The effects(?) of darker sexual content

[arakura]

So, if you've ever pressed the random button on vndb a few times, you'll run into some pretty weird stuff fairly regularly. If you go a step further and look in the tags (I believe there is one tag group by the name 'darker sexual content') you can see some of the seriously dark stuff some vns contain. Even less obscure is the rape that embodies oh so many nukiges. I've never personally read such a visual novel, but I've experienced them secondhand via pictures or discussions between people who have. What I wonder is if if this dark sexual content has a benefit or a cost attached to it. I'll make the assumption that people who read such visual novels already have a fancy for that kind of content. So does this content act as a release of sorts from their interest in the subject, does it have nothing to do with their long-term development as a person, or does it lead to them searching for more and more of whatever it is. I'm not saying that someone who enjoys rape games is likely to become a rapist. I'm not even saying their odds are higher (I'll leave that up for debate, because I'm fairly sure that's the reason content like that isnt made very often in the U.S at least). I just want to know what individuals in this community feel about it. I personally dont have enough experience to say, but what i will say is that for me personally, I tend to search for more and more intense ways of isolating the experience. An analogue would be a person who likes rape games searching for more and more brutal games of that kind.

 

Basically: What are the long term effects of searching for and viewing darker sexual content? Do you personally support such content's existence?

[Kaguya]

My sexual pleasure is totally fetish-based, I'm a pretty hardcore S.

Mind break, all sorts of torture or even more (I'll refrain from going into detail, though I'd love to <3) during H-scenes is what I'm looking for. Mind break is by far my favorite one, though~

Of course, that doesn't mean I actually want to follow through my fetishes IRL. It wasn't a gradual thing for me either, I just always enjoyed this type of stuff. It's been a very long time since I've been an otaku, and my tastes when it comes to H-scenes never changed. 

 

Because of that, I don't think it has any effect. I've been viewing such content for years, and I can't notice any change in me.

[Dark Ariel7]

I think it has some effect. I noticed that with an increase in overall H content intake my mind now tends to wonder in a sexual direction much more often. That being said, I may have been that kind of person to begin with. Its no like I started watching it in my 30s or anything so I cannot tell if I am naturally like this or if I made myself like this.

You for sure become desensitized, though. I think most people can agree with that. 

[Dark Ariel7]

My sexual pleasure is totally fetish-based, I'm a pretty hardcore S.

Mind break, all sorts of torture or even more (I'll refrain from going into detail, though I'd love to <3) during H-scenes is what I'm looking for. Mind break is by far my favorite one, though~

Of course, that doesn't mean I actually want to follow through my fetishes IRL. It wasn't a gradual thing for me either, I just always enjoyed this type of stuff. It's been a very long time since I've been an otaku, and my tastes when it comes to H-scenes never changed. 

 

Because of that, I don't think it has any effect. I've been viewing such content for years, and I can't notice any change in me.

I keep thinking you are nosebleed. I was so weirded out to read that. Then I thought "Oh, never mind its just Kaguya". Is that a bad thing?

[Zakamutt]

The rape scenes in swan song were p. disturbing, so if you're worried about glorification of same that's not an issue. That said, if you really want to avoid it that much go ahead. I heard the highest rated vn on vndb does have rape though, so yeah. Oh well.

 

---

 

Back on topic, with studies inconclusive (according to previous poster, cba sources), I can't really have much of a validated opinion, and I refuse to be victim to truthiness.

[arakura]

if I had to guess, I'd side with Kaguya. I can't imagine that someone who reads vns for the dark sexual content would go out an rape someone because they just can't get off enough to the rape nukiges out there. Or do arguably more disturbing things to (presumably) unwilling people. It just doesnt fit with the whole type of media and typical vn reader... I also think it should exist just because it would restrict free speech (or whatever you want to call it in this case), and you walk a slippery slope when you decide what's good and what's not without seriously hard evidence.

[Tatsujin]

Oh hmm ... to answer your question, I personally support everything out there in a VN. Because there is no restriction on how fucked up a VN can go. So let it go as wild as it can get!

[edwd2]

I'm remember that game with the undead heroine, there was some pretty dark sexual content like eye penetration.

