Virtual Satisfaction

VR porn is the latest offspring of a lucrative, centuries-old marriage between tech and erotica. Playboy travels to a Beverly Hills mansion for a behind-the-scenes look at the most titillating content feeding the R 515.00 billion VR industry machine

- By Jessica P. Ogilvie

Christie Stevens is on her knees, gazing up at Isiah Maxwell, her mouth agape. Her breasts bounce with every bob of her head, and her platinum blonde hair cascades down her pale back, grazing the top of her sacrum tattoo.

“My husband,” she says, grasping Maxwell’s large manhood with both hands and looking directly into his brown eyes, “would never do this.”

A dozen or so men stand around watching this scene in various states of discomfort. Three are journalists, and this is the best day of their lives. Two are tech entrepreneurs, tentatively exploring the pornography industry as a means of financing their VR start-up. The rest are adult-industry insiders, and this is just another day on the job.

Today’s shoot, hosted by the adult-video company BaDoink, looks fairly standard as porn shoots go. Stevens wanders around the sparsely furnished modern five-story Beverly Hills mansion in thigh-high stockings and a sheer bra, her makeup artist providing the occasional touch-up. The 30-year-old, five-foot-two actress works on her lines; in this film, she plays a bored housewife who sexually accosts an unsuspecting door-to-door vacuum salesman.

But the shoot marks a turning point for porn and for technology at large; it’s being filmed for virtual reality, the hardware for which hit shelves en masse in 2016. Stevens has been working in porn for five years and has performed in upward of 250 productions. But this is the first she’s done for virtual reality. And while she doesn’t yet know what’s in store for her today, the premise for you, the consumer, is clear: Stevens isn’t fucking Maxwell. She’s fucking you.