Virtual Reality Gaming: Perspectives on Immersion, Embodiment and Presence

Virtual reality (VR) offers a new medium for video games. But how does VR as a medium affect the aesthetics and design of VR video games? In this chapter my aim is to answer this question. I begin by introducing video games as an art form, then highlight two types of pitfalls that a game’s design can fall prey to. A game can be too permissive, or too restrictive, when structuring the player’s agential role given its aesthetic aims. I argue that VR makes falling into either extreme easier because of the sense of presence VR elicits. After defining the sense of presence, I present a conceptual framework for designing virtual items, then apply this to the sense of presence. I argue that the resultant framework allows us to see how VR exacerbates the two pitfalls, and can help mitigate the difficulties of VR game design.