Are we entering the Cock Hero winter?

[gynephilos]

First of all, a huge thanks to giannitrib for doing the hard work.

- The peak seems to correlate with covid period. We have seen similar peaks in games and streaming consumption during that time, so it is also possible, that people had more time to create. It definitely was the case for me personally.
- It's increasingly difficult to share these videos on streaming platforms. It might be negatively affecting the discoverability of CH concep for new potential viewers and authors.

I see the COVID bump in the graph, too. Maybe we are just returning to normal.

The streaming thing is really bad. I discovered CHs through a Pornhub link ages ago. There's not much we can do to discoverability on those platforms.

[ultrasonic]

I'm hoping this is just a dry spell. From what I can tell it takes a huge effort to compile a full length video. I think a lot of editors only have the patience to put out PMV's. Maybe instead of doing full length videos some creators can just make a PMV and slap a beatmeter on it.

I think this touches on a larger part of the issue. Editing video is already a time-consuming process, but creating a beat meter is not the easiest task either. I'm very grateful for kerkersklave's Beatmeter Generator 0.3.0, but it's very much a minimum viable product. With how small this community is (in the grand scheme of things), it's not realistic for us to expect anyone to build software that allows us to build beatmeters with more ease/usability and make the process more simple. For example, I would love if there was software that could read a MIDI file as input for the beats. It's much easier to tap out beats and patterns in GarageBand with a keyboard than it is to input the patterns through a user interface (in my opinion). That's not to say anything bad about Beatmeter Generator 0.3.0, though. It would have taken me far longer to release my first (and only) video without it. I would have had to learn After Effects or some other software.

I do wonder if the high barrier to entry as far as creation goes might kill the whole medium. But I hope not, because finding a good video that works for oneself sometimes feels like finding an oasis in the desert.

[satn00b]

- The peak seems to correlate with covid period. We have seen similar peaks in games and streaming consumption during that time, so it is also possible, that people had more time to create. It definitely was the case for me personally.

Yeah when looking at the thread creation dates for my updated estim index (without making an actual count) I already thought "we need another plague"

[fragrantEmulsion]

Aside from the other things mentioned in this thread, I think a huge factor is that this format of video is very much a generational trend and aligns with the Guitar Hero trend as well. For example: look at the rise of vertical video porn, or the trend of short form vertical video (TikTok, YouTube shorts).

#blamezoomers

This might be a huge generalization, I honestly believe that the new generation's attention span is fucked and that our long form of video is not palatable to them. I have caught flak for my taste in fast cuts and I agree that my own attention span is fucked as a late millennial. (For reference I discovered the original cock hero videos when I was about 19). It seems like the core demographic for these videos has an average age of around ~33 now?

Also the new guard as it were do not have the same computer skills that we do, they rely on streaming, phones, and centralized applications to do their work for them. Ask a zoomer to use a file system and many of them do not know how to do it without a search bar. This concept is interesting to me because it always seemed like younger people knew more about technology, yet it seems like this is reversing as technology becomes more mass produced?

Furthermore, I think that I am kind of growing out of this as a phase of my life. I have sort of come to the realization that the porn industry is very unhealthy and something clicked in the last few years where I started seeing 18-22 year old girls as children. I feel like I have a mild porn addiction and it's honestly weird that for some part of my life, cock hero videos were the main way I got off. It reminds me of a dubious MC Ride quote:

growing up i discovered i could rub my penis against the left cusion of the family couch as a form of masturbation, as the years have gone by this is now the only way I can feel sexual stimulation

im twenty now and whenever i need to please myself SEXUALLY, i must rub my penis against the left cushion of the family couch

it has to be the family couch and it has to be the left cushion

otherwise

i simply cannot cum

you may be asking, what will happen when the family obtains a new couch? i dont even want to entertain the notion. the mere thought fills me with a nameless dread and a horrible sense of hopelessness

please do not make me think about it

I have this inevitable dread that my taste in porn is not normal and that most "normal" women would not find this attractive, let alone the fact that I edited some of these videos knowing the amount of work that went into them. (Queue the thesis on goddess worship and western values). I also feel some form of regret knowing that there are probably people out there who are worse than me and I fed them the content, as across all streaming platforms I probably have more than a million views.

