Why is everyone smutting?

Asmodeus

Asmodeus

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  1. Speed of Light
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  1. Douche
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  1. No Preferences
I remember, back on the original Iwaku, I started a roleplay called Dionysius. It was an erotic thriller. And it was groundbreaking. Nothing of its kind had ever been attempted, and members joined it with a sense of experimental awe and foreboding. They posted their characters and wrote their lines tentatively, glancing at one another and questioning, silently, Can we really do this?

The original Mature Forum was a quiet, ghost-town of a place, where only a handful of members posted the occassional lusty poem or hand-drawn boob. Most of the people who went there were staffers in their 20s and usually made threads with their real-life partners or long-standing friends.

Now....

....

....now we have a plethora of members who have come here specifically to make symbiotic attachments to strangers and play out their twisted fantasies.

Now we have threads where people say "I want to play a girl in a hamster costume! Please post a character that fits with this romantically."

Now we have threads where people dictate the exact plot of their story. "I want to play Harry Potter and he meets Princess Leia and they go to Starbucks and at first he thinks he's gay because he sees a man called Brian who has brown hair, but then Leia takes him to a party and they bond over a joke about a rubber duck and--- AAAARGH!"

Now people don't even make a point of saying "Oh, by the way, it's a one-on-one I'm after." They just wade in on their first post by saying "So, I like to play the dominant one and I only do hetero stuff." This is part of their greeting to the forum.



So, this is not a 30 year old shaking his stick. This is a long-time roleplayer asking, simply, WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN? When did roleplaying suddenly shift into this unspoken agreement that we are here to masturbate? Call me a rose-tinted nostalgic, but it didn't used to be like this. The emphasis was on stories or abilities. People judged a roleplay by what adventures they could have and what power they could achieve.

Now a lot of them judge it by which other players there are and what romantic scenarios they can get themselves into. Some people won't join at all if they don't think there's a compatible cyber-sexual partner.

And that's if you're lucky enough to get smutters in group RPs. The great majority seem content to run into a cave with one other member and then never communicate with the wider forum. Roleplaying has become a back-room, private affair. We're like the club with the sex rooms, where no one really comes to dance anymore.

I mean... do they want other people to read the one-on-ones? Are they playing to an audience? On the few occasions that I've done a one-on-one I've always kept in mind that other people will be reading and I've aimed to make the story audience-friendly. But I'm not even sure if that's a principle anymore.


I know that things change. I also know that it might've always been this way. But it wasn't on Iwaku. Maybe kids in the 2000s did it somewhere else, but they never joined Iwaku to post it publically. So why has it suddenly become so overt? Why is there this unspoken assumption that roleplay is now synonymous with cybersex? Why, with this new generation of roleplayers, do Group Roleplays now seem like the exception to the rule?

In some ways it's positive. The bad Iwaku writers used to be all the teenage boys who came on pretending to be space marines and ninjas. Now at least we have teenage girls coming on to wink and ask redundant questions in the midst of copulation. And yet the emancipation of women should not excuse artistic desecration.



I'm only partially trolling here to provoke debate. A lot of what I've said comes from genuine confusion. It saddens me that the line between escapism and eroticism is blurring. I love porn. It's not the act that I object to. It's the feeling that young roleplayers are treating roleplay and smut as one and the same and are unable to separate the two.

Each is it's own arena of sensation and should remain so.




[By the way, I'm wearing a red leather thong while typing this, and I'm a vampire. If you want to reply to this thread, please play a brunette who likes it rough and wants to go to an Italian restaurant with me at 4pm while exploring lesbian cravings. I don't do dudes, sorry.]
 
I AM SO GLAD YOU ASKED!

Because this is something that has baffled me too.

I know SOME of it is natural transitioning and evolution from a Terms of Service bound tiny community, to an up and coming Private Community. Iwaku was originally on Proboards, and proboards has a VERY strict terms of service. No forum there could have any sort of sexual content on it, cause you would get shut down if someone reported it. Throw in the fact that it was still a very small community, mostly filled with a bunch of guys (as you put it 'space marines and ninjas'), guys don't seem to do smut roleplay as often as girls do. And when they do, they seem to only want female partners (unless they're guy guys, gay guys dun care!). A community with mostly female players would have tons of romance roleplays that'd get pretty damn close to being sexual as much as they could get away with on a Proboards.

