What makes a scene feel erotic?

[ChadChan3D]

Or, to put it another way: What makes erotic situations hot?

I believe a big part of it is context and details. Here is a list that comes to mind of what gives heat to a sexual situation:

• Context, that the events make sense.
• Progression, that there is anticipation, build-up and release (like real sex).
• Taboo, that the events arouse a person's sensibilities.
• Details, that the events feel convincing and real.

I believe that a lot of porn is inert (unarousing) because it fails one of these requirements. Most porn today seems to throw you into the explicit too soon (no progression, no context).

Games seem to be more about experiencing an erotic moment. So what separates a normal sexual scene from one dripping in sexual energy--what work brings the blood to the penis?

 

[Living In A Lewd World]

I would add:

• Good image and scene composition, e.g.:
  • using rules of thirds instead presenting any genitals in the center of the image
  • using certain camera perspectives and the change of camera perspectives to highlight certain emotions e.g. using dutch angle, when the protagonist feels a situation goes out of hand but returning to normal perspective when the protagonist stabilises (only the change of camera positions is efficient to create emotions, constant use wears out the effect)
• Consistency => People should act based on the personality they were introduced with (or on the experiences they make throughout the story) and not on some "magical", unexplained personality change (this is a problem, I actually see often in stories). Authors try to build up something but suddenly slide off, so their characters turn from now to then into total different persons without explanation => this is related to context but goes in my opinion beyond that.
  • a dominant female person should not just easily become fully submissive when she meets the MC
  • a person, that has been shown as reluctant and inexperienced should not turn immediately into a fully sex crazed person, when she sees the MC's dick for the first time
• People should have personalities and a life of their own
• When the game/story has more than a person, they should have different personalities and not all be the same.
• Context should be introduced through some action not by just telling it plainly. => Extreme case: If one introduces the context with 10 lines of plain text in the beginning and then just shows two people fucking and then the end credits of the game, this would probably be for me quite boring

And I would replace:

• "taboo" with building tension, as this is the main point behind it => "taboo" is just an easy way to build tension but not the only one possible

 

[ChadChan3D]

I would add:

• Good image and scene composition, e.g.:
  • using rules of thirds instead presenting any genitals in the center of the image
  • using certain camera perspectives and the change of camera perspectives to highlight certain emotions e.g. using dutch angle, when the protagonist feels a situation goes out of hand but returning to normal perspective when the protagonist stabilises (only the change of camera positions is efficient to create emotions, constant use wears out the effect)
• Consistency => People should act based on the personality they were introduced with (or on the experiences they make throughout the story) and not on some "magical", unexplained personality change (this is a problem, I actually see often in stories). Authors try to build up something but suddenly slide off, so their characters turn from now to then into total different persons without explanation => this is related to context but goes in my opinion beyond that.
  • a dominant female person should not just easily become fully submissive when she meets the MC
  • a person, that has been shown as reluctant and inexperienced should not turn immediately into a fully sex crazed person, when she sees the MC's dick for the first time
• People should have personalities and a life of their own
• When the game/story has more than a person, they should have different personalities and not all be the same.
• Context should be introduced through some action not by just telling it plainly. => Extreme case: If one introduces the context with 10 lines of plain text in the beginning and then just shows two people fucking and then the end credits of the game, this would probably be for me quite boring

And I would replace:

• "taboo" with building tension, as this is the main point behind it => "taboo" is just an easy way to build tension but not the only one possible

When you talk about scene composition I am reminded of a Ted Talk by an artist who said that triangle compositions in photography are most desirable to look at, but only if the points of interest form a scalene triangle.

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Consistency with characters distinguishes them from each other, especially in games where you fuck multiple women. If the girls behave the same in bed then the player feels like he is fucking one woman with a thousand faces. In my own game, for example, I've created a mentally handicapped girl who is shy, dumb, and naive. If when her sex scene comes she turns into an anal slut the whole illusion is shattered. She must fuck as she behaves, otherwise the experience will feel empty.

Tension! Sex needs tension. The real life process of seduction is nothing more than a game of escalating tension. Great observations!