Lastly, the next true wave of cock hero content will likely involve some form of VR/estim/handy combination. It will be driven by AI generated content (or gathered and classified by AI) and the beat meter will be synthesized in 2 seconds by drag an dropping a .mp3 file. I am reasonably certain that I have some of the technical expertise to make this happen, but the reality is I don't think there's that big of a market for *just* cock hero alone in this format. I would need to be independently wealthy to dedicate enough time to this project, or donate money to others who are working on similar ideas. Shout out to Pseudonym, Rillo, et al.

This is part of the reason I haven't purchased a VR headset yet, as I don't want to go deeper into what I view as a cyberpunk hell.

[reisk]

I suspect a big part is how poorly this site runs nowadays. The past half a year or even longer it's been either incredibly slow or just completely down.

[satn00b]

I suspect a big part is how poorly this site runs nowadays. The past half a year or even longer it's been either incredibly slow or just completely down.

uhm... no. the "slow" incident took 1 and a half months (Dec 18 - Jan 29), but during that time the forum was accessible, albeit slow, and contents got published. the site was recently down, but only for 9 days (May 7 - May 16). so nothing about "the past half a year or even longer"...

[reisk]

uhm... no. the "slow" incident took 1 and a half months (Dec 18 - Jan 29), but during that time the forum was accessible, albeit slow, and contents got published. the site was recently down, but only for 9 days (May 7 - May 16). so nothing about "the past half a year or even longer"...

it was super slow just last week on multiple days.

[Sombre]

Cockhero info can be sort by date. But it stop in 2021. I don't know why it is not updated anymore. Even if the "cock hero videos" tab have more recent release.

https://www.cockhero.info/cockhero-list/

https://www.cockhero.info/ch-videos/

[3xTripleXXX]

Just so it's not all doom and gloom (or maybe it is, depending on how you feel about my vids), but I am still working on my next project, but my RL workload has increased and my schedule has rotated a bit so I don't have as much alone time as I used to, so it's taking time. But I'm making at least one more. :)

[bhk100]

As a late-comer (lol) to the CH scene, I have to admit that editing video at the length most cock hero videos come out to is a huge time investment. At least 60-80 hours of work for someone like me, perhaps less for someone with more editing experience. That's not such a long time by itself, but when you consider that nobody is doing this as their primary occupation (correct me if I'm wrong on that point), the work has to get shoved between all of life's other priorities and so those 60-80 hours ends up being a few months at best and the better part of a year at worst.

Coming into the AI age as we are, it's hard not to feel impatient with the editing process and I'm always wondering how soon it will be before we can have some kind of AI assistance with the process to speed things up. Semi-automatic at first, and almost fully automatic later down the road--so that we creators can become more like directors only rather than directors + editors.

I bet when that happens things will pick up here dramatically--BECAUSE, the format is quite a bit of fun (both to create, and play). And, with the pace of innovation happening in AI right now, it may not be very long before we can have it.

[A Ghoul Editor]

I also feel some form of regret knowing that there are probably people out there who are worse than me and I fed them the content, as across all streaming platforms I probably have more than a million views.

I just wanted to let you know that Cock Hero: Descent, especially the first one, is one of my all-time favorite CH edits. I feel my life is richer for having experienced it. It therefore saddens me to know that you regret having created it.

If you ever feel like being (re-)persuaded of the merits of pornographic art, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Love,
Ghoul

[ffxx]

Furthermore, I think that I am kind of growing out of this as a phase of my life. I have sort of come to the realization that the porn industry is very unhealthy and something clicked in the last few years where I started seeing 18-22 year old girls as children.

I'm glad you said this. Online porn has been a huge part of my life. And cock heroes have been a big part of that the last few years.

