Once upon a time, TVs only had one or two channels, so you damn well better have liked what was on. If you didn't, you were screwed. Slowly but surely, new channels were created and then there were, like, four channels – if you were lucky enough to have all four. And that meant you had cable. And then cable turned into thirteen channels, then 21, then 33, then 60, then 100 and now there are 14 ESPN channels and all of them are playing bowling.
My point is, variety is the spice of life. So naturally, porn sites are going to capitalize on this as well. Which is how 18 Gay Passport, a site that gives members access to eight different genre-specific websites.
So right away, what I love about 18 Gay Passport, is that the member's homepage is incredibly simple. No words, no awkward links, nothing cluttering up the screen, just the eight websites feature at the network and 13 of their most recent videos. It's really easy to scroll down the page To see what sites are offered, and what each site has to offer. The site design is simple and neutral. Nothing too ostentatious, but nothing boring.
Diving into the sites themselves is...strange. Everything's different, but nothing has changed. Say for instance you're really in the mood for twinks, so you check out GoGo Twinks (which, what?). Two-thirds of the screen is video updates, one-third is site navigation: oral, twink, newbie, young, wild, etc. The layout and navigation are simple, the design is generic enough. But then let's say you're in the mood for really big cocks, so you check out Impossible Gay Cocks and...it's the same thing. This makes it easier for you to find videos you like, but it also makes each site blind into the next site, and it doesn't really seem like there's a lot of variety or genre boundaries. Also, I try to be open-minded, but Yaoi Place? 3D Boyfriends? I'm not sure if it's my age or what, but I don't really get off on animated or computer generated sex. It's one of the reasons I don't like using a dildo: if it's not real, it's not worth it.
It's a little cumbersome navigating between sites. Clicking on a site will open it in a new window, but you'll have to log in again. A minor inconvenience, but still. When I want to watch porn, I want to watch porn, dammit. All videos on all the sites can be streamed online, or downloaded as a WMV or Apple compatible file. There is original photo content, but it's pretty vanilla stuff; nothing to get too excited over.
To be really effective, the subsites in 18 Gay Passport would need to create clear genre boundaries and maybe switch it up a little. Make site design correlative to their content. For now, it's the equivalent of 14 channels of ESPN.
Grade: 6.5 generic inches
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