An unusual blog from me where I speak about my experiences and experiments in VR porn.
Will I embrace a future ?
What I love about the sex industry is the forward focus on how to embrace technology to further the engagement and involvement of one’s expression of one’s sexuality.
As many of you know, I can be seen on the webcam site, LiveJasmin, which I’ve been a member of for over 8 years, yet I did take a break for a while. It was a great way to see and experience the many and glorious ways humans wish to express their sexuality, and during my time I was exposed to many various forms of fetishes and quirks of the sexuality spectrum.
One advantage to webcam sites over standard porn tube type sites is the interactivity of the webcam experience. You actually get to direct and get “involved” in the action that’s happening. This level of interactivity keeps a human edge to what can be a usually disengaging experience due to being put upon via a one dimensional viewing image.
I will state that the experience wasn’t always a pleasant one as the anonymous nature of the service – sometimes I can’t see or hear the client unless they opt in; they could at times treat me a bit like a piece of meat.
Now I have no issue with consent to perform said actions and yet at times there were clients that felt entitled to try to make me do things I’ve already mentioned were never going to happen, and I’ll state that I feel this is due to the limited interactivity that a one dimensional image projects. It’s this very disconnection that is creeping into porn as a whole, which leaves me worried.
Now I’ll state I don’t have an issue with porn at all- my brethren do a fantastic job of producing product that is designed to excite and titillate- and yet I do find myself concerned with how the product is consumed. I look at porn a lot like I look at alcohol. I’ve no issue with the product itself, but the way it’s consumed worries me.
It was this issue that brought me into personal sexual services and escorting today.
With this short introduction of my understanding and background I’ll now delve into my VR Experiment.
I first started off with getting a very cheap unit from Kmart. When I say cheap I mean essentially it will do almost everything a normal VR headset will do to view VR porn. Things like computer or console VR headsets are a totally different beast, and are making computing calculations at another level, and don’t bring anything new to the equation of a rolling movie and yet are more comfortable and have access to buttons, although I found that the better sites have worked on providing a mostly ” hands free ” experience…
More on that later..
So my first port of call was one of the biggest sites on the net- YouTube. I used this first as I figured that with the amount of development google has put behind Google Cardboard they’d have been able to work something out.
It did take a while as it was somewhat annoying to work out the placement of the phone in the headset. I didn’t use the spacers provided and my phone kept resetting. I cursed the company for hours before persistence beat resistance and of course… user error was involved. These headsets do pretty much fit any 4.5 – 6″ phone nowadays. Just work with it.
I searched the term VR Girlfriend and it seems that the Asians have been working on this for a while. It may also have a lot to do with their censorship laws and cultural differences, and yet it was a brilliant introduction to what’s possible.
It is quite annoying to have to set up the video on your phone first- click the button to make it a VR view- see picture – and then slide the phone into the headset and place it on your head.
You can’t really fast forward or move the video in any way while wearing the headset and yet the whole idea is to experience the video in totality, so I’ll mention it did take me a while to adjust to that.
You are watching a different experience. The fact that you can’t essentially control the action is in fact ‘reality’ and if engaged adds to the experience.
Now here’s where it got interesting. Your movement beyond anything but your head isn’t registered, but when viewing a gorgeous woman the little micro movements made even when perceiving to keep the head still are reflected in the movie and this really adds another level of ‘reality’.
I found myself many a time trying to reach out and grab what was in front of me. A great example of this is when I’m lying on the floor and an Asian woman was standing above me. POV has been done in porn for a long time and yet, these micro movements really helped with the suspension of disbelief.
I’m fully aware that the woman wasn’t actually standing in front of me and yet many times my desire to reach out and test this reality was very high. It’s this level of interaction which will bring porn into another dimension.
It will also bring in a higher level of engagement and involvement into what’s happening on screen, even if predetermined. Because that’s what happens at the movies. The movie is already predicted beforehand and yet you yourself bring in a element that makes the action more three dimension and ‘real’ for you at the moment. It’s effect is greater. While porn doesn’t have the very complex story lines that can be found in even the most rudimentary Hollywood blockbuster, the environment created to ‘bring one’s self in..’ is incredible.
I could even browse the collection of clips with a pointer in my line of sight, and when the pointer was over a certain button, a countdown timer would indicate a button press as the next action. Movement away would stop the countdown. An innovative and clever way to offer a hands-free environment.
So in closing I’d invite those that own a smartphone can take a trip to Kmart and buy a $10 unit and join the experiment with me. Is it a complete game changer yet ?! …. No. Is it exciting where this could possibly go.. Absolutely!