[TheFantasm]

I avoid any VNs with rape or similar content. I go out of my way to make sure before I play a VN that it has none of it, or I won't bother playing it, regardless of how "good" it's supposed to be. I dislike it that much.

[Dark Ariel7]

Well, they did make their profile pics and signatures exactly the same, so...not really.

[BookwormOtaku]

While my main choice for eroge, hentai, and doujinshi mainly fall on the light side I still enjoy the dark stuff if the artwork, voice acting, and even writing is good. For instance, a good game from Black Lilith I regard in the same way I would a good exploitation flick; the writers know they aren't writing anything close to high class so they go as over the top with their dark content as they can and usually have some brief but surprisingly good action scenes to the side and it somehow comes together into an entertaining little romp.

[Down]

No, I meant that its Weird when Nosebleed says it but its completely ok when Kaguya says it. Note that I had no previous knowledge about either of their preferences in that sense.

[Nosebleed]

I keep thinking you are nosebleed. I was so weirded out to read that. Then I thought "Oh, never mind its just Kaguya". Is that a bad thing?

I'm Kaguya's polar opposite when it comes to this, i'd never say that. I'd say that's also a reason we're so compatible.

To me it was really gradual, i started getting into H-manga at first and only the soft stuff and now i read all volumes of Girls ForM like it's a Kafka masterpiece.

But generally speaking these tastes do not crossover into the 3D world, i wouldn't say none of them do, but the more extreme stuff i'm into doesn't.

So i'd have to say forms of extreme sexual content really just serve the purpose of helping your mind get off (can't really put it in a better way), they would not happen in the 3D world a lot of time and that's the beauty of it, it's a world with limitless possibilities where you can like anything and that won't impact your real life or the way you act, if anything getting beaten up by a girl doesn't really feel that bad anymore for me.

[Kelebek1]

What surprises me most is that of the 3 VNs listed with "Dying Sex," one of them is an otome game.

[Dark Ariel7]

I'm Kaguya's polar opposite when it comes to this, i'd never say that. I'd say that's also a reason we're so compatible.

To me it was really gradual, i started getting into H-manga at first and only the soft stuff and now i read all volumes of Girls ForM like it's a Kafka masterpiece.

But generally speaking these tastes do not crossover into the 3D world, i wouldn't say none of them do, but the more extreme stuff i'm into doesn't.

So i'd have to say forms of extreme sexual content really just serve the purpose of helping your mind get off (can't really put it in a better way), they would not happen in the 3D world a lot of time and that's the beauty of it, it's a world with limitless possibilities where you can like anything and that won't impact your real life or the way you act, if anything getting beaten up by a girl doesn't really feel that bad anymore for me.

I started out the same way. I slowly but surely walked down the path of deviancy. I used to be a normal guy... I love you hentai.

[suikashoujo]

I blame Euphoria for desensitizing me to a lot of the darker stuff that happens in VNs. I still don't seek it out, but I don't see it as something I need to avoid at all costs anymore.

 

As for its effects on people IRL... I still consider myself to be pretty functional, even though I like darker hentai from time to time. I don;t feel any need to go out and reenact anything I see. So I'm in the camp that says that as long as it's being enjoyed by people who know how to separate reality from fiction, it's not a problem, and that anything that does happen doesn't rest just on the entertainment someone looks at in their free time.

[Clephas]

One of the reasons I avoid rapegames and VNs with NTR is because my SM-scale tips really far in the direction of sadism if given the right stimuli.  When I need to fulfill my sadistic side's needs, I generally play an FPS game or a hack-and-slash to get it out of my system.  For that reason, I avoid VNs like Euphoria like the plague.

[Dark Ariel7]

I'm fairly certain it'd either be restriction of freedom of speech or freedom of expression (I have more legal knowledge than the average citizen, since I've been studying various laws and plan to become a lawyer, but I'm not expert, so don't take my word on it).  But yeah, I agree with you, even though, like I previously said, rape itself disgusts me.  If a government started censoring material that some groups (usually minority opinions that don't reflect the majority opinion) perceived as offensive, then unless they had a majority vote on a measure backing it, the government would not have acted democratically.  I'm looking at you, Japan and Australia.  Get with the times.

