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The First Real Boom in Virtual Reality? It's Pornography. (wsj.com)

Posted by msmash on from the first-movers dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Pornography has provided the first real boom in VR, and adult-entertainment companies like Naughty America are leading the way. In the 18 months after producing its first VR video, the San Diego-based studio released 108 more, making it one of the most prolific producers of VR content in the world. In 2017, the company operated a booth at the annual International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and became the first adult business allowed to exhibit in 19 years.

It's not surprising that adult-entertainment companies are among the first movers in the nascent VR industry. After adult content helped popularize new media formats like VHS, Blu-ray and streaming video, the idea that porn drives digital innovation became a widely accepted truth. What is surprising is how big VR porn has become, and how quickly. In 2016, Samsung, HTC, Google, Sony and Facebook-owned Oculus sold just over 6.1 million headsets worldwide, according to an estimate from SuperData, a videogame market research firm. In December 2016 alone, Naughty America's customers downloaded more than 20 million VR videos, the company said. VR porn consumers are also more willing to pay for content than consumers of typical online porn.

103 of 194 comments (clear)

  1. Surprise! by Joce640k · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What is surprising is how big VR porn has become, and how quickly.

    LOL!

    Has somebody not been paying attention for the last 30 years?

    --
    No sig today...
    1. Re:Surprise! by sycodon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I believe Porn has led the way in leveraging technology in one way or another since the beginning f time.

      I bet the first Cave Art was probably of naked women. but it was erased by someone's mother.

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    2. Re:Surprise! by CaptainDork · · Score: 2

      I was explaining this to my wife.

      I remember the stir cassette tapes caused where the content went something like, "Baby, oh baby! Do me real good, baby!"

      There was VHS, as mentioned in TFS.

      When camcorders came out, who didn't record home porn?

      Digital cameras made nude selfies a given.

      Then there was usenet where we had to stitch the binary photos using some goddam program I forget the name of. (Help me out here.)

      I showed her the blurbs about remote sex toys and she was all like, "OMG!"

      I said, "Look: You know the deadbolt thingy we grab using our iPhones and the bolt does in and out, in and out?"

      She made the connection.

      Pornographic VR must be nice.

      I have never tried any kind of VR.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    3. Re:Surprise! by jwhyche · · Score: 3

      The First Real Boom in Virtual Reality? It's Pornography.

      Clearly someone hasn't been paying attention. I believe this gets a "No shit Sherlock."

      --
      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
    4. Re:Surprise! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The breeding-related instincts are written pretty deeply into our DNA. People fall into weird ideologies about sexuality, and especially about it being some sort of immature thing to obsess over. But obsessing over it is exactly what we are designed to do.

    5. Re:Surprise! by denzacar · · Score: 1

      I was explaining this to my wife. ...
      Pornographic VR must be nice.

      You might want to start talking to your wife about augmented reality porn now, and the advantages of looking like someone else for your partner while having sex.
      I'm not saying that all women want their men looking like like young Brad Pitt... but there would be certain advantages to virtual beer googles.
      Just don't buy the first product whose demo shows a Brad Pitt jumping out of a basketball court.

      --
      Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
    6. Re:Surprise! by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 2

      Yeppers. People have been saying for decades that porn would be VR's first killer app.

    7. Re:Surprise! by evilbessie · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Yes tech continues to profit off the objectification of women. It's really surprising they can't get rid of the sexism and misogyny which seems to infect the field.

      All work is coerced. Coerced sex is rape.

    8. Re: Surprise! by TimMD909 · · Score: 1

      I used to pay a lot more attention 20 years ago when I was a teenager. Sometimes I'd pay attention more than once a day.

    9. Re:Surprise! by sgt_doom · · Score: 1

      EXACTLY! Porn has looooooong been the driver in tech advances over the decades - - how can this not be understood????

    10. Re:Surprise! by DanielRavenNest · · Score: 1

      Check out the Venus of Willendorf, from about 30,000 years ago. It's a fat carved stone statuette, but this was an ice age, so fat was sexy (built-in insulation). I consider it Neolithic porn.

      Note that very few of our ancestors actually lived in caves. Most of them lived in nests, huts, or other temporary shelters. But such outdoor structures don't leave any evidence after tens of thousands of years, and caves do.

    11. Re:Surprise! by war4peace · · Score: 1

      VR porn is horrible. Imagine putting the headset on, starting some PoV porn and looking down... why the fuck do I, white nerd, have a huge black dick???

      --
      ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
    12. Re:Surprise! by war4peace · · Score: 1

      All work is coerced. Coerced sex is rape.

      Fractured logic detected. Your brain must hurt.

      --
      ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
    13. Re: Surprise! by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      That sounds close to what we used.

      Thanks.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    14. Re:Surprise! by cayenne8 · · Score: 1

      Yes tech continues to profit off the objectification of women

      It's what guys do...it is how we are wired.

      I'll lay money down on it, that no guy in history, walked into a bar (cave, parlor, you name the place), looked across the room and commented..."Boy, I bet she can carry on a great conversation!!"

