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Japan's First VR Porn Festival Shut Down Due To Unprecedented Popularity (dailymail.co.uk)
turkeydance quotes a report from Daily Mail: A Japanese sex festival was over prematurely as herds of virtual porn fans caused overcrowding fears. Streams of locals were looking to get their hands on the latest inventions from the adult entertainment industry in the first festival of its kind -- the Adult VR Fest 01 in the Akihabara region of Tokyo. But fans of virtual reality porn, which re-enacts sex and other acts using a blend of simulation headsets, male-friendly sex toys and other gadgets, were left disappointed as the event was shut down due to unprecedented popularity. A Japanese reporter told VR Talk: "For those who did get to go inside, excitement ran wild. I'm not entirely sure if the same thing would happen in the U.S., but VR porn enthusiasts rushed to have a go at some of the latest virtual reality gadgets." About 20 fans were able to make it inside, but the event was reportedly called off due to the unsettling crowds gathered outside. VR Talk also reported that Google searches for the phrase 'VR Porn' have soared nearly 10,000%.
If it's a VR festival, why did anyone have to attend in person?
Not the first time VR porn fans have finished prematurely
Of course it didn't happen, it's virtual reality.
Bog knows what turns people on these days.
My eyes! The googles! They did something.!
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Surely they mean it got shut down because too many people came...
You don't say, the turnout of an event that has never happened before has no precedent?
Amazing....
Akihabara was a lot cooler in the late 70's; gas-powered RC cars dangerously weaving between your legs, straw baskets full of electronic components... and the best okonomiyaki this side of Kansai. The best part? The "Japanese national obsession with all things twisted and perverted" was kept relegated to the "etchy manga" that businessmen would read on the train ride home - which was obviously not at all healthy but certainly far more pleasant for the rest of us...
A Japanese sex festival was over prematurely as herds of virtual porn fans caused overcrowding fears.
Are they certain that is really why the festival was over... uhh.. prematurely?
The octopus got tired.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Here in the UK it's now commonplace to live with parents into your thirties. I do. For the same reason: House prices and rent have reached the point where most single people can't afford to live on their own. The options are to see almost all your income disappear on rent and bills, or accept the indignity and stay with the parents.
I'm amassing savings, but you can't even get the most basic hovel of a flat in the south-east for under £100,000 now.
The usual jokes aside, this is going to be a part of our future. VR is going to change human sexual interaction just like ubiquitous communication devices (phones) changed social interaction. Combined with task-optimized haptics to provide the tactile feedback, and given the importance of sex (or rather, orgasm) in the human experience, and it can't not change things.
Whether it changes things for the better or the worse remains to be seen though. Japan already has a birth rate problem and this isn't going to help. Which isn't to say that the tech shouldn't exist, only that one could very easily see it as exacerbating the problem. It may very well force Japanese society (and other societies as well) to finally address the issue and enact structural change to make rearing children more desirable.
The bigger question is whether this can be meaningfully used as a tool to improve human interaction. In both Japanese and Western societies, so much emphasis is put on your first time. Maybe this improves that, reducing the massive social threshold that comes with sex and at the same time producing a generation of young adults who are more confident with sex, what they want from it, and what they expect from each other?
No matter how it ends up, it'll be interesting to see how it evolves.