In moving to the Private Server, that taboo of sexual content was thrown off. Then we grew A LOT. By a few hundred active members. Add in the fact that Iwaku's female population now equals and out numbers the males... You now have a bunch of romance minded, sexually charged ladies all over the place with the freedom to let loose and go all out. XD


SO NOW MY THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS ABOUT IT! 8D


First: I -am- a smut roleplayer. Romance is a huge part of roleplays for me, because I love, love, love the art of building relationships between characters. There's a huge range of possibilities in romance, from love at first sight, to breakups, friends to lovers, betrayals, SO MUCH different kinds of relationships. Exploring all of these and how they can flavor a plot and change and develop based on the events in the roleplay is my favorite part. So when I tell people I require a romantic subplot, this is what I am thinking about.

Smut itself is not something I need in a roleplay. I enjoy seeing how sex can change the scope of relationships, feelings of characters, and often how a plot develops. But I am fine with not playing out smut scenes unless partners enjoy doing them too. Fade to black is cool!

Second: It is ONLY about the characters and story for me. Smut is 100% about the story and plot for me. It's not to live out fantasies, or masturbation fuel, or having a relationship with partners, etc, etc. It is a STORY I am building. Even when I do a pure smut roleplay, be it in the steambox or in the mature section, there is STILL always a story behind it. There's a setup, there's a plot, there's a goal in mind that is accomplished -because- these characters had sex. It's not the sex I am after, but what that sex means for these characters. Be it good or bad.

Third: I LOVE reading other people's smut roleplays... just as much as I LOATHE it!
Now the OPINIONS part. XD I really enjoy reading other people's smutty rps. YES IWAKU. I AM READING YOUR ROLEPLAYS. I'm a girl in love with romance. I just enjoy those kind of stories.

Uuh... but my big bad problem, is that unfortunately, not everyone's roleplays are about the STORY. @___@ Some people roleplay for the masturbation fuel and the kinkiness and living a fantasy or flat out cyber sexing. And those roleplays really suck to read. It's often one liner thruster fucking, and it's turbo lame.

I don't think it's wrong or bad, though. I totally support people roleplaying for ANY reason and in ANY way they want.

....but as a READER of these roleplays, I really wish more people would put the time and effort in to giving their gratuitous smut more CONTENT. XD Wouldn't it make the kinky smut BETTER if there was more story to it? More emotion, more atmosphere and scenery? When you're playing, don't -YOU- feel better after reading a really amazing post, or even -writing- that amazing post? Compared to a quick line of thoughtless text?




So.... from a Community Standpoint, this growth of the Mature section is 100% normal. From a Personal Standpoint, I am all about the story and the plot. I wish more people were. Because I do enjoy reading people's smut threads, and I like to be entertained with good stories!
 
I agree with Diana. I enjoy a good smut, but I love a good story. Those that keep my attention as a player or a reader are ones that have the characters in conflict and resolution, building relationships and journeying/developing character together. Stories that are all about smut with me tend to be very short, mostly because there are only so many ways you can keep 'falling into' sex. Nes that go on longer tend to bore me very very quickly. I actually don't read other ppl's roleplays (hardly ever). I am terrible at lurking. I feel like I'm intruding. o///o
 
Well really, as it has already been pointed out - it's all about Iwaku's great growth over the last couple of years. Poor Iwaku's gone and got herself some stretch-marks from the sudden- whatever. The main point is that even though this comes from the massive growth of the community, it's up to the administration and it's moderators to decide if they want to let their forum "go with the flow" and get their fair share of erotic waves of RPers who just want to fuck each others brains out through writing. Going this way you'll still be able to keep all other factions intact and there shouldn't be much of a problem unless making the forum into a fuckfest becomes the priority of the administration - you get to keep an open and tolerant enviorment, but you can also turn the site into that elliquiuiuiy-place.

The other way around is to put strict laws on the cybersexing, I'm guessing this is the way Gaia and all those other big places chose to go. Seems like this way only leads to a place for fanfics, ninjas and space marines to roam freely and cause havoc. More depressingly it seems to ruin the relationship between officials and it's memberbase.

I prefer letting the members fuck around in the bushes if thats what they want and the rest of us get our group/chat-RPing on where the story and character development is the main focus of the story. As long as their lust is not the main fuel behind Iwaku's way of functioning. And with Diana's statement above here, I'm pretty certain that won't happen.

I'm just wondering what is going on with Steampunk Millionaires?
 
Because Iwaku is the largest barrel of sexually repressed trout in recorded history.
 
First of all, cocks.

