Using playability evaluation techniques in first person shooter games for virtual reality

Abstract

Given the increased consumption of software solutions with virtual reality, there is also the growing availability of digital games. One of the quality attributes that can significantly influence the acceptance of virtual reality digital games on the market is playability. In this context, some new heuristics sets have been proposed to assess this quality attribute. These new specific sets approach explicitly the challenges posed by virtual reality, such as interface design, placement, and space among virtual and real reality. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence about the efficiency of these new heuristic sets. Therefore, this work presents an exploratory study where we conduct playability evaluations in five virtual reality games on first-person shooter gender using two heuristic sets: VR Play Guidelines and VR Heuristic Evaluation Tool. After analyzing the results of these evaluations, we noticed that the choice of the proper heuristic set to evaluate playability depends on the development stage, the objective, and the technical knowledge of the evaluator.