      The first thing a guy sees in a woman, is if he'd like to fuck her or not.

      Its pretty simple. There doesn't have to be love or emotion involved in it. Sure, it can be there too, but it isn't a requirement to have it be enjoyable, or desirable.

      Sorry if you are female and cannot comprehend this, although some women can.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    15. Re:Surprise! by war4peace · · Score: 2

      I already have big breasts, thank you.

      --
      ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
    16. Re:Surprise! by eaglesrule · · Score: 1

      All work is coerced. Coerced sex is rape.

      I wish you could tell that to the original feminists, the 19th century Madams of the American West and the other 'painted ladies' of the era who became influential to the point of earning the right to vote even before the 19th amendment was ratified.

      Prohibitionists like yourself want to remove agency from women, limiting their choices in gainful employment, as well as stigmatize the role of sex workers. It's toxic feminism at its worst.

    17. Re:Surprise! by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      I don't know about 30 years, the first one I saw was no earlier than 1994.

      But, a long time.

    18. Re:Surprise! by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      I believe Porn has led the way in leveraging technology in one way or another since the beginning f time.

      I bet the first Cave Art was probably of naked women. but it was erased by someone's mother.

      If you look into primitive art, it is highly unlikely that it is the mothers erasing pictures of naked women.

      The two themes most prevalent in primitive art are hunting and motherhood.

      Somebody's mother is more likely to have erased hunting pictures to make room for motherhood pictures, which generally consist of naked women.

      Naked women as porn don't appear in primitive art until the agricultural revolution, when people started living in fixed homes and had leisure time while well fed. Prior to that, leisure time implied seasonal shortages without enough available food to make hunting and gathering worthwhile. So the art themes were usually resource-related; animals, and breasts containing sufficient milk to feed a child.

      Also, starting at that time men appear to have spent a few thousand years making dick pics before they even started on pictures of sex. Women as sexualized art objects came even later than that.

    19. Re:Surprise! by Aighearach · · Score: 2

      I think the key word was "skinny," not "big."

      Everybody knows most of slashdot has giant boobs, it's the chest:waist ratio that leads them to fantasy worlds.

    20. Re:Surprise! by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      Sorry you can't comprehend that you're not brain damaged because you're a man, you're brain damaged because you were fed machismo pap as a child, and internalized it.

      Real men don't have to dehumanize women in order to forgive themselves for not having a giant cock. And real men don't have to blame women for their lack of valuable communication, because they are in fact able to communicate with women, and do get value out of the interactions.

      You're right that it is pretty simple, though.

    21. Re: Surprise! by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Really? What is the earliest art you consider pornography then?

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    22. Re:Surprise! by ayesnymous · · Score: 1

      Not really. DVDs have a "multi angle" feature that was just begging to be used by porn, but AFAIK, nobody used that feature, not even porn. If any feature was meant for porn, that was it.

    23. Re:Surprise! by 91degrees · · Score: 1
      Yes. Men like sex. I had never realised this until you pointed it out.

      All work is coerced. Coerced sex is rape.

      Yay! SWERFs! I guess I don't have autonomy over my own body then.

    24. Re:Surprise! by evilbessie · · Score: 1

      I don't care what you do. I don't think men should be able to buy women as objects, don't think you can separate the sexism. Punish the people buying not those selling. While the top end of the market might be nice, the bottom end, is very much a bad place for women. If it is allowed to exist profiteers will exploit all price points. You can't on the one hand want men to understand consent and on the other hand be in favour of an industry which removes consent from the equation. Money is not consent. Those 2 positions seem to be against one another, my brain didn't like that so it decided to be more consistent. You are free to think and do as you please.

    25. Re:Surprise! by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      Well, I'm not a woman. Are men allowed to buy me as an object? I'm fine with it. They seem willing to pay. You seem to be an interfering prude.

      Do you object to paid surrogacy as well?

    26. Re:Surprise! by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 1

      I bet the first Cave Art was probably of naked women. but it was erased by someone's mother.

      What do you think all those "venus figurines" are? It's all just wank material, stone-age copies of Penthouse to enjoy in private at the back of the cave.

    27. Re:Surprise! by evilbessie · · Score: 1

      You seem to think that men should have a right to sex. So we differ there too. I too am a man, I'd like other men to up their game a bit, male violence is something not discussed enough amongst men. I don't think you can reduce male violence by being OK with violence against women (quite a lot of porn titles are extremely rapey, if that's the experience men are getting of sex what does that do to personal relationships?)

      If society wants to tackle male violence then you also have to look at the rape culture and porn culture and how they all interplay. The incel 'movement' is an example of what happens when men feel entitled to sex. That many mass killers are men who were previously violent to women shows that this is a root cause of many problems.

      I object to surrogacy, paid or not. https://www.huffingtonpost.com... This is literally selling the labour of women for profit. There are so many children in the world who need adoption and fostering care, yet ripping a baby from their mother (the person who gives birth is always the mother) for selling is deemed appropriate in some places over and above looking after already extant children. The world's priorities are fucked as likely is the world.

