All Mode
Porn has traditionally run parallel to a handful of other industries and art forms. Where music, cinema, and sports would tread, porn has often already been. From live web-streaming, HD broadcasts, customizable video presentations, and now VR and its related technologies, looking at any one of these industries could show the latest developments in adult entertainment, too. US sports, collapsed by COVID and undergoing a political upheaval that’s leaving many fans dejected, is grasping onto tech to keep it afloat.
Tech Aids Training
Image: Rod Mar for Sports Illustrated
Baseball players now train in high-tech batting cages equipped with radar, ultra-high-speed cameras, and instant digital analysis of their performance. Coaches wield tablets and point out issues of technique to players mid-session but, perhaps more importantly, tech is changing the way we, the audience, experience our favorite sports.
Major League Baseball’s severely modified 2020 season now includes VR options for home viewers with an Oculus Quest on hand, giving them greater insight into the play. With COVID-19 still keeping in-person interactions to a minimum, stadiums were predicted to be empty this season. FOX Sports will utilize XR to implant virtual fans in stadiums. Some have found this move off-putting and alienating. Still, the more prevalent response was excitement, with many fans clamoring for the chance to virtually (if not physically) attend a MLB game this season.
Image: Sportstacular
Is the Future Fan-Free?
Global concern about the continued prevalence of COVID-19 isn’t just limiting the attendance of major sporting events but all kinds of mass gatherings. With the 38th annual AVN Awards set for January 2021 and its related industry conventions looking unlikely, the entire adult industry is following suit and heading into VR and XR. Likewise, meeting and socializing, in general, is taking on a virtual agenda.
Sportstacular, leading “cybersports” developer, firmly believes in the XR future of the arenas humans rely on to meet and mingle, and has encapsulated its outlook in a viral infographic: XR Sports are the Future.
Porn Powered by XR
The possibilities for an XR-augmented porn viewing experience is undoubtedly high. With sexual entertainment typically being a solitary viewing experience, home viewers may soon find themselves entering a new age of communal sexual experience. Not convinced? Think back a few decades to how prevalent and popular adult cinemas once were. Instead of gawking at a screen and trying not to make too much noise with other folks mere feet away, XR and VR will allow us a more comfortable way of exploring sexuality without the usual physical limitations, social anxieties, and issues of access.
It has been said that music is sport, art is sport, and politics is sport. With the rise of XR’s influence, it can now be said that sex, too, is sport.
I can’t wait to kick my girlfriend out and get an XR woman.
Sounds fantastic. One benefit of covid is that we are getting creative with combining tech and daily life.