Abstract
Compared to traditional screen-based media, virtual reality (VR) generally leads to stronger feelings of presence. The current study aimed to investigate whether playing games in VR resulted in a stronger sense of presence than playing on a TV, and whether these feelings of presence affected players’ emotional and physiological responses to the games. Two experiments were conducted among 128 students, comparing the effects of playing either a survival horror game (N = 59) or a first-person shooter (N = 69) on a TV or in VR on physiological and subjective fear, hostility and enjoyment. Results showed that playing games in VR resulted in a stronger sense of presence, lower heart rate variability and a stronger subjective sense of fear. The feeling of presence thereby mediated the effects of VR on fear. The effects of playing a first-person shooter in VR on hostility were mixed, and gaming in VR was not more enjoyable than on TV. Regardless of the type of game or display medium, hostility increased significantly post-play. This study provides evidence that commercial VR games can affect feelings of presence and the physiological and emotional state of players.
Highlights
In the past decade, virtual reality (VR) has been successfully applied to treat various psychological problems, including social anxiety (Emmelkamp et al 2020) fear of flying (Cardo et al 2017), post-traumatic stress disorder (Botella et al 2015), and fear of heights (Diemer et al 2016)
We found a strong correlation between participants heart rate (HR) and their self-reported fear (r = 0.42, p = 0.001), 1 3
Players reported a stronger sense of spatial presence in VR (M = 3.76, SD = 0.84) than when they played on a TV (M = 3.12, SD = 0.81), t (67) 3.23, p = 0.002, d = 0.78
Summary
Virtual reality (VR) has been successfully applied to treat various psychological problems, including social anxiety (Emmelkamp et al 2020) fear of flying (Cardo et al 2017), post-traumatic stress disorder (Botella et al 2015), and fear of heights (Diemer et al 2016). Immersive technological systems such as VR lead to a strong sense of situational presence, which can trigger emotional reactions identical to those experienced in similar real-life situations (Alghamdi et al 2017). Repeated exposure to virtual experiences and subsequent emotional responses reduce negative. It is expected that playing games in VR will lead to a stronger sense of presence and thereby a more intense emotional experience than regular screen-based gaming, similar to non-game applications of this immersive technology (e.g., Riva et al 2007). Actively overcoming negative emotions such as fear and anxiety is one of the main sources of enjoyment that comes from playing video games (Lynch and Martins 2015; Ventura et al 2013). Because games often provide players with continuous threats, challenges and rewards, the emotional experience of fear, anger and enjoyment may
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