    28. Re:Surprise! by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      You seem to be projecting your sexual prejudice on me. I have no idea why you believe I think men have a right to sex, or what incels have to do with this. This comes across as anti-male, anti-sex rhetoric using feminist talking points to obscure the general puritanism behind it.

      "Rape culture" is a curious term. I am under the impression that rape is illegal. Is this not the case? I also rather get the impression allegations can destroy the careers of people. Rape is considered one of the most heinous crimes imaginable today. It comes across as a meaningless buzzword. Perhaps you can provide examples to illustrate what you're talking about and how this interacts with this "porn culture" you talk about.

      Sex workers are being sidelined in this debate. How do you respond to their position that making sex work more socially acceptable reduces violence? Let's suppose, hypothetically, that this is found to be the case. Would this cause you to reverse your position?

    29. Re:Surprise! by evilbessie · · Score: 1

      Being as there is much movement to stop the red light district in Amsterdam, because even the regulated markets are bad for women. It's not anti-male (I am male myself) it's trying to make men better. You may think that men are fine, but metoo has shown that on average men suck. You can either try to make men better and call out shitty behaviour in men or you can be part of the problem.

      Go and look at porn titles and see if there is any words implying coercion or rape (drunk, brutalised, pain etc.). I think you'll find there are many. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... If being illegal was such a disincentive then women would not be complaining about the amount of sexual abuse they face. Really the 'boys will be boys' narrative gets far more play than rape bad.

      As I say I am not focusing on the workers employed, I am not the person to ask about that. I am talking about making the buying of sex illegal because legalising it doesn't get rid of the problems it brings. https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/... https://www.spectator.co.uk/20... I believe those selling should be decriminalised, because putting them in jail doesn't help the women escape from the abusive situation.

      Most of the ideas here are not my own, they come from women, if you'd prefer to read the same by a man here http://robertwjensen.org/artic... I would suggest you look at what some women (adult human females) have to say on the topic, there are many reports out there from women who have left the industry, I suggest you go look at what they say.

    30. Re:Surprise! by cayenne8 · · Score: 1

      Sorry you can't comprehend that you're not brain damaged because you're a man, you're brain damaged because you were fed machismo pap as a child, and internalized it.

      Real men don't have to dehumanize women in order to forgive themselves for not having a giant cock. And real men don't have to blame women for their lack of valuable communication, because they are in fact able to communicate with women, and do get value out of the interactions.

      You're right that it is pretty simple, though.

      Hmm...not sure where you read all that into my post.

      I can readily communicate with women, if you can't, you don't get laid.

      I'm just sorry I didn't learn how to talk to women and know their social cues and all at an earlier age, it sure would have made the early teen years easier.

      I never said I dehumanize them, but when I first look at them, I do size them up as to how sexually attractive they are to me...that's normal male behavior.

      Men and women are different, face it. They have different mental and emotional inner workings than men do, nothing wrong with that, just helps to know the differences, and what drives each sex differently.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    31. Re:Surprise! by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      Being male doesn't mean that you're immune from regurgitating anti-male rhetoric.

      Seems that criminalising prostitution doesn't really help that much. And while there are claims that legalisation of prostitution has enlarged the market, that seems to be a problem for the puritanical types who feel this is inherently bad. Evidence seems to also suggest that this "failed experiment"Reduces sexual violence.

      Your proposal appears to be a war on prostitution. Essentially I can't see this as being any different from the war on drugs, except that it pulls yet another underclass into an illegal underground where their protections are even worse.

      I simply can't see how this would reduce sexual violence. Your opposition to porn sounds like it would have completely the opposite effect from what you think. The argument is no different from that of Jack Chick regarding violent video games. Even if we do accept that porn that implies coercion encourages sexual violence, that doesn't justify an opposition to all pornography.

    32. Re:Surprise! by evilbessie · · Score: 1

      Pah it just lost my comment.

      I do suggest you listen to some women and radical feminists for their views, listening hurts no one and the world is a better place when people with divergent views can share them openly without fear. Most of the radical feminists I've met seem welcoming enough if you can manage polite conversation.

      https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplep...
      https://www.theguardian.com/so...
      https://nordicmodelnow.org/201...

      It is not 'violence against women', it is 'Male Violence against women', there is a subject the violence is not committed by the passive voice. I criticise men because I think most men have something to be sorry for, whether it be hands where they were not wanted to rape and murder. I certainly have things I am sorry for. I did at least learn the lessons as a teenager and not repeat them as an adult. Male violence and male socialisation have also caused me worry and pain. So when the house of men is in order I can then feel in a position to criticise others. Until then I will continue to speak out on male violence. You may see it as anti-men rhetoric but you know when you read of a domestic murder, either it was a violent man killing his partner or those rare occasions when a woman abused for years finally snaps and kills the man. You see those same stories in the papers I do. Also male violence affects men too, more than 50% of reported victims of violent crime in the UK are male (90+% committed by males). Yes I get 'not all men' I do, I try to be one of the not all group, don't really need to say it, prefer to do something about the Problem. 100% of rape is committed by men (in the UK at least), it has something like a 2% conviction rate. I don't think men are particularly worried about it. As rape seems to be on the increase data suggests they are not overly concerned with being caught.

