You are touching a fascinating topic, Euk! Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. <3 Being a BDSM enthusiast for years, I've explored a lot of what this wonderful lifestyle has to offer. Real life or online communities, when it comes to sexual gratification, it's all about enticing and stimulating the greatest sexual organ of them all. Which is why I agree with you, I personally think humiliation and manipulation is what works best in a virtual world. I see humiliation as an emotion, a mental state, often easily triggered by mental "mistreatment" such as verbal abuse and scenes that is specifically tailored to lower the submissive's self-worth temporarily, often but not always matched with sexual stimulation. To me manipulation is slightly different, I see it more as a powerful tool, often aimed at changing the submissive's interpretation and understanding of their environment and then take advantage of it to bring forth emotions such as humility. Both humiliation and manipulation entwines heavily with our psyche, in fact i would go so far to say that it is impossible to achieve either without stimulating the mind. Sadism is something completely different though, since it is very physically oriented. As Baishun so beautifully wrote, sadism can be very difficult to visualize if the "subject" is unable to relate to what it feels like to, for example being hit by a flogger and the sweet emotions surfacing in the aftermath. We all carry an idea and an image of what it might feel like, and for some it might be enough to make their blood surge and inner core to roil. But in the end it is the mind that works as the pathway to the very peek of that blissful state of heavenly release, in this fantastic virtual world we are all a part of.