Using non-sexual digital spaces to explore pleasure.
You know what’s cool—what’s really cool—about our ongoing technological explosion of all things sexual and what it might mean for human sexuality in the coming years and decades?
Well, sure, there’s all the nifty new breakthroughs in everything from virtual reality to sex dolls, with entrepreneurs constantly challenging themselves and their competition to release bigger, better, more interactive and immersive sex tech.
But what’s even cooler is how so many people are taking what would otherwise be disparate technological elements and merging them together in often totally unexpected ways, forging what could be entirely new forms of sexual expression and pleasure.
Say, for instance, combining sex tech and video games to create sexually subversive haptic spaces.
Say hello to qDot
That term, “subversive haptic spaces,” comes courtesy of Kyle Machulis, a Computer Science graduate from the University of Oklahoma with a flair for taking sex tech to fascinating new places.
Through his Buttpluggin’ With qDot Youtube channel, Machulis explores the mechanics behind erotic new devices as well as creates his own innovative ways to use them that the developers no doubt never dreamed of.
A perfect example is his recent video, The Hidden Game: Intimate Haptics in MOGs, where he recreates a talk he gave at the 33rd Annual Meeting Of The Society For Literature, Science, and the Arts, which was held at the University of California, Irvine.
Here Machulis gets into the idea of using otherwise non-sexual video games as an unexpectedly erotic playground by modifying, or “modding,” them to interact with sexual devices.
In the video, he says in the original lecture’s abstract that while modding is quite common among gamers, adding a sexual component to the game creates a whole new experience:
While these modifications to the game’s play style and rules may enhance, redefine, or invent new play styles for mainstream players, for others they provide a way to use the established online space for intimate sexual communication and interaction.
“Subversive haptic spaces” is his label for the new level of meaning added to this form of entertainment, and, as he goes on to say, it can be (please excuse the expression) a real game-changer.
Creating Crash and playing in public
While there’s a lot to digest in his video, which we thoroughly suggest you watch, a few things came up that are worth mentioning and even exploring a bit further.
One of these was the way he managed, using the popular car racing game Burnout coupled with his own intimate erotic haptics, to create a version of J. G. Ballard’s Crash: an erotically subversive novel where characters are sexually aroused by, you guessed it, automobile collisions.
Machulis also discusses how he used his game haptics router with another car-centered game, Rocket League, to give fans of camgirl Riley Nicks an innovative way of sexually interacting with her, with each point scored in the game linked to triggering a sex tech device she was using.
But these pragmatic and erotically entertaining uses of technology aren’t Machulis’s only strong suit. For all his inventiveness, he also gives an impressive amount of careful thought to what all this means.
For example, using an otherwise non-sexual arena, like games played online with other humans, raises questions about sexual consent. After all, these other players didn’t agree to participate in an erotic experience, whether they were aware of it or not.
A solution to this, he suggests, is to only use his haptic router in private, rather than public, settings. Not only is this a notably ethical thing to do, it also addresses that it might actually be illegal, even criminal, to do otherwise, considering the participation of non-consenting adults and possibly children.
Healsluts and new levels
Machulis also brings up something that we’re sorry to say we hadn’t heard of until now: using BDSM sexual dynamics in a video game setting.
Healsluting, we learn, is where those who enjoy power-dynamic erotic roleplaying take that dynamic and overlay it into the character roles in games such as Overwatch.
Beyond giving kinksters a new way to play, Healsluting can also be a way for those interested in BDSM, or exploring other aspects of their sexuality, to try new things in a safe and non-judgmental space.
Morgan, a game player interviewed by The Daily Dot, put it this way, “These online anonymous roleplays provided what felt like a safe outlet to delve further into these kinks and scenarios that I sometimes struggled with in real life.”
Long-distance sex and Beat Saber
Then there’s the exciting idea of using games as a way to maintain sexual playfulness and excitement in long-distance relationships.
As Machulis reports, he spoke to a couple who used the rhythm game Beat Saber to add a special extra kink to their sex play: one person in the relationship scoring a hit created a response in the other partner’s sex toy.
This example gets the imagination going. Other types of games could be used in a similar manner, creating special commands as part of immersive role-playing games. This way, people playing together could exchange physical sexual stimulation along with their characters, or they could tie stimulation to something unique and not immediately sexual in the game.
Such practices, in turn, might create something like a wholly different form of sexual expression, with players connecting erotic pleasure to hitting high scores in whatever game they like to play.
Playing outside the box
Machulis joins the ranks of other playful sex tech experimenters like the team of Cathline Smoos and Aurélien Fache, who we’ve covered many times before.
They are excellent evidence that while we may hoot and whistle with excitement over this or that new technological sexual plaything, some of the most truly exciting developments come from taking these devices and merging them with something even more impressive.
Because, after all, sex isn’t just about what we can do with our genitals, augmented with technology or not; rather, sex is also about the mind. The awesome power of imagination, coupled with an exuberant love of play, will be what truly opens the doors to where sex will go in the future.
Image sources: Buttpluggin’ With qDot
