Practice in Reality for Virtual Reality Games: Making Players Familiar and Confident with a Game

Abstract

Game designers include training levels in video games to prepare players so that they can enjoy the game. The training levels of virtual reality (VR) games are typically assumed to be within the virtual world of the game. New players must learn about a new game in such an unfamiliar virtual world. A tutorial in the real world offers a potential way to enable players to learn about a new game and to practice the skills in a familiar world. To explore any effects of a real-world tutorial in VR games, an experiment was conducted, the results of which show that a real-world tutorial is effective in helping new players feel confident about and familiar with a VR game before playing it. However, it is not as effective as virtual-world tutorial in increasing game performance.

Real-World and Virtual-World Practices for Virtual Reality Games: Effects on Spatial Perception and Game Performance

“…Unlike a previous study that focused on practice that replicated all required tasks in a VR game [36], the current study focused on real-world practice that only replicated some challenges in a VR game. The independent variable (practice) included three conditions: no practice (control condition), virtual-world practice (VR condition), and real-world practice (reality condition).…”

“…VR game practice usually occurs in the same virtual environment as the game itself. Very few studies [35,36] have examined placing practices for VR games in the real world. While investigating the potential of applying real-world practice to a VR gaming context [36], real-world practice that replicated a task of placing a ball in a target container in a VR game was compared with identical practice in a virtual world.…”

“…Very few studies [35,36] have examined placing practices for VR games in the real world. While investigating the potential of applying real-world practice to a VR gaming context [36], real-world practice that replicated a task of placing a ball in a target container in a VR game was compared with identical practice in a virtual world. The findings indicated that real-world practice could help new players build confidence and familiarize themselves with a VR game [36].…”

“…For this VR game, the ball transferring part was feasible in the real world while the fire extinguishing part was not. The elements in the VR game, including the tool, the design of the room, and the background story, were inspired by previous works [35,36].…”

Beyond the Embankments: Virtual Training on Human–River Interaction for Fostering Safer Behaviors during Flood Emergencies

“…Further research has highlighted how the possibility of learning interactions in the physical world can have positive effects when these interactions are simple [33]. On the other hand, IVR seems to support situated learning that occurs in contexts similar to those in which what has been learned is subsequently applied [34].…”