PlayGirl
site reviews > Muscle & Jocks > PlayGirl
For well over 20 years, Playgirl has been a legend. With a focus on model-quality men, the magazine carved out a niche for itself, and now the website is trying to fill that niche online. Playgirl has always addressed their magazine to a primarily female audience, but has always had plenty to offer men who are into the type of handsome hunks that are the Playgirl speciality. I first reviewed the site about 10 months ago, so when word of recent improvements reached me, I was happy to get the chance to take another look at Playgirl!
The Playgirl member home page has more menus than your average site. There is one at the very top of the page, which doesn't link to content sections but to things like FAQ and HELP. There is a menu below it to the right that links to the site's 4 main sections, and a menu on the far left that links to the 4 main section and also to each section's subcategories. On the right is a big thumb of a guy and links to his movies. Beneath is a link to next month's Playgirl Magazine online, along with a list of the main features and a pic of the cover. And beneath is a link to an article with an ad to the right and an advertising banner at the bottom of the page.
There are some changes to Playgirl since we visited last. My favorite is that now instead of giving members access to 3 months of the online magazine, members now get access to the last 12 months of magazines online as well as 3 "Special Magazines", which have special themes - all themes having to do with hunky men ;) The sections on the main page menu has changed, and the articles and pictorials sections have been consolidated into the Library section of EXTRAS.
The movies inside Playgirl are broken into 3 categories - Playgirl TV, Playgirl Blue/ Solo and
Friends of Playgirl. Playgirl TV offers over 300 videos including solo guys, and plenty of guy/girl porn, a lot of which is done in a more stylish, erotica-themed format that regular straight porn. The Blue/Solo section features 42 videos of solo men showing off and jacking off. Some of the videos are actually broken into 2 parts and presented as separate videos, but there are still over 200 movies here for members.
The Playgirl videos are full scenes that are offered in 2 speeds, called high speed and medium speed. All the movies can be downloaded or streamed as you prefer, but keep in mind that the videos here use DRM, which means that it is unlikely they will play for members after their membership expires. The high speed videos are shown at 320x240 with a bitrate of around 700k and the medium speed vids are the same size but with a bitrate of around 300k, which is good for slow broadband but probably too high for dialup users. Sound is good on all the videos
There were some issues I had regarding the videos. One is that even though the bitrate of the high speed movies was well below my connection speed, the videos still had to stop periodically to buffer. Also although I am usually able to save videos from my Media Player after watching them, I was unable to save these or even to hit play and watch them again once they had fully ended, although I could move the slider back to rewind until the vids had finished.
The pics are also offered in multiple sections - Centerfolds has 87 galleries, PGTV Hunks has 32, Erotic Pictorials offers 35 for a total of 154 pic sets. Not surprisingly, the Playgirl photos are mostly professional quality - well lit with great prodution values. On the other had, in size they run from small to medium. If you like studio pics, these are nice stuff.
If you're looking for classic Playgirl, don't worry! The Man of the Month, articles, celebrity interviews - it's all inside the online magazines that you'll find in the main menu. In fact, the magazines actually browse just like the magazines rather than like a website. The last year of magazines including regular editions and specials are all there for members to enjoy.
You'll find various kinds of ads here. There are links in both movies and galleries that say "Friends of Playgirl" that are content supplied by other sites in hopes that you may click their link and join their sites. You'll find links to Dating and Shopping in the menu, as well a banner ad on the bottom of most of the pages. None of the ads is intrusive, so they're fairly easy to avoid.
Playgirl comes through with the quality of men you'd expect. The site has plenty of solo men as well as men with women, and most of the guys are indeed both hunky and horny. There are no dates on any of the updates, but there's a new Playgirl magazine added to the site each month with the men and the articles you'd expect. The videos and pics here are shot by pros and it shows. On the other hand, the videos are shown at 320x240, which isn't very big, and the pics are also small to medium in size. Vids can be downloaded, but they use DRM, so they may stop playing after your membership ends. The bottom line - if you love the men of Playgirl and don't mind smallish videos and some straight porn, this site is everything you'd expect!
Things we liked:
- Exclusive Playgirl content
- Full magazines in online browable form
- Videos downloadable
Things we didn't like:
- Vids and pics on small side
- DRM used
- Content pages can only be navigated one page at a time
Membership prices: ( billing by Paycom )
- Monthly: $24.95 (recurring every 30 days)
- Half year: $59.95 (non recurring)
- Yearly: $99.95 (non recurring)
Reviewed on 2007-09-17
eric | 25 Mar 2008
My rating:
This site is really a waste of my money. Unfortunately, the videos are very poorly made. The couples' scenes focus more on the women than the guys. Straight women are supposedly too squeamish about seeing close-ups and erections. The solos' and couples' videos are organized in three nondescript categories like Playgirl Blue and Playgirl TV, and each category virtually contains the same videos in stock. The lighting in the couple scenes just hide a lot of nudity, if you can believe.
Adding to the frustration, the videos come either as a Quicktime or Windows version, which is not bad if it weren't for their quality: the windows videos keep freezing and their counterpart on quicktime barely reach the size of an index card embedded in the screen. Also, there's just a lot of annoying track music which serves to just detract from the viewing content.
Samantha Jones | 28 Feb 2008
My rating:
I just rented a very, very stupid movie by Playboy Blue. It was supposed to be a hot movie watching guys jack off. There were NO cum shots, the music was stupid and I'm just really pissed off that I wasted my money. I will go to Babeland next time for a real porno with cum shots. This sucks!
Joe | 21 Feb 2008
My rating:
I don't really care much for the newer Playgirl magazines. I had hoped this site would have archived every edition from the beginning, some of it's best days were from 1985-1990. Had they included those magazines online (some of which are impossible to find) I would join right away. The rest of it is crap.
The gay sites are mostly garbage also, so I don't really bother with them. The dialogue is fake, the ages of the models are fake, and why the need to constantly remind us that these guys aren't gay, want nothing to do with gay men, but they will sure take our money if they jack off for us. So the lesson here is what, gay men aren't worthy of even looking at someone like that? I don't get what the developers of these sites are thinking.
Add your own comment »
More comments »