But it has been weird to realise that most of the porn industry is super unhealthy. I think that was triggered by getting older. My sex drive finally decreased a bit and most porn performers started to look uncomfortably young.

I feel like I have a mild porn addiction and it's honestly weird that for some part of my life, cock hero videos were the main way I got off.

There's nothing "mild" about my porn addiction. I'll admit it. But I like to think I've got a sex positive attitude. So rather than rejecting porn I'm trying to seek out ethical / healthier stuff and to consume in moderation.

It might be cool if those of us who vibe with this discussion experimented with making cock heroes from "healthy" (whatever that means) porn.

I have this inevitable dread that my taste in porn is not normal and that most "normal" women would not find this attractive, let alone the fact that I edited some of these videos knowing the amount of work that went into them. (Queue the thesis on goddess worship and western values). I also feel some form of regret knowing that there are probably people out there who are worse than me and I fed them the content, as across all streaming platforms I probably have more than a million views.

I wrestle with that dread too. I don't have the answer.

But to paraphrase from memory something from the Sunstone ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunstone_(comics)]) comics: nerds are people who obsess about a topic and BDSM (or cock hero) people are just nerds who obsess about sex stuff.

I tell myself there are "normal" people out there who spend just as many hours on their nerd stuff. And there are unashamedly kinky nerds who make me and you look normal by comparison.

I enjoyed your creations. Thanks for making them. A little introspection is good but don't feel bad about what you made please.

[zebbg69]

Furthermore, I think that I am kind of growing out of this as a phase of my life. I have sort of come to the realization that the porn industry is very unhealthy and something clicked in the last few years where I started seeing 18-22 year old girls as children. I feel like I have a mild porn addiction and it's honestly weird that for some part of my life, cock hero videos were the main way I got off...

I have this inevitable dread that my taste in porn is not normal and that most "normal" women would not find this attractive, let alone the fact that I edited some of these videos knowing the amount of work that went into them. (Queue the thesis on goddess worship and western values). I also feel some form of regret knowing that there are probably people out there who are worse than me and I fed them the content, as across all streaming platforms I probably have more than a million views.

Don't be too hard on yourself. I came to all this later in life and never found the young/skinny girls attractive, except the occasional one with an unusually mature presence. Many industries have unhealthy elements, but people still go into them for a reason, either they are drawn to the work or the pay. You can let the performers have their agency while also maturing in your tastes. You don't have to feel bad for having been young. Everyone is young and stupid, if you ask people a decade older.

Previous generations of "viewers" went to physical brothels and regularly fucked the "performers" who had no other options (sometimes by law) and were completely unprotected by testing or contracts, no royalties, no upside. It is night & day vs. the performers we are watching now. There are ugly elements, and all bosses can be exploitative in any industry, but if you can use an iPhone made in a country with crude working standards, you can much more readily watch porn shot in L.A. of someone who could get most any entry-level American job, if she wanted the pay cut.

(EDIT) Meanwhile, there are guys crawling around in the sewer to keep your toilet flushing. You probably made life a little better for a few of them.

Let everyone have their struggles. You did fine.

[gynephilos]

As a late-comer (lol) to the CH scene, I have to admit that editing video at the length most cock hero videos come out to is a huge time investment. At least 60-80 hours of work for someone like me, perhaps less for someone with more editing experience. That's not such a long time by itself, but when you consider that nobody is doing this as their primary occupation (correct me if I'm wrong on that point), the work has to get shoved between all of life's other priorities and so those 60-80 hours ends up being a few months at best and the better part of a year at worst.

This is my main problem. It takes so much time, and getting the production level to even at an acceptable level is a lot of work. Having done seven productions, it starts to feel a bit repetitive. Still, it is quite fun.

To the other posters: It will be a difficult life if you obsess over your past doings. You can change what you do in the future, but don't dread on the past too much. Be gentle to yourselves.

[gynephilos]

Still feeling the winter.

I've been away half a year and nothing major has happened