It should come as no shock that where there is new technology, there is porn. Virtual reality, unsurprisingly, creates massive market opportunities for adult content. However, if you’ll pardon the pun, it’s not the size that counts but how you use it, and porn company Naughty America wants to know what turns players on. With the goal of expanding their porn business to gaming consumers, they had a booth at this year’s E3.
Basically, these VR experiences put you inside the action by giving you a virtual body. Instead of just watching people have sex, you’re a passive participant through a virtual body. The performers talk to you as well as perform other acts on your, um, joystick. Naughty America VR puts the consumer at the centre of the action.
And this means a lot of communication before you dive into VR porn. Choose your scenarios and act wisely, because when it works, it’s pretty hot—when it doesn’t, you’re up close and personal with some seriously nasty stuff.
Naughty America is aware of the customization challenge.
Speaking to the booth reps, I was struck by how thoughtful and considerate they were. They’re aware of the immersion issues inherent in giving a person a virtual body, and they want to be respectful of women in the adult space. In fact, while the male point of view demo had a mute viewer proxy, Naughty America added reaction sounds to the female point of view because test viewers thought that the mute version felt too much like rape. These pitfalls inherent to the place where sex and tech intersect have Naughty America very interested in how to appeal to gamers. They’re very aware that gamers are much more likely to be early VR adopters, so how do you “git gud” in interactive sex apps? There’s a lot they still don’t know, and they’re quite open about that.
Right now Naughty America’s content is on the Gear VR headset, which means there’s no image behind you during a scene. This has apparently delayed their forays into gay VR porn. Yes, that’s funny, but it’s also true. Beyond this, however, the Naughty America reps said that they’re still doing market research on gay VR, saying “we want to be sensitive and not be straight people telling gay people what they should want.”
The female performers in the demo for Naughty America VR were more enthusiastic talking directly to a camera than the man anyway. VR may cross a threshold in porn where acting now actually does matter. The success or failure of this format will, I believe, lie in the ability for the performers to maintain the reality of what’s going on. I found that when the performers broke eye contact with the camera, it started to feel silly.
Some of it was also too much for me. For instance, having a woman pull out a series of large anal beads right in front of my face was… Well it was gross. I’m sure it will turn some people on, but the turn offs as well as the turn ons in VR are understandably more extreme. There was also a displacement that came from the demos being viewed sitting down, while the virtual body was lying on his or her back. It was also a bit disconcerting that things like body hair were a different colour than I’m used to. Again, that might get some people off, but options are going to be a big part of this type of adult entertainment.
There’s an inherent curiosity in seeing how sex works with another type of plumbing. The most interesting part of it for me was the first person view of sex with man parts; seeing how the other half lives, so to speak. Yes, it’s fantasy, but I think that sex is inherently more personal (meaning less objectifying) when the gimmick is that you’re a participant.
So VR porn has a lot of room to… ahem… grow, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it develops…for professional reasons only. Really.
