The porn industry (and thus the tickling part of it) is not dying, it's just undergoing a change, not unlike what has happened several times in the past.
With porn there are two major things that change the industry, technical innovation, and sociological change in a population. The industry has seen a good measure of both.
In the 1960's and 70's the sexual revolution blossomed, and the cultures take on porn changed, and it became a bit more accepted, and not totally a horror to be denied and hidden. Adult theaters multiplied, magazines grew much more hardcore moving from the 'tasteful nudes of Playboy to the Gyno-shots of Hustler. The porn industry grew massively, and produced lots of material.
The 80's brought technical innovation in the forum of the VCR. With it Porn found a whole new market, people viewing in the privacy of their own homes. And video tape camera's produced a boom in amateur porn that actually had rental and swap stores for it.
The 90's brough the web, more tech innovation. And distribution of porn became easier, and socially communities (not unlike ours) formed and in turn created marketplaces for many things that were fringe or impossible to monetize before. Also gatherings and meetings of like minded people became simpler and more frequent. Adult media continued to be seen as less of a threat and more common. Fetishes started to be mainstreamed, with Bondage and spanking leading the way.
By the 00's digital distribution was embraced, and the physical media methods died out. Printed material started to vanish, Video tapes did, and DVD's followed. It made porn super cheep to distribute, but also was the devils bargain that any digital media holds, piracy became easy, and the web acted as a multiplier on it. Technology also lowered the entry bar for anyone that wanted to make something pretty low. Film it in an affordable camera and then edit it on your computer and then distribute it online, and hey Clips4Sale was there to make that part simple to. No website needed!
By the 10's Piracy had beaten the tar out of almost every porn producer under a certain size, and badly hurt even the big boys making the vanilla style porn. And the rise of Webcams and cam girls hit them (and strip clubs) hard also. And from cams grew Onlyfans and AVN which allowed easy distribution for an individual for a cut. You could record off your phone, webcam and upload and find an audience. Would it be pirated? Yup. But the appeal was with the individual rather then the genre and that person would build a fanbase that kept them going even with piracy, and that's the model that works now.
Also once again, sociologically changes happened. In 1980 if a 18 year old woman had nudes of her (probably polaroids) leaked Her. Life. Was. Over. It was a huge deal. In 2020 that same 18 year old is producing soft core porn and loading it onto the web herself and often making good money. That's a change in the culture.
For tickling, you see it reflected in the number of studios that make their bones on custom work. Tickle Intensive who used to produce a ton of clips every years has reduced its public output significantly because they have more custom work then they can handle. Nyssa has been about in this thread offering up what models she'll be working with for customs, and many of those cam girls and OnlyFan girls will be happy to negotiate customs for the right price for a fan and supporter.
Porn keeps changing. And every time it does it 'looks' and 'feels' different. If you were a fan of a specific era that may mean that what you like simply is not around anymore. I used to love browsing Virgin Records in the 90's. I can't do that anymore. It's gone. And some ways that tickling porn looked and feels are equally gone. Technology, and culture have erased them.
Odds are, soon enough you'll have AI/SFX porn soon. Drop in a description of what you want, what look you want, and so forth, pay the fee's and *pop* out comes a piece of porn just for you. No humans involved (or perhaps you've licenced someones image that you like, and they get a small royalty if you are not using a cracked maker that ignores such) and once again, Porn will bee different. It will make that old "fake" vs "Real" argument a lot different for us I bet. It will all be fake, but faked so well you can't tell.
And people will be here talking about the days before the AI girls destroyed the market, and so forth and how it all sucks.
Porn is not, and will not die. It will keep changing.
Tickling porn also will not die. People will always be filming themselves and giving it away, getting what they can, or working for a handful of studio's that do customs that demand some filming and editing skill for those who want 'the real thing'.
Getting older is mostly about watching the world you know dying around you. If you last a long time, it almost all vanishes. But there is always new.
Myriads
