The following originally appeared on Reddit as the post Is VR Porn, Porn? A Discussion and was written by MetaverseXXX founder Markus Edge.
We have been debating for over 3 years now if the content we are making is Porn. Yes, we have been calling it Porn, but only because there is no other recognizable word to describe. It really has never felt right to us. The “feeling” of VR Porn seems to be very different than 2D porn in that it is far more intimate, real, and above all when shot and viewed to scale, can be very visceral.
We have given thousands of VR Porn demos here in Vancouver Canada, and the number of emotional reactions be it positive or negative, have been hard to not notice. We have seen tears, excitement, disgust, joy, shock, elation and of course a whole lot of deep sexual arousal, some rather revealing. VR Porn seems to trigger much deeper emotional responses than 2D porn. Many have noted that when they see a model in VR that they find attractive making eye contact with them, the feelings they get are remarkably similar to the feelings they get when the same thing happens in real life at the grocery store, nightclub, subway and wherever else including the bedroom.
Many of you I am sure can relate to it with our porn or the many other great VR Porn studios content here. While we have no scientific evidence, this deeper reaction we suspect is a dopamine release (the reward neurotransmitter in the brain) as your inner subconscious is fooled into believing that what you are looking at, is a real potential mate and not merely an image as is with 2D Porn. In fact, based on the rabid demand we receive asking us to shoot a person’s favorite star “more”, we suspect there may even be some basic bonding occurring here for some people which given the power of this medium is a possibility albeit one way.
It is early days for VR Porn with resolution and field of view barely fooling the subconscious mind. Many need a better quality experience before their subconscious minds are sucked in. We will no doubt get there and the day will come that visually, VR Porn will be “retina” quality with full human field of view. Add in haptic feedback/touch and something to interface with, and you can quickly see where this is all potentially going. 10 years from now getting off with anyone, or anything in VR and feeling very close to the real deal is a very real possibility. This naturally has a whole lot of complications, but that is an entirely different post. This post is about whether or not VR Porn is even Porn.
Is Porn the right term? Is there a better word to describe? Do we need to create a new word? Please chime in with your views and let’s open up the discussion. Perhaps a new term will be agreed upon and propagate around the world from this very subreddit?
Cheers, VRMatthew (AKA MARKUS|edge)
And a follow-up from Markus:
I agree on many levels that it is porn, but when you add in haptic feedback there appears to be a point on this continuum where porn suddenly become the sex trade gone digital. If you are fully visually immersed with no perceptible clues that it is not the real world, and you can touch and feel like the real world, this is more of a sexual encounter than something you simply watch to get off.
Some of the haptics are already available with some coming out that allow a webcam model to touch their clients in real time. Add VR to this recorded or live and I am having a hard time calling this porn.
When is porn on this continuum no longer porn or is it always going to be porn?
VR Pimp: I have pondered this question a few times myself and was happy to see Markus pose the question. My thoughts align closely with what he wrote regarding the use of interactive sex toys. At some point it goes from porn viewing with masturbation to a whole new type of techno-sex act.
Many thanks to Markus for allowing me to re-post his writings here.