      Also speak to your female friends, see if they would agree if male violence is a topic men should discuss.

      But porn is not healthy sexual relationships. It's mostly abuse of women for men's pleasure. It is normalising the abuse of women in relationships. There is no alternative source of healthy sexual relationships available to many. Data seems to suggest abusive relationships are starting in teenage years and the growing asexual numbers who don't enjoy the pornified sex that is portrayed and know nothing else so avoid it all. There are many differing views on porn, I don't think it helps and the normalisation of porn into mainstream culture seems to be damaging some women and men. You can actually act out legally most things in porn so it's not quite the same as video games (I really like shooting things in the head sometimes). But I used porn for many years (never bought sex, never could I see that as personally moral) but started listening to women a couple of years ago. They make a lot of good points and I've not been able to find arguments against them. But a middle aged man can only give you a certain view, listen to others who are not like you, see what they think and then consider the whole.

      But men are the ones most profiting from porn from mostly the labour of women. It's all pretty exploitative. You can't just look at the product but how it's made too.

      If you also look up the nordic model and how it has actually worked https://nordicmodelnow.org/wha... locking up the Johns does indeed solve the problem, providing help to the women, helps the women. If there were not such data on how you can reduce the problem I could see your point. But unfortunately there is data and it mostly shows what to do. If we di

    33. Re:Surprise! by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      I do suggest you listen to some women and radical feminists for their views

      What makes you think I haven't? I have read a lot from SWERF and from sex workers. I feel the sex workers are perhaps a little too willing to dismiss the problems in their industry, but the SWERFs dismiss the sex-workers entirely as an awkward inconvenience.

      those rare occasions when a woman abused for years finally snaps and kills the man.

      You assume, that if a woman kills a man, it can only be because of years of abuse, yet you do not offer the same excuse for men killing women. Why not? Are men never abused? And you say it's rare. While women are more likely to be the victim of spousal murder, it's hardly an rare outlier. We're looking at a roughly 2:1 ratio. Curiously, the rate of violence against women in lesbian relationships is higher than in heterosexual relationships.

      Male violence and male socialisation have also caused me worry and pain.

      Do you feel personally responsible for those who also have a Y chromosome? Why is that?

      You see those same stories in the papers I do. Also male violence affects men too, more than 50% of reported victims of violent crime in the UK are male (90+% committed by males).

      Yes. This is a problem. A serious one. We do need to focus on why these people have such violent tendencies. But we can't assume that since the majority of perpetrators are man, the majority of men are perpetrators. Statistics do not work that way. Instead we should be looking at those who are statistically most likely to be violent. Gender is only one factor. Male on male violence is much higher than male on female violence, but that will include a lot of bar brawls and the like.

      100% of rape is committed by men (in the UK at least), it has something like a 2% conviction rate. I don't think men are particularly worried about it.

      To get to that 2% conviction rate, you need to include a lot of incidents that even the victim didn't consider to be rape. A large number of men are victims of the equivalent crime of non-consensual sex. This is not legally considered rape, and so tends to be ignored, despite being the same crime.

      But porn is not healthy sexual relationships. It's mostly abuse of women for men's pleasure. It is normalising the abuse of women in relationships.

      Of course it's not a sexual relationship. You're asserting that it's abuse of women, without any justification. These are women doing a job and getting paid. And yes, men enjoy it too. There seems to be a puritanical view that this makes it a bad thing.

      But men are the ones most profiting from porn from mostly the labour of women. It's all pretty exploitative. You can't just look at the product but how it's made too.

      I'm not profiting from porn. The producers are, and I guess they tend to be more likely to be male. This seems to be the case in a lot of industries. Female porn actresses do get paid more than men in this industry. But there is nothing linking this to the violence that you're concerned about. Porn comes across as a scapegoat here.

      How successful is the nordic model? Your links don't indicate any reduction in trafficking or in sexual violence,

    34. Re:Surprise! by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      Neckbeards and humans are different, too.

    35. Re: Surprise! by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      I said it above; dick pics were the first porn by thousands of years.

    36. Re:Surprise! by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      so fat was sexy (built-in insulation).

      Being fat was attractive, but not for the "built in insulation". The fat meant that a month or two of poor hunting/ gathering results wouldn't mean the pregnancy aborting or the milk drying up through malnutrition.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    37. Re:Surprise! by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      Naked women as porn don't appear in primitive art

      Naked women as pornography couldn't appear before the widespread adoption of clothing. And if you can remember wanking over your Dad's collection of National Geographic with the bare-titted "ethnic" photographs, you'll realise that what is considered pornographic (or stimulating) is culturally variable.

      the agricultural revolution, when people started living in fixed homes and had leisure time while well fed.

