Narrative Storytelling In VR Through Gaming

Gaming has consistently been acknowledged as a storytelling medium for its signature ability to provide user interaction. As virtual reality becomes a more prominent gaming environment, it will be expected to carry on the tradition of storytelling. Currently, virtual reality is in a state of infancy, where products offer little sophistication and serve as amusements rather than storytellers. As this changeover takes effect, there are certain discrepancies which will hinder a transition from flat screen gaming to virtual reality gaming. In order to create a successful narrative driven virtual reality game, these discrepancies must be addressed in a meaningful way. This thesis will also experiment with the aforementioned differences by developing a virtual reality game in Unreal Engine 4

Avatars Going Mainstream: Typology of Tropes in Avatar-Based Storytelling Practices

Due to the growing popularity of video games, gaming itself has become a shared experience among media audiences worldwide. The phenomenon of avatar-based games has led to the emergence of new storytelling practices. The paper proposes a typology of tropes in these avatar-based narratives focusing on non-game case studies. Suggested tropes are also confronted with the latest research on avatars in the area of game studies and current knowledge of the issues concerning the player-avatar relationship. Some of the most popular misconceptions regarding the gameplay experience and its representation in non-game media are exposed as a result of this analysis. The research confirms that popular culture perceives gaming experience as closely related to the player identity, as the latter inspires new genres of non-game narratives

Killing and being killed: bodies in battle; perspectives on fighters in the middle ages

What bodily experiences did fighters make through their lifetime and especially in violent conflicts? How were the bodies of fighters trained, nourished, and prepared for combat? How did they respond to wounds, torture and the ubiquitous risk of death? The articles present examples of body techniques of fighters and their perception throughout the Middle Ages. The geographical scope ranges from the Anglo-Scottish borderlands over Central Europe up to the Mediterranean World. This larger framework enables the reader to trace the similarities and differences of the cultural practice of "Killing and Being Killed" in various contexts. Contributions by Iain MacInnes, Alastair J. Macdonald, Bogdan-Petru Maleon, and others

An Analysis of Presence and User Experiences Over Time

This manuscript presents the result of a series of studies intended to shed light on understanding how trends regarding user experiences in VR changes over time when engaging with VR games. In my first study, I explored how user experiences compared when playing Minecraft on the desktop against playing Minecraft within an immersive virtual reality port. Fourteen players completed six 45 minute sessions, three sessions were played on the desktop, and three in VR. The Gaming Experience Questionnaire, i-Group presence questionnaire, and Simulator Sickness Questionnaire were administered after each session, and players were interviewed at the end of the experiment. Survey data showed substantial increases in presence and positive emotions when playing Minecraft in VR while multiple themes emerged in participant interviews: participants\u27 heightened emotional experiences playing Minecraft in VR was closely linked to feelings of immersion and improved sense of scale; participants overall enjoyed using motion controls, though they felt indirect input was better for some actions; and players generally disliked traveling via teleportation, as they found it disorienting and immersion-breaking. In my second study, I identified temporal shifts in user perceptions that had taken place within the first two years that consumer VR devices had become available. To consider what could be learned about the long-term use of consumer VR devices, I analyzed online forums discussions devoted to specifically VR. I gathered posts made on the /r/Vive subreddit from the first two years after the HTC Vive\u27s release. Over time, users moved from passive to active as their attitudes and expectations towards presence and simulator sickness matured. The significant trends of interest found to influence this was game design implementation and locomotion techniques. In my third study, again, I examined the data taken from the /r/Vive subreddit forum posts to gain further insights into the scope of what ``lingering effects\u27\u27 users had reported experiencing after using VR and the progression of these effects over time. After identifying search terms designed to discover comments made about lingering effects, I found three significant categories of lingering effects (besides simulator sickness) during my qualitative analysis: perceptual effects, behavioral effects, and changes in dreams. The perceptual and behavioral categories were further divided into sub-themes; including disruption of body ownership and proprioception, loss of a sense of depth in the real world, visual after effects, the need to verify the reality of the natural world through touch, hesitation when moving in the real world, and attempts to apply VR interaction metaphors to real-life interactions. After identifying these categories of effects, I mapped out how these effects progressed concerning time. In particular, I coded data according to four temporal concepts: 1) how long must be spent in VR to trigger an effect, 2) how long before the onset of an effect upon exiting VR, 3) the duration of any specific effect, and 4) the total duration that all effects can continue to occur overall. In my fourth study, I examined how user experiences and trends regarding presence changed throughout a single gaming session. Participants were immersed in a virtual experience called \u27The Secret Shop\u27 and given instructions to explore their surroundings with no guided direction. After their experience ended, users performed an After Action Review (AAR) while watching a recording of their recent experience, followed by a semi-structured interview. I graphed each user\u27s feelings of presence over time from second to second using the results of the After Action Review. Presence was shown in these graphs to both rise and fall, gradually and rapidly, throughout the course of each user\u27s experience. The analysis of both the graphs and the interviews then showed that presence was significantly impacted by user expectations, affordance inconsistencies, and the intensity of engagement experienced throughout the session. In my final study, I loaned out VR headsets to local novice users to track their perceptions of presence across the span of four weeks. Users were given the freedom to explore any VR games and applications of interest to them off-site to simulate regular VR consumer experiences. In this study, I analyzed how over time, novice users gradually evolved in their understanding of presence and what became most important to them in order to maintain and create it in the form of visual appeal, interaction techniques, and locomotion. I also found that the levels of engagement experienced across games were shown to be linked to whether users experienced lingering effects, how their perceptions of time spent within VR had been altered, and whether or not they retained any interest in investing in future VR-related purchases

