Abstract
Because virtual reality (VR) shares common features with video games, consumer content is usually classified according to traditional game genres and standards. However, VR offers different experiences based on the medium's unique affordances. To account for this disparity, the article presents a comparative analysis of titles from the Steam digital store across three platform types: VR only, VR supported, and non-VR. We analyzed data from a subset of the most popular applications within each category ( <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">N</i> = 141, 93, and 1217, respectively). The three classification types we analyzed were academic game genres, developer defined categories, and user-denoted tags. Results identify the most common content classifications (e.g., Action and Shooter within VR only applications), the relative availability of each between platforms (e.g., Casual is more common in VR only than VR supported or non-VR), general platform popularity (e.g., VR only received less positive ratings than VR supported and non-VR), and which content types are associated with higher user ratings across platforms (e.g., Action and Music/Rhythm are most positively rated in VR only). Our findings ultimately provide a foundational framework for future theoretical constructions of classification systems based on content, market, interactivity, sociality, and service dependencies, which underlay how consumer VR is currently categorized.
Highlights
VIDEO game genres are systems devised by academics, media makers, and industry to classify styles or types [26] of content and user experiences
Because Virtual Reality's (VR) commercial success is linked to games such as Half-Life: Alyx [49] and Beat Saber [6] that dominate the marketplace, titles tend to be identified by game genre
We analyzed how users respond to the medium by first reviewing the complicated relationship between genre, games, and VR and by empirically assessing the frequency and rating of academic genres, developer categories, and user tags currently available to users across VR only, VR supported, and non-VR experiences on Steam
Summary
VIDEO game genres are systems devised by academics, media makers, and industry to classify styles or types [26] of content and user experiences. As we argued in previous work, genres systems, derived from a complex mix of industry norms, mechanics, content, and tradition, are inconsistent [19]. Popular digital distribution platforms such as Steam or Oculus eschew these features in their VR categorization but generally rely on an irregular set of genres to classify content. This circumstance makes it often problematic to distinguish what makes experiences unique from each other and their flatscreen counterparts, especially when the types are derived from other media formats
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