SXSW panel explores virtual reality porn: ‘more eye contact and dirty talk’
As an experience, it was more bizarre than erotic, but VR porn is gaining a highly engaged following of fans. Now 2D porn is not enough – they want to feel as they are in an imaginary world having sex with fantasy women. Eventually, some suggest, “teledildonic” technology will enable them to feel sex as well as see it, though a strict patent, according to delegate Ela Darling, has prevented technological developments in this area.
At the moment, virtual reality porn is largely aimed at heterosexual men. Dinorah Hernandez, the content manager for BaDoinkVR, a subscription site which includes virtual reality scenes, says that she soon discovered that users of the site did not want the male actor to make any sounds, or to touch the female actor, the better to preserve the illusion that she is having sex with them. “People are requesting less sexual positions and more eye contact and dirty talk and being close to the camera,” she said.
However, her fellow industry insiders agreed that as VR grows in popularity, porn will be made aimed at female and gay audiences. “The market is males,” said Hernandez. “We have released scenes from female perspective, and got a bashing because it’s a ‘gay scene’. But one user said his wife enjoyed it.”
Fabien Grey of AliceX, another site which uses virtual reality for users to interact with women live on camera, said VR porn users are more engaged: they are four times more likely to return to the site, and spending six times more money than on a regular “cam show”. “It has to do with an emotional bond that a user is prepared to build up,” he concluded.
“When you’re in VR you feel like you’re in the same room with this person, and if the artifice is apparent then you feel like you’re with a hot girl and she wants nothing to do with you.”
See the full story here: http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/mar/18/virtual-reality-porn-sex-sxsw-panel