The future of interactive literature

Interactive literature is a fresh form of literature that has not yet existed even for a hundred years, yet it has a wide history, jumping between continents and including a number of evolutionary steps. Its evolution is still ongoing and this thesis aims to map out where it might be headed next. The first part of the thesis focuses on unearthing the past of interactive literature in full, starting all the way from the first gamebook released in 1930 and making its way to the present. The second part builds on this by trying to see where it might be heading next. For this purpose a scenario-based questionnaire (focusing on technological advancements) was deployed on forums filled with both consumers and developers of interactive literature. Answers to the questionnaire ended up being quite few and biased towards developers so the results are analyzed with a grain of salt. Also past personal experience in writing interactive literature is discussed in order to provide a more writer-centric perspective into currently available tools and needs.Interaktiivinen kirjallisuus on tuore kirjallisuuden muoto, joka ei ole edes sata vuotta vielä, mutta sen historia on kattava, hyppien mantereelta toiselle lukuisien evoluution muotojen myötä. Tämä evoluutio on vieläkin menossa ja tämä tutkielma pyrkii selvittämään minkä muodon se ottaa seuraavaksi. Tutkielman ensimmäinen osa keskittyy interaktiivisen kirjallisuuden historian kokonaisvaltaiseen selvittämiseen. Tutkimus alkaa ensimmäisestä pelikirjasta, joka julkaistiin vuonna 1930 jatkaen siitä aina nykypäivään asti. Tutkielman toinen osa rakentaa edellisen päälle yrittäen selvittää mikä olisi seuraava askel historiassa. Tämän selvittämiseksi tutkielma käyttää skenaariopohjaista kyselyä, jota esitettiin erilaisilla foorumeilla, joiden käyttäjiin kuului niin interaktiivisen kirjallisuuden kuluttajia kuin kehittäjiäkin. Kyselyyn saatiin vain muutamia vastauksia jotka tulivat suurimmaksi osaksi kehittäjiltä, joten tulokset analysoidaan tämä huomioon ottaen. Kyselyn lisäksi myös kertynyttä henkilökohtaista kokemusta interaktiivisen kirjallisuuden kirjoittamisesta käydään läpi. Tämä tuo kirjoittaja läheisemmän näkökulman tarjolla oleviin työkaluihin ja tarpeisiin

Evaluation of Detecting Cybersickness via VR HMD Positional Measurements Under Realistic Usage Conditions.

With the resurgence of virtual reality, head-mounted displays (VR HMD) technologies since 2015, VR technology is becoming ever more present in people's day-to-day lives. However, one significant barrier to this progress is a condition called cybersickness, a form of motion sickness induced by the usage of VR HMD’s. It is often debilitating to sufferers, resulting in symptoms anywhere from mild discomfort to full-on vomiting. Much research effort focuses on identifying the cause of and solution to this problem, with many studies reporting various factors that influence cybersickness, such as vection and field of view. However, there is often disagreement in these studies' results and comparing the results is often complicated as stimuli used for the experiments vary wildly. This study theorised that these results' mismatch might partially be down to the different mental loads of these tasks, which may influence cybersickness and stability-based measurement methods such as postural stability captured by the centre of pressure (COP) measurements. One recurring desire in these research projects is the idea of using the HMD device itself to capture the stability of the users head. However, measuring the heads position via the VR HMD is known to have inaccuracies meaning a perfect representation of the heads position cannot be measured. This research took the HTC Vive headset and used it to capture the head position of multiple subjects experiencing two different VR environments under differing levels of cognitive load. The design of these test environments reflected normal VR usage. This research found that the VR HMD measurements in this scenario may be a suitable proxy for recording instability. However, the underlying method was greatly influenced by other factors, with cognitive load (5.4% instability increase between the low and high load conditions) and test order (2.4% instability decrease between first run and second run conditions) having a more significant impact on the instability recorded than the onset of cybersickness (2% instability increase between sick and well participants). Also, separating participants suffering from cybersickness from unaffected participants was not possible based upon the recorded motion alone. Additionally, attempts to capture stability data during actual VR gameplay in specific areas of possible head stability provided mixed results and failed to identify participants exhibiting symptoms of cybersickness successfully. In conclusion, this study finds that while a proxy measurement for head stability is obtainable from an HTC Vive headset, the results recorded in no way indicate cybersickness onset. Additionally, the study proves cognitive load and test order significantly impact stability measurements recorded in this way. As such, this approach would need calibration on a case-by-case basis if used to detect cybersickness

Combat Psychology: Learning to Kill in the U.S. Military, 1947-2012

In his 1947 work Men Against Fire: The Problem of Battle Command, historian S. L. A. Marshall convinced the U.S. government and military of the critical need for improved techniques in combat psychology. However, his more fundamental assertion that soldiers needed to be trained to overcome an innate psychological resistance to killing would prompt some in the military as well as scholars and medical experts to examine the heart and mind of the soldier in combat. As a result, an emergent science called killology became a critical component in the U.S. military’s quest to better train soldiers for the rigors of combat. This thesis will explore the development of sophisticated technology and training techniques used by the U.S. military to create soldiers that were more efficient at killing in combat