Older adults' playful experiences of VR gaming
Pages 182 - 191
Abstract
Virtual reality headsets enabling immersive experiences have been used for a long time in various public spaces such as universities, vocational education, and libraries. There is a plethora of different content available for VR headsets that can support education or entertainment, such as games and movies that enrich users' lives. However, there is little literature on the use of VR games by older adults. In addition, the understanding of how older adults experience virtual worlds and games is still limited. It is believed that they experience barriers with gaming and may consider it a waste of time. Older adults, however, can become active gamers if they are offered adequate support measures and when age-related factors are taken into account in the design of the games. Video games can enrich the lives of older adults and aid in managing aging challenges. Thus, it is important to study older adults' playful experiences with VR games. This study examines older adults' playful experiences of VR games and how they experience a VR gaming session in general. Through field observations collected from 33 participants during seven gaming sessions, the results point to several issues related to enjoyable, meaningful, and immersive game experiences: Confusion, fear, thrill, excitement, interest, curiosity, and enjoyment were the most common playful experiences in these VR games. The study revealed that in some cases, older players experienced fear of falling due to the content of the VR world. Most of the participants in the study were excited and some even wanted to continue using the VR glasses after the field experiment ended. This highlights the potential of VR gaming, necessitating further research into the playful experiences of VR gaming with older adults.
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DOI:10.1145/3639701
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