Quote Originally Posted by Rymm View Post
Depends on the person at the keyboard. To some it's nothing more than a creative writing exercise, to others it's simply interactive porn.
I don't personally care for it either way, but I definitely have more respect for the former than the latter.
For a lot of our guests, it's definitely interactive porn, but for me it's typically more often than not a creative writing exercise. Additionally, we're often trying to get guests and members to flex beyond the simple sexy talk. We want characters, themes, story, progression! Sure ERP is a foot in the door, but it can, and often is so much more than that if you want it to be. In my years and years of ERPing, I can only remember maybe twice that I used it as a form of gratification. Typically, a lot of themes are things that I have zero interest in sexually anyways. Though hidden in the nuggets of arousal are very interesting themes.

Again, it is what you make of it. Though I always thought that ERP as a secondary narrative to a greater story made the entire narrative better for it. Like look at even media, they often use explicit content as a means of progressing the stories, or symbolizing a characters status or emotional processes. I can't count the amount of times they used physical pleasure as a form of writing in things like Breaking Bad, Walking Dead, or other stories.