      The evidence is pretty clear that the adoption of agriculture resulted in less leisure time, more stress (from having land, crops, seed stocks and stored grain to defend against both rats and thieves), worse nutrition (including deficiency diseases, due to a less varied diet), and diet-related diseases such as diabetes. About the only thing that improved was the overall calorie count.

      Prior to that, leisure time implied seasonal shortages without enough available food to make hunting and gathering worthwhile.

      Seasonal shortages were why nomadic people moved somewhere else. Once you've got crops in the ground, then you've literally bet the farm on making a success of the agriculture. And you're vulnerable to the local strongman coming along and demanding "protection" for his "defence force" of "soldiers".

      and breasts containing sufficient milk to feed a child.

      You don't seem to understand how the mammalian breast works. The milk gland comprises about an A-cup (does America use the same bra-sizing system as Europe and Africa?) ; the rest is useless fat. Or, if you're a porn star, useless silicone plastic.

      Also, starting at that time men appear to have spent a few thousand years making dick pics before they even started on pictures of sex.

      Hmmm. Colour me unconvinced. I can think of a number of phallic standing stones and a few carvings in the published record, but for the vast majority of megalithic constructions I've seen (hundreds, over the years ; they're pretty common here - I bumped into one just last Sunday which I completely wasn't expecting) look about as phallic as something that doesn't look very phallic. That's dating back to well into the "Bronze Age", if not into the "Copper Age" (which are diachronous units in any case).

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    38. Re:Surprise! by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      If society wants to tackle male violence

      ... stop electing people with their brains in their pricks to political power.

      For which task, you'll have to persuade a significant majority of the voting population. Which you won't do by sitting in your nerd-cave typing on your laptop.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    39. Re:Surprise! by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      You start off with the claim, (paraphrased) "1 can't equal 1, because you didn't count to 0 yet."

      It gets dumber from there.

      No, I didn't claim that agriculture increased leisure time; I claimed that agriculture increased the amount of leisure time that took place on a full enough stomach that the mind might be thinking of other things than food; and I made a connection between the amount of leisure time that hunter-gatherer's have being connected to their resource access. Which is obvious. And furthermore, average leisure time in the community doesn't tell you anything about primitive art, because not every member of the community was equally as productive in producing art. A city with less mean leisure time than a hunter-gatherer village still has much, much, much higher peak leisure time within the community. Is art expected to be produced exclusively by the lower classes? No.

      You didn't even understand the words, why do you bother trying to argue with them? Plus you're spewing words without even thinking about if they make sense. You say I don't understand how the breast works? I'll throw down the gauntlet on that one, moron! Show your work, what words did I use that imply that? Because you seem unaware that lack of food causes a mother to have a hard time producing enough milk. Open a book for the first time in your life. Yesterday in the park I saw 4 deer; a mother, father, and two babies. The mother was furiously chewing leaves; everybody else was standing around. Typical. You don't need to measure her boobs to figure out why she's so hungry.

      Color you stupid, arrogant, and full of shit.

      Seasonal

    40. Re:Surprise! by doccus · · Score: 1

      Um... why am I NOT surprised? What more can be said? Pxrn has led many of the advances in the web, as well as in "popups" .. ;-)

    41. Re:Surprise! by RespekMyAthorati · · Score: 1

      It's not anti-male (I am male myself)

      With a name like "evilbessie". Hmm...

  2. Were you trying to say... by Type44Q · · Score: 1

    Were you trying to say that when VR experiences its first real boom, it'll be porn?? Regardless... that "boom" will have to come first, msmash... something to do with causality.

    1. Re:Were you trying to say... by houghi · · Score: 1

      I thought the boom had passed a few years ago

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    2. Re:Were you trying to say... by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      You've obviously never had a porn site advertising AI think you were Japanese, or you'd know that the boom started years ago.

      Maybe it would help to explain to you that they're often euphemistically called "dating games."

      I remember one of my classmates getting kicked out of the computer lab for playing one after school. That was on an Apple ][ in the 80s. Pre-boom, to be sure.

  3. Re:Not "progessives" pining for President Hillary! by Opportunist · · Score: 1, Funny

    Who'd want porn with that old hag? Even her husband is going for younger game.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  4. VR porn might well be the ONLY porn people pay for by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Every other kind of porn that you could possibly think of you can get for free on the internet. There's literally an endless amount of people very willing to shag in front of cameras and put that online, who'd pay for something like that?

    The only way you could get people to pay for porn anymore is if you can produce some where the production cost is higher than, well, a home video camera and a broadband connection.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  5. VR is at a sad state by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    I fell into the VR trap and bought an Oculus Rift after a demo. I was really excited and my computer a big beast i7 with a 1080ti was more than up to the task.

    Then I noticed all the garbage content and the crap resolution of the headset and it's complete inability to support users that wear glasses. It's certainly a neat idea but the high frame rate requirement to prevent the nausea factor makes the content just looks like garbage. 4k gaming just looks a million times better and on a big display is just as immersive. All the jagged edges of the low poly crap you see in VR is just not worth the price of entry to see.