[sanahtlig]

I'm getting tired of light romantic comedies.  They tend to be heavy in tropes and don't really go anywhere plot-wise.  It's getting to the point that if there isn't something dark in the premise, I'm just not interested.

 

I'm not really into hardcore sadism or masochism.  I do have a taste for NTR though.  Mostly I just like heavy drama.  The problem with fetish games is they tend to just be about a particular sexual fetish (i.e., nukige) and nothing more.  I'm typically looking for a great game that contains a particular fetish, not a fetish game.

[Vokoca]

I think that just because someone enjoys the darker stuff in fiction doesn't necessarily mean they'd enjoy - or crave it - in real life as well. In the end it's just fantasy, and the weirder stuff in particular is attractive probably exactly for that reason. I did read some of the stuff out of curiosity (namely euphoria), but I just found it either disturbing or weirdly hilarious, so I guess I can't really add to this discussion much. That said, I do enjoy some weird fetishes, and I find regular h-scenes pretty boring - but no dark stuff for me. At least not in relation to sex.

[Darkshine]

I out right avoid stuff with rape and torture cause it's just disgusting. I do like dark themes in stories though cause it gives the whole drama feel which I like but stuff like this is just wrong to look at in my opinion. I can't believe that some people find enjoyment in this and even more that people actually make games packed with rape and not get disturbed or disgusted at it. I think it's things like this that make people look down on VNs cause of it's sexual content. Well it's my opinion though and it's not gonna change anything so I just look away from that dark sexual stuff and move on to more better horizons.

[Pabloc]

Dark sexual content? I've seen it all.

 

Well, I liked gore and grimdark stuff long before I even discovered anime (not to mention VNs), so getting into dark H was just a natural course of action in my case. I wasn't exactly sensitive to begin with, so I don't think threading into the weird Japanese H territory had all that much influence on me.

 

However, I don't like dark H solely for fetish reasons. I like those themes mainly because they are simply interesting. Only when the story is written well enough though, even in nukiges. For me, dark sexual themes must be accompanied by serious drama (or a solid black comedy, like http://vndb.org/v10636 for example - but that's rarely done well). When rape/NTR/guro/whatever are used in a pure fetishistic way and the story is just a dumb excuse for sex, it doesn't work. That's applicable to all kinds of sexual content really - without at least somewhat decent characterization, setting and story, I almost always find it simply boring (with very few exceptions).

 

Needless to say, I fully support the existence of such content. The weirder and the more disturbing the better. ^^

[Vokoca]

I'm sorry to go off-topic, but since there's already a thread about stuff like this, it might be better than creating a whole new one just for this.

 

Did anyone here read Sayonara wo Oshiete? I got kind of interested by the tags, but I was wondering if it's just a mindless nukige full of weird sex, or if there actually exists some interesting story behind it?

[Funyarinpa]

Well I have pretty dark fetishes (in short, I really liked this nukige: http://vndb.org/r34486).

 

Obviously, I do not even get the urge to do something like that IRL.  However, in my dark mind, this sort of thing keeps going on.

[suikashoujo]

Dark sexual content? I've seen it all.

 

Well, I liked gore and grimdark stuff long before I even discovered anime (not to mention VNs), so getting into dark H was just a natural course of action in my case. I wasn't exactly sensitive to begin with, so I don't think threading into the weird Japanese H territory had all that much influence on me.

 

However, I don't like dark H solely for fetish reasons. I like those themes mainly because they are simply interesting. Only when the story is written well enough though, even in nukiges. For me, dark sexual themes must be accompanied by serious drama (or a solid black comedy, like http://vndb.org/v10636 for example - but that's rarely done well). When rape/NTR/guro/whatever are used in a pure fetishistic way and the story is just a dumb excuse for sex, it doesn't work. That's applicable to all kinds of sexual content really - without at least somewhat decent characterization, setting and story, I almost always find it simply boring (with very few exceptions).

 

Needless to say, I fully support the existence of such content. The weirder and the more disturbing the better. ^^