Full paper · 2020

A Palette of Deepened Emotions: Exploring Emotional Challenge in Virtual Reality Games

Peng, X., Huang, J., Denisova, A., Chen, H., Tian, F., & Wang, H.

ConferenceCORE conference ranking: CORE A*Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI'20), 2020

Teaser figure: A palette of deepened emotions. Photos of a participant playing on a PC and another in VR. Experiment 1 (N = 28) compared conventional and emotional challenge in Fallout 4 scenes; Experiment 2 (N = 40) added emotional challenge to the same scene. Radar charts of 24 emotions show VR enhanced emotional responses, appreciation, immersion and presence.
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In short

Emotional challenge asks players to deal with difficult emotions rather than difficult gameplay. Across two experiments we compared emotional challenge, alone and combined with conventional challenge, in virtual reality and on a PC.

Key findings

  • Emotional challenge evoked a wider range of emotions on both platforms.
  • Combined with conventional challenge, it broadened emotional responses only in VR.
  • VR improved emotional responses, appreciation, immersion and presence in both experiments.

Read and cite

APA citation

Peng, X., Huang, J., Denisova, A., Chen, H., Tian, F., & Wang, H. (2020, April). A Palette of Deepened Emotions: Exploring Emotional Challenge in Virtual Reality Games. In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI'20) (pp. 1-13).

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