Second of all, it's actually always been like this. RPers are almost always demographically shifted to younger ages. This has important consequences because as teenagers / young adults, they seek different things than what more mature (agewise) RPers do. I certainly remember a time back when I started where it was more romantically focused, more attraction focused.

Third, unfortunately iwaku has enabled this by explicitly allowing dicks, by providing an 'it's okay to do this' sanctum. Normally all content would be kept at kissing or touching.

Fourth, the anonymity of being online means it doesn't matter whether what you post is publicly viewable or not. It certainly never crossed my mind that other people not involved with the RPs I am in would read my posts, and even if it did, it's not like it matters.
 
I like to think of it like:

a lot of young peoples like sex or are curious of the idea.
By rping the idea of it, they fill out some of those fantasies, wonders, curiosities and then some.

And/or, peeps are just horndogs and wanna get out all dat sexual frustration. And typing is easier to let the mind wander than going out to socialize for a craving that lasts only a few hours or so.

Something like that.
I would just think it is based on hormones and growth. But, sadly, in this modern society, the age of sexual interest gets younger and younger.
And perhaps that is why it has boomed so much lately, as I noticed a lot of new members are in the teens and such.
So.... yeah.
I dunno. o wo
I don't smut ever, really. But, it makes sense thinking about it in mah little head ova here.

Soyeah.
- w-
Roleplay is all beautiful writing and imagery to me. <3 and I'll always keep it that way through my fingers on dis here keyboard.
 
It's not really my scene. At all. That being said it's good that Iwaku's an open environment that caters to various different kinds of RPers.

Still, some of the shit that goes on in the Mature Section makes me want to wash my brain with acid in the hope of forgetting it.

THAT WHICH IS SEEN CAN NEVER BE UNSEEN.
 
I'm quite glad that we're allowed to Smut on Iwaku. Granted I don't do smut roleplays, and probably won't ever. But for the bigger sites like Gaia, who don't allow anything over PG-13 you'll have people requesting for 1v1 -not say that they want to smut - and instead of there being a story or character relationships, it's full of nekos, whips and maid outfits. (Guess who learned that lesson? >.>) Granted they take it to IMs but it gives the site a whole underground/Black Market feel.

Again, just glad Iwaku allows for mature rps, whether or not some of the rps may be masturbation fuel.
 
I appreciate we can do smut on Iwaku, especially since I'm one of the forum vets (and if I recall correctly moderator at the time) who remembers the rectal ragnarok that proboards had over our mature forum.

That said it's just not for me. I toyed with the idea once or twice but nothing really came of that. Plus I always get this weird sense of voyeurism at the idea of doing a smut RP. Doing smut RPs with your own fetishes is to me a lot like just completely opening up and letting everyone see in your brain. That makes me horribly uncomfortable! And let's face it, if you're in a smut RP its probably because you find the subject matter within hot.

Or perhaps the better metaphor is you're wearing a thin mask to go balls to the walls crazy but in the end everyone still knows its your smut-addled brain fueling this.

So in the end? I'm a really private person. I'm often awkward and uncomfortable around the newer members compared to the older members I've known for the almost six years I've been on Iwaku. I think the only really well known fact about me is my love of video games. And ultimately I don't want to do something exposing like a smut RP in a place where I can't shake a sense of voyeurism. I think that's left best to private one on ones over IM clients or something. Or even a more intimate scene (but not outright smut) in an RP where it's NOT the focus.

So I'm with Asmo. I don't get why people do smut RPs. Its just weird.
 
Oh, now I simply MUST troll.

"The Internet is for Porn!
The Internet is for Porn!
So grab your dick and double click
For Porn, Porn, Porn!"

Thank you, I'm here on Fridays!
 
Scryox "Sky" Videlin said:
That said it's just not for me. I toyed with the idea once or twice but nothing really came of that. Plus I always get this weird sense of voyeurism at the idea of doing a smut RP. Doing smut RPs with your own fetishes is to me a lot like just completely opening up and letting everyone see in your brain. That makes me horribly uncomfortable! And let's face it, if you're in a smut RP its probably because you find the subject matter within hot.
Click to expand...

What's the point of having a fetish and not indulging in it? There's nothing wrong with whatever sexual preferences anyone has. And it's not like telling you I have a fetish for so-and-so completely bares my soul for you to examine at your leisure.
 
Personally I can't say I read all of the forums, nor have the time to do my own posts and then read everyone's rps. I have only ever taken part in so far maybe three mature roleplays. One of them has barely started. The other two roleplays are One x One.

