Virtual reality porn is a game-changer

When Palmer Luckey kickstarted the virtual reality revolution in 2012 I doubt he expected that one of primary uses of his new technology would be pornography. We’ve seen smartphones change the way we watched porn, and VR is set to do the same. While 3D porn itself is nothing new (it’s been around for decades), virtual reality porn is significant in that it is able to simulate physical presence via a combination of head tracking and stereoscopic vision. The porn set is now all encompassing and you become the porn star. No longer merely the spectator, you are now a spectre in another person’s body.

Porn sites have been quick to react to the rise of virtual reality headsets, with PornHub introducing a virtual reality section on their website earlier this year. Once an inaccessible oddity, VR porn is now available to everyone for free. So, I guess I had to try it.

To transport yourself to another world, first you have to leave your own reality. Unfortunately, head mounted displays completely separate you from your surroundings, so if you’ve ever been worried about someone bursting in and catching you in the act, VR porn probably isn’t for you. Not only will you look like some sort of futuristic sex-addicted spaceman, but you probably won’t even be aware when someone does enter the room (and that could be a little embarrassing). Ignoring all the potential awkward situations that might occur, virtual reality porn is pretty rad.

You look like some sort of futuristic sex-addicted spaceman

It succeeds for a number of reasons. Remember those gimmicky in-your-face bits in 3D films? VR porn directors have taken note, and this new genre of adult film consists entirely of scenes where you have dicks and tits dangled in front of your face. Probably more interesting is how enclosing your face in a headset makes everything feel far more intimate than, say, watching the same video on your phone or computer. There’s no interactivity (yet), so, it’s unlikely to replace sex anytime soon. In the meantime, it opens up a whole new range of experiences and experiments to us.

Virtual reality, from the beginning, has been advertised as the ability to experience something as if it were reality or from someone else’s perspective. In the past, I’d never been curious enough to watch porn aimed at the opposite sex. However, there’s something incredibly powerful about experiencing sex, and presence, when the roles are reversed. If there was ever a reason to try VR porn this would be it.

For now, I expect virtual reality porn will remain nothing more than an intrigue. However, as technology advances and display resolutions increase, virtual reality has a good chance at replacing conventional pornography. And once it’s replaced that, combine it with networking technologies, sex toys, weird AI sexbots and it might just replace sex itself.