I'm going to get even more blunt and crude and say, how many of folks who engage in ERP get off to it?
The answer is that it is not just males, but females as well. This just ends up being cyb0rs, to me, and why it can get in the way of relationships...as I've mentioned elsewhere, I just wasn't comfortable with the woman I'd been in the process of forming a relationship with, ERPing with others, with the sort of knowledge that the guys she's engaging with may just very well be fapping behind the computer screen...that was one of the contributing factors to its explosive end, which you can read about elsewhere. That's a different discussion, but RP adds characterization, contributes to the ongoing story, and develops interaction. As soon as you begin ERPing, all that sort of RP in 'getting to know each others characters' disappear...it is just literally an exchange of sultry lines that are ultimately forgettable when you compare it to RPing, say, how a character is dealing with a loss, and how the other character helps them.
Anyway, the original issue, in bullet points...
- The hooker channel scares people off
- This is not great for leaving a good taste in people's mouths regarding their impression of the EVE RP community ("It's just full of kinksters")
- Therefore, it might be appropriate to market that channel as a 'niche, 18+' channel, and not bother to invite new RPers or what have you, only people who know what it is.
I mean I am a massive PF whore, considering the faction I RP has the least amount, I have to scrape the barrel for anything I can get...as such, my sort of issue in the back of my mind is that the channel isn't an "EVE RP" channel, but is simply a "pure RP" channel. Nothing really wrong with that, though.
But, I will say the whole "capsuleer slaves" business is a bit...well, considering CONCORD has slaves illegal, and we are all CONCORD-registered...
The core matter is that it is just offending other people's sense of immersion and believability.