    VR is not ready for prime time. Computers aren't fast enough to match current state of the art content we have in the non VR world in VR. The headsets themselves are low resolution with optical issues and without the ability to support users who don't have perfect 20/20 vision.

    It's sort of a bad joke at this point for people who shell out the money for a headset that for most users will eventually disappoint them and sit on a shelf collecting dust.

    1. Re:VR is at a sad state by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      Which is why porn is leading the pack. You don't necessarily want mind blistering detail. They're not moving *all* that fast. Content is, more or less by definition, 'immersive'.

      What's not to like?

      Well, not going there....

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    2. Re:VR is at a sad state by Rande · · Score: 1

      It's like the Channel Tunnel. It'll bankrupt lots of companies who try to do it, but eventually it'll get there.

    3. Re:VR is at a sad state by Immerman · · Score: 1

      The Vive works just fine with glasses, and the room scale "holodeck" experience can be quite compelling. I play with the sets at my local university from time to time (a buddy of mine runs a technology outreach program)

      Have yet to see enough compelling content to justify the $2k+ outlay for the VR gear and a computer powerful enough to drive it myself, but I'm eagerly watching falling prices and improving technology and content , waiting for the right moment to buy in.

      Actually though, from what I can find, the Occulus works fine with glasses as well, though you're limited to glasses with maximum dimensions of 142mm wide by 50mm high. Still, if you dished out for a headset it shouldn't be that big a deal to spend $10 online to get a pair of glasses that will work with the headset.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    4. Re:VR is at a sad state by Papaspud · · Score: 1

      Yea, I had to buy a set of contacts so I can use my rift, makes it a pain in the ass to use, but it is worth it when I do.

      --
      Everything above is my opinion....YMMV
  6. Re:VR porn might well be the ONLY porn people pay by alvinrod · · Score: 1

    It used to be that if you wanted video porn you had to pay for that too, but eventually it became plentiful and cheap. My understanding is that the people who put it online charge for live shows or have crowd-funding setups, so it's not as though all of them are doing this for free. If that's your model, it makes sense to just give away the old stuff since anyone who stumbles on it might be swayed to become a paying customer. The individual odds are low, but if you can get 250,000 eyeballs, a .1% conversion rate is good enough if each of those people will spend $10 a month.

    Even if VR porn is expensive now, market forces and technological advances will drive down the cost over time. Unless you're creating customized real-time experiences, you're creating a digital good that might be expensive to make, but is cheap to duplicate exact copies of after it has been made. Even the program that can create real-time experiences only needs to be written once, as difficult as it may be to actually do so.

  7. Well Obviously by Aurelfell · · Score: 1

    Pornography is 80% of the reason this technology even exists.

  8. Thesis by Alypius · · Score: 1

    I always thought my thesis would be on how every advancement of communications technology has been driven by porn. VR, internet, VCR...all porn. That "ancient fertility statue"? Porn.

    1. Re:Thesis by Green+Mountain+Bot · · Score: 1

      Edison thought to himself, "These still porn pictures aren't doing it for me anymore. I need video."

  9. I'm here for the articles by forkfail · · Score: 1

    But, I can't read the articles.

    Because they're paywalled.

    Kind of like the VR content that seems to be driving the industry.

    --
    Check your premises.
  10. Clarify by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    The real deal is in interactive 3D hentai porn.

    Where you are the tentacler, or the tentacleee?

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Clarify by Z80a · · Score: 1

      I bet the wires of the headset just help with the immersion in this case.

  11. Re:VR porn might well be the ONLY porn people pay by dj245 · · Score: 1

    Every other kind of porn that you could possibly think of you can get for free on the internet. There's literally an endless amount of people very willing to shag in front of cameras and put that online, who'd pay for something like that?

    The only way you could get people to pay for porn anymore is if you can produce some where the production cost is higher than, well, a home video camera and a broadband connection.

    As you mention, there is a big difference between 4k shot from multiple angles, in good lighting, and amateur home videos.

    In addition, there are plenty of niche genres where there are not a lot of free videos out there. Not everybody knows how to pirate, and pirating relies on someone uploading the content, which may not be the case for many niche genres.

    Speaking for a friend, of course.

    --
    Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
  12. Well yeah... by BronsCon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It was gonna be either that or war.

    --
    APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
  13. Re:3D hentai VR porn by Nexus7 · · Score: 1

    I'd love to see more 3D, porn or otherwise. I think the format got abandoned prematurely in favor of 4k. There's no reason for both (Full HD 3D and 4k) to co-exist. VR is something else. I suppose in some future, we're headed to 3D interactive VR.

  14. Nope by sexconker · · Score: 5, Interesting

    After adult content helped popularize new media formats like VHS, Blu-ray and streaming video

    The PS3 is what made BluRay a success. Porn backed HD-DVD initially.

    1. Re:Nope by Falconnan · · Score: 1

      Different companies went different ways. But... Porn had a lot to do with initial video formats on the web. As a general rule, humans like sex- Doing, watching, reading about it, talking and writing about it, most seek it in some fashion. Given it's critical role in keeping the species going, it makes sense that those who seek it more reproduced more successfully. So it makes sense that it drives technology only slightly less than survival (a.k.a. combat). It's unfortunate, but hard to deny.

