This got real weird, real fast. And not just because I was demoing the technology in the middle of the E3 floor, surrounded by fellow show-goers. It’s just — well, even after all the explainers in the world, it’s hard to sufficiently brace your mind for all that virtual reality porn entails.
It occupied a small space, tucked in the rear of the LA Convention Center, but Naughty America may just have had the one booth capable of rivaling Nintendo’s for sheer show buzz. We must have walked by the thing a dozen times during our three days on the floor, and there was always a small army of show-goers lined up to take it for a spin.
Much like, say, your standard first-person shooter, the technology is built around a POV (point-of-view) shot, putting the viewer in the place of the camera. The effect is already a bit jolting (and, at times nausea-inducing) in standard VR, but all of that really goes next level when you look down and you’ve swapped your bits and bobs with someone else’s.
The company’s demo cycles through a few short clips, in which the scenery, scenarios and co-stars change, but, well, the view pretty much stays the same. It’s hard to say how much of the initial shock is due to the newness of the technology and how much is firmly entrenched in the uncanny valley, though the company told me that many attendees enjoyed the demo, strange setting and all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35zIkKbCiXo
The move marks Naughty America’s latest push to fill in the porny corners of new technologies. Among other things, you can also watch its content in 4K. Again, I’m not 100 percent sure why that would be at the top of anyone’s list, but there you go. It exists. Enjoy.
Once you get past the somewhat off-putting nature of swapping nether regions with a professional, VR porn does offer an interesting way forward for an industry that, like many others, has been hard hit by the prevalence of free online content. “The adult industry has been under siege by tube sites,” the company’s CIO Ian Paul told TechCrunch. “[With VR], we can raise the bar and get people to subscribe to porn again. “
Welcome to the future, everyone. It’s super weird here.
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