I only read about Tamanous LAST NIGHT, so I thought "Hey, I haven't heard about these on Dumpshock before, let's go see what's up" and right at the top...

interesting how a "joygirls" topic naturally leades to Tanamous.

Dead hookers and all that. No more leaving htem under the mattress for some kids to find. No no no, now you can get your money back and then some!

Even by todays' standards an intact healthy body is worth around $60k in parts to businesses that deal in that sort of thing (yes there are businesses for that).

that's the most recent quote I've seen form a news article a couple of months ago. The one concerning the guys that ran a mortuary in (I think) N.Y. that were taking parts out of bodies that were supposed to be buried 'whole', and replacing them with 'filler's. Like a shin bone that was taken for marrow, replaced w/ PVC pipe.

Is prostitution still illegal in most places? I would have assumed that the megacorporations, or at least other enterprising firms, would have started a drive to make for decriminalization and perhaps even some form of industry certification.

"Don't worry, hon, I'm fully licensed by the EVO Corporation. You can even check the results of my last medical examination at the CrashCart Clinic. Here, I'll send it to you, what's your commcode?"

Nothing would be so awfu- I mean fitting in a "sorta cyberpunk" setting like Shadowrun like having a legitimization of "casual prostitution" for some disposable income by corporations. There's nothing like cheap, reliable and widely-accepted licensing of prositutes to keep the levels of consumption up in bear markets.

I'm smirking at the idea of an entry-level businessman/marketer getting real excited during his interview with Mile High Escorts (a subsidiary of the Horizon Group) and educating himself on various studies done on worker efficiency in a brothel environment versus the escort service and independent-contractor business models...

I mean, there's money to be made, how are coprorations going to stop themselves from pursuing it voraciously?

it is illegal in alot of places, seattle bieng one, just the cops are too over worked and have more important things to worry about then the softcrimes.

Well prostitution is not illegal in my homeland, still there are lots of shady dealings and org. crime involved in the market! Since not many hookers like to do the job and they also tend to burn out with time, there is always a great demand for fresh flesh, which is attended to, in part, by "slave traders", that illegally import the meat from countries with less fortunate living standards and force them to work in the brothels or on the street.

also the more nasty variants like bunraku (using illegal BTL-technology), children or other sick stuff will likely not be legalized, even by extrateritorials (too much bad pr).

Hmmm Germany, bring me back to many adventures and having to make a couple of charactes due to shoot first ask questions later

Doesn't Aztlan have prostitution provided for by the company, with the level of quality depending on your level in the management ladder?

I´m not a crack regarding the novels, but one of my players told me about something similar with Yamatetsu once.
For sure, the corps would have trustworthy services at hand (in-house ore outsorced) to keep ther valuable employees from getting involved with possible information and security leaks.

Yamatetsu, eh? I'm getting an image in my head that they kept an in-house collection of geisha, or something similar. Perhaps Yamatetsu's metamorphosis into Evo could lead to a slow but assured fundamental change in the corporate culture from a "good little keiretsu" into a harder and more competitive firm where these higher-class 'geisha' slowly devolve into middle or lower-class 'joygirls' due to changing expectations. It's not exactly a pretty thought, but fitting in a cyberpunk/everything-going-down-the-tubes sort of way...

@ Mr. P
I still don´t get it. So you lost some of your charakters in an advanture in the german allied states?

ah don't worry , it's nothing: just my pointless rambling.

Yea, I´m getting used to it, just don´t let "you know who" see, how we are derailing this threat

Does mentioning his name actually summon his attention, like I suspect?

oh you make me laugh.

But really, JoyGirls provide a service for runners in need of love, and also some times great leads to adventures like in Mr.J's black book, i based a 6 hours session on keeping a hooker alive.

There that should hide any suspsion of derailment.

Has EVO become harder? The impression I got was that it just got itself a purpose. A rather creepy purpose, but one that suits street sames just fine.

seams to me, that EVO has jumped the Protheus waggon, maybe thay are prepairing for the scorch (whenever that will be, may be some centuries or 1-2 milenia). There security may have become more rough, since they integrated a lot of russian ex-militaries and MVD-men. Allso there are to be some russian execs (especially in space and naval assets). Thes might have a less polite take on bussiness then ther japanese and other PacRim colegues.