    2. Re:Nope by antdude · · Score: 1

      Why? Was BR too expensive for porn or something?

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    3. Re:Nope by Yacoob+Al-Atawi · · Score: 1

      Adult content producers do tend to try out every new technology or media format, they don't however tend to have any actual impact on the success of said technology/format. BluRay vs HD-DVD was one data point proving that, the other is the failure of 3D TVs despite the porn industry's support for the 3D format.

    4. Re:Nope by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      Why? Was BR too expensive for porn or something?

      No, in the early days the consortium was actually very picky in terms of content. The Blu-Ray Disc Association actively fought against Porn becoming the main selling point of Blu-Ray. It wasn't until it looked like the BDA was actually going to lose the war that things such as allowing computer based players, allowing free content movement etc actually started happening. This also coincided with the start of crap content. Ultimately Blue-Ray won and the industry had to change after essentially being forced to back the wrong horse.

      The BDA's main drivers for adoption was bundling (PS3), and "superior" content.

      The Porn industry then very quickly transitioned to online subscription services after the failure that was.

    5. Re:Nope by antdude · · Score: 1

      Thanks. That was interesting.

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  15. History repeating by PinkyGigglebrain · · Score: 1

    This is the same thing that happened in the VHS:Betamax battle back in the '80s. Once the porn industry picks a VR hardware and interface format and standardizes on it that combo will become the most popular HW/interface on the market, quality be Damned.

    I just hope they go with the best quality choice this time, VHS was an inferior format to Betamax but Beta still lost out. Anther nail in the Beta coffin was cost, though Beta did continue to serve the TV industry very well until HD-digital came on the scene

  16. VR is really really great... by voss · · Score: 4, Funny

    FOR PORN...

    I have fiber optic so I dont have to wait

    FOR PORN

    Theres always some new app

    FOR PORN

    vr looks so real

    FOR PORN

    Its a miracle of 3d graphics

    FOR PORN

    VR is for Porn, VR is for porn
    Why do you think VR was born
    PORN, PORN, PORN

    1. Re:VR is really really great... by grep+-v+'.*'+* · · Score: 1

      VR song for porn

      HERE "Internet is for PORN!!" dated Apr 28, 2006 is the foundation of your song. I suppose you've made the second verse.

      Wonder what we'll be watching (feeling?) in the next 12 years?

      --
      If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
  17. Re:And we should be surprised? by Green+Mountain+Bot · · Score: 2

    My sex life was great after getting married - maybe even better than before. The we had the kid ...

  18. Re:Pushing the technology ahead by VeryFluffyBunny · · Score: 1

    Yep, even going back to 8mm and 16mm film formats, VHS & Beta video, hand-held video cameras, webcams, & online streaming video, porn has been at the forefront of implementing and popularising these technologies and formats.

    --
    Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
  19. Re:Obviously. There is very little good except por by magusxxx · · Score: 1

    Get back to me when it fully takes advantage of the extra large. ;)

    --
    Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
  20. Re:3D hentai VR porn by cirby · · Score: 1

    No, it's not.

    There's apparently a lot of VR content out there you haven't noticed yet.

    And yes, including interactive 3D VR tentacle porn.

  21. Next no more more SEX (needs to be in a lab) safer by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    Next no more more SEX (needs to be in a lab) it's safer. Just like in demolition man

  22. To the surprise of... by genfail · · Score: 1

    To the surprise of not one single person, except the idiot who wrote this article who is apparently utterly ignorant of how the web got started in 94.

  23. Re:VR porn might well be the ONLY porn people pay by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

    Asian women look retarded and sufficiently mongoloid

    Use of the disfavored term mongoloid for retardation derives from Mongolia and the Asian face.

    Things were...a bit more freewheeling back then.

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  24. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  25. Re:Porn and tech by evilbessie · · Score: 1

    Tech continues to profit from the objectification of women and they have a persistent sexism and misogyny problem. I don't in any way wonder why.

  26. Simple Facts by kenwd0elq · · Score: 1

    It's a matter of simple fact that EVERY technological development in imagery is first used for porn. Portraiture. Sculpture. Photography. Digital imagery; the ubiquitous GIF format was originally designed to allow any computer OS to be able to view any picture. Video; at one point, half of the video tapes in the world were porn. You could even rent a VCR and a handful of videos and view the in the privacy of your own home.

    Why would VR or AR be any different?

  27. What is the internet really used for? by bongey · · Score: 1

    For PORN. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  28. Re:Pushing the technology ahead by Ranbot · · Score: 2

    Yep, even going back...

    ...to the printing press (invented 1440), which between printing copies of the Bible, printed steamy sex stories.

  29. Rewriting history by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 2

    You:

    I believe Porn has led the way in leveraging technology in one way or another since the beginning f time.

