Introduction and prominent effects of XR

• gambling

• active influence of users

• product placement

• …

influency a user by

• designing virtual environments

• providing virtual companions

“Immersion is the extent to which the computer displays are capable of delivering an inclusive, extensive, surrounding, and vivid illusion of reality to the senses of a human participant” (Slater/Wilbur)

the objective characteristics further include possible actions of a user within a given system

• engagement

• engrossment

• total immersion

“players lost their self-awareness and are completely detached from reality”

• Immersion: objective characteristics

• Gaming Immersion: subjective experience

• presence, telepresence or place illusion describes the subjective illusion of being in a real place despite being physically located in a different place

• presence = the perceived realness of a mediated or virtual experience

• maintaining presence requires a support of sensorimotor contingencies and a continuous stream of stimuli and experience

• a higher level of presence increases the intensity of experienced emotions

user representation:

• not at all (no embodiment)

• represented by 3D models of game controllers or virtual hands (minimal embodiment)

• avatar (full embodiment

the avatar can be full or partial body

-> using an avatar as a proxy for a user’s real body is called embodiment

• being embodied by an avatar can evoke the so-called IVBO

• IVBO depends on three factors

  • Acceptance (of the avatar as the own body)

  • Agency (indicating the perceived control over the virtual body)

  • Self-location (referring to the perceived own position)

• photorealistic and/or personalized avatars can increase IVBO

• more sexualized avatars lead to more body-related thoughts

• elderly avatars result in slower walking speed

• avatars of children result in objects being perceived as larger

• users even accept avatars of a gorilla

• users acquire abilities to control artificial body parts like a tail

• copresence = sense of being together with another

• social presence = moment-by-moment awareness of the copresence of another sentient being accompanied by a sense of engagement with them

• copresence is evoked by

  • other users embodied by an avatar

  • virtual agents controlled by the computer

-> a user perceives other characters as real no matter who or what controls them

-> a user reacts to the social cues given by them

• flow describes the complete absorption of a person in the performance of an activity

• flow is a central construct that mainly influences enjoyment and performance of gaming action

• Dark Flow:

  • dependency on the experience of flow by repeating a specific activity

  • originats from sports and provides a possible explanation for exercise addiction