean let's look at this in full detail: One punter in one moment in time now has the exalted opportunity to make... One off payments (tips and/or various buzzes)... while paying a ppm fee or fees (private or c2c, a call and/or perv)... sometimes whilst inside another ppm (prem paywall)... all while inside a compelled subscription (site entry). The latter also granting the ability to take up multiple other subscriptions (babe profile content)... which themselves may or may not offer other the option to make more one off payments (ppv contents)! (Some profile content can, alternatively, be purchased as one offs!). That's around a dozen distinct payment forms right there.
A babe can of course have as many punter iterations of all this going on at once as she feels she can give adequate focus to. (We had it reported here that when active with than 20+ punters she struggles to see them all on her laptop screen at once, poor lamb! Now, ask yourself, should this be of particular importance to a service that aims to reach the masses? Do CB babes have this kind of struggle? Or is it only problem because this mindset is looking to pinpoint the ripe individuals?)
This is, of course, on top of all the extraneous activities we had before; all the off site incomes a babe can manage to negotiate: From the likes of some of the most lucrative platforms ever invented for the net (OF), wishlists on the most popular, Amazon, and revenue from sometimes multiple other camming sites (AW, etc.), to arranging illicit sessions on facetime or zoom using paypal or bank transfer. And finally, she can, of course, take the final biscuit - should she wish to lower herself - by toting basely and openly for findom contributions via the likes of CashApp on twitter.
Well that's all very nice then isn't it!!! So, do WE get any new variety in on-stream action for us continuing down this road of endless new payment options? All might be justified if the service was upped to match; if the stream image quality or content was improved to any noticeable degree; if the variation in ways of working were in line with the amount of ways to fork out... But I've seen no sign of any of this as yet. Still babes hiding all over the place. (The very-comfortable-thank-you-very-much 'names' mostly, determined to play only to the most malleable dozen or so folk.) Still very little reason for the new pic in pic feed - the perv stream now being overlayed as an insert to main -
because main cam has less and less utility to it in terms of eroticism (so it might as well not be there if you're perving). And top of the pile: Everything relating to visual restrictions on content must remain the same it seems. Nothing must be allowed to disrupt the main way of working.
Thus, the changes all distill to simple extra ways to pay. And it's this seven circles of payment hell that's become the uncomfortable face of modern babe-ing. This is why once loyal customer are suss, cynical and jaded by this point. It's simply too much (not the value of the credits per se, more the exponential increase in the individual calls to the wallet). It's incredibly wearying and wary making. What was once a beautifully simple fantasy land with obvious return-reward contacts is now a minefield of variable worth; a nontransparent, hard to reconcile jungle of content offerings. The gnawing sense of too many mean spirited presentations adding to the general unsatisfactory approach. Too much that felt inviting about browsing the site has been replaced by this and that nag screen reminding you of the need to comply with the agenda of keeping the payment structure as the single way of working the shows. (Seriously it feels very micro managing - there's even a 'are you still there?' countdown pop up - deployed if you're not 'active' enough on a babe's stream - that kicks you off if not clicked!! Ever feel like you're not wanted just watching? Cause now you will.)
In spite of all this, there remain a few clearly exceptional babes even now. Those 'off message' enough to take a show and punters as they come . Ones that work with a sympathy for their audience that Team66's words "nothing without you" really mean. But god this industry makes it hard to find them! And we desperately need more of them; need to hear their countering voices and to see them at work more often. Against these considerations other irritants are but small potatoes.
I'm still here for those babes. And I'd LOVE to be more positive on the subject as whole. About all kinds of aspects - particularly 66's new direction - but increasingly the shows feel designed for guys not of my kinks; not interested in my money. Interaction too often has the prospect of wading against a heavy tide. This stuff can still rock when they get it right. But the "right" is not only ever harder to find but comes from a lesser starting place - a dodgy predisposition - when so much seems designed to bake negativity into the regular experience from the start. This industry's norm has never been less worthy of custom and that's partly because they keep doing that - building in shit that makes it that way.