    TFS:

    After adult content helped popularize new media formats like VHS, Blu-ray and streaming video, the idea that porn drives digital innovation became a widely accepted truth.

    Small problem here - the porn industry went all-in on HD-DVD, not Blu-Ray. So let's not oversell the idea.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:Rewriting history by CaptnCrud · · Score: 1

      No, but hd-dvd was a stepping stone to Blu-Ray anyway. The only reason people wanted hd-dvd was because they didn't want to shit-can all the dvd collections they had just invested in, especially if you had a massive vhs collection you where replacing.

      And thats kind of the other side to it to, even with blu vs dvd there is no real benefit to buying one over the other for porn.

  30. Re:Porn and tech by religionofpeas · · Score: 2

    And coal mining companies profit from the objectification of men.

  31. Re:Pushing the technology ahead by Shotgun · · Score: 1

    Read the parts of the Cantebury Tales that you're teacher didn't cover in high school. Can't remember if it was the Baker's or Butcher's tale.

    The press could print those stories because they had been written long before.

    --
    Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
    Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
  32. Re:Porn and tech by Shotgun · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Also, the women making the porn continue to profit from the objectification of women. At the end of the night, it is the women that leave the strip club with all the money. So, take your misandry and stuff it. Nobody is buying it anymore. If you want to stop porn, all you have to do is get your sisters to buy in on your plan. Good luck with that.

    --
    Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
    Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
  33. Re:Pushing the technology ahead by war4peace · · Score: 1

    You forgot 4K...

    --
    ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
  34. Re:And we should be surprised? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Yeah, it isn't marriage that kills frequent and awesome sex between two people. It is having a kid that does it. Went from pretty much at least once a day, to a couple times a week, and then a handful of times a month. The sex is still good, but much less frequent than I find ideal. It isn't just my wife not being in the mood either. I am guilty of the same thing...I don't have the energy nearly as often to do what I need to do to get my wife in the mood. Children ruin your sex life life for at least 20 years. Though for some reason I can't completely understand I still love them.

  35. Re:Porn and tech by careysub · · Score: 1

    I am pretty sure the club owner gets a cut.

    --
    Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
  36. Agreed. by Grog6 · · Score: 2

    The whole drive for faster modems, bigger hard drives, bigger monitors; all these were driven by the BBS's with huge porn archives.

    I remember downloading Claudia Schffer GIF's at 300 baud; good days, lol!

    Hopefully, I'll be able to Amazon a fully functional BSG #6 before I die; I probably won't last a week after that. :)

    --
    Truth isn't Truth - Guliani
  37. Attitudes like this... by Grog6 · · Score: 2

    ...Are why we replace you with porn.

    Get over it.

    --
    Truth isn't Truth - Guliani
  38. Re:Porn and tech by PPH · · Score: 1

    Highest paid adult actors: women.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  39. And absolutely nobody is surprised. by roc97007 · · Score: 1

    Pr0n has led the way for most media storage and presentation technologies over the years.

    --
    Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
  40. Re:And we should be surprised? by _merlin · · Score: 1

    I know it's a meme and all, but does bedroom death really happen? Over a decade and two kids later my wife is still pretty keen, and gets disappointed if I stay up too late working or feel too exhausted for sexytime. I kinda suspect that bedroom death is more a symptom of people realising after they're married that they're really not that into each other.

  41. Re:Porn and tech by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    Don't be sexist. There's plenty of gay porn too.

  42. Re:The Real World is Better by tehcyder · · Score: 1

    If you book an outcall I'll even visit your office and sit on your cock while you're writing up a post for Slashdot if this is what turns you on and take a picture so you can prove it later.

    So that's what the guy in the next cubicle was shouting about just now.

    --
    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  43. Re: Porn serves a need by tehcyder · · Score: 1

    No! I'm a high priced escort who browses Slashdot!

    --
    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  44. Re: Not "progessives" pining for President Hillary by ebvwfbw · · Score: 1

    Ew. Man that'll be hard to get that image out of your mind.

  45. Dirty Daguerrotypes, filthy films, etc. by eric_harris_76 · · Score: 1

    A pattern that goes back centuries. Every new communication technology, it seems, is used for some sort of sexual purpose.

    How many years was it from the first Gutenberg Bible to the first erotic prints? We'll never know, but I bet it was less than 10.

    Somebody even wrote a book about it. That, and other uses new technologies always seem to get put to.

    Title something like _Drugs, Sex, and Rock And Roll" with a subtitle like "How New Technologies Advance". (I either need to memorize that title or put a link to the book in my favorites. I need the name every few years. Usually on Slashdot.)

    --
    There's no time like the present. Well, the past used to be.
  46. Re:Not "progessives" pining for President Hillary! by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

    Didn't you know that granny-porn is one of the bigger "sophisticated" markets? No, seriously. Look in the "dial-a-wank" adverts of your local newspaper and you'll probably find as many granny-porn phone lines, websites and prostitutes as you will for BDSM and far more than for hardsports.

    --
    Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  47. SHOCKING! by Stubbyfingers · · Score: 1

    No. Not really.