But I have found that so far in the narrative, none of my characters have gotten the chance to act intimate toward each other as of yet because I like to (and I hope my roleplaying partners do to) establish a story, complications between relationships, things that characters have in common etc. Before I start going deeper into a relationship... Personally that's how I have always understood the way that romance roleplays work. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

Although that could also because I am a huge fan of narratives and enjoys reading stories which involve twists and interesting plotlines and admit I can be soppy and like a bit of romance here and there. Having a good setting is always a good start, but actually dealing with the plot line is a whole different matter! ^^

Unfortunately though, I don't feel like I have experience enough to say much. I started in december when I joined Iwaku and thus can't really say much about the old Iwaku, or how things used to be. But in terms of narrative and from what I have been lead to understand of what smut roleplays are from researching other roleplays on different sites, I agree with Diana.

However in terms of gender, for me when I observe and interact with people I tend to notice; while women appreciate romance, it usually men who aren't all for it. While I appreciate the fact that women aren't necessarily all the romantic all the time. I think that's a bit of unfair statement based upon stereotypes, but I could be wrong and I open to that if anyone does wish to correct me.

In terms of age, as much as I would like to label most 'smut' roleplays as young teenagers, I think that is largely unfair and is using a stereotype to suggest that all teenagers are out looking for something to turn them on. In the defence of teenagers, I would like to say adults can be equally just as bad as any teenager in terms of looking for 'pleasure' as such. Even when writing, teenagers can be quite bright and outgrow adults. I don't think the arguement around age is very fair for this 'dilema' if you want to call it that.

Then there is the arguement of preferences. Not everybody enjoys intensity between relationships which can be where a difference of opinion often folds into this much as when talking about any other topic. Thus I appreciate for that reason, people do enjoy smut rps. However I can't help but wonder if it is also a reflection on real life and that idea that you can go out, have a good time meet somebody have sex with them without developing much of s relationship is rolling in from real life into the world of Iwaku, which could lead back to the idea of Evolution. Just a thought is all. ^^

I also think it's great that the site is so relaxed about the content and I hope that doesn't change. ^^
 
Bleh. I don't like roleplaying smut with strangers.

For me eroticism is a tool for a story. I'd only use the Mature Roleplay section if I want to explore aspects that would be deemed too adult for the mainstream boards.

But even then, we get away with it (although mostly by implication) in the mainstream boards, so for me the Mature section is useless.
 
unanun said:
What's the point of having a fetish and not indulging in it?
Click to expand...

I do. Privately.

Anyone who read my review of My Girlfriend is the President in my blog a month ago looked through a glass floor, though only one other member actually decided to jump into the water with me.
 
About MY comment on it being mostly girls, that's not based on stereotypes, but on statistics. D:

Cause obviously, not all girls are romance obsessed! There are many girls who don't do romance or sexy roleplays.

But statistically speaking, the people who do romance roleplays the most are females. If I went through and counted all the members that do mature roleplays, most of them will be girls.

I personally, don't think it's only because girls are MORE romantically minded for that stuff. I feel like it's more the stigma of societies expectations on BOTH girls and guys. o__o Girls are always expected to NOT be all about sex, so online they can express their sexualness through roleplay in a place where they aren't judged by it. Girls are also "allowed" to be all about the romance. No one thinks it's weird for a girl to want a romance.

Guys on the otherhand have the opposite problem. You hear about a guy doing a sex roleplay, and there's the whole assumption that they are a sex-crazed pervert trying to cyber with all the girls. A guy might also have this hangup that doing a romance isn't manly. Etc, etc. Guys have to repress their sexual natures because of society expectations. ><



...as for it being mostly teenagers in there. Well, I think that's just more because teenagers have a lot more time to roleplay that people in the mid late twenties and higher. XD There's just more teenager roleplayers in -general-, so it would be natural to have more teen smut roleplayers too.
 
Good points. I was brought up with the idea that women didn't particularly enjoy sex. It's no wonder they rebel against this expectation online. And yeah, there's still the stigma for men that if you're romantic with a girl you're gay and if you're not romantic you're a rapist. So a lot of men don't know which way to go.

And as Paorou said, you can get most of your smut into a mainstream roleplay just through writing tricks. I've chokeholded, whipped, stripped and raped my fair share of women while keeping it plot-relevant and thematic.

It's almost as if a scene only becomes smut when the writing quality and thematic continuity drops.
 
* ^* you all throw out such good comments.
My brain.
It is rattling.
 
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