Introduction to Virtual Reality Gaming
Virtual reality unifies several technologies including interactive thinking and game development. Further, it needs a user to shift his or her fundamental thinking about the reality which is understood with sizes and shaped to inability more experiences including times and places. Despite the changes in the boundaries of technologies in Virtual reality, the technologies still have some common goal which is to create an enjoyable experience for users. This needs a balance between the production and creativity. VR has created new markets in the gaming industry that create new expeornces and new narratives that engage users better. An immersion is used a lot into him VR technologies field which refers to the feeling that a gamer gets from the game by feeling the presence inside the virtual world (Utexas, 2014).
The immersive environment crated by virtual reality employs field of view to create this experience to give gamers this sense of being inside the virtual world. This experience can alter the state of mind of the users.
VR games have physical like properties that allow production of colours, shines, and surface textures which is possible with the use of physically based shading. Dynamic Substance designer makes it possible to build textures as per the shading pipeline. Global illumination is used for calculating lighting which gives a kind of real like expertise by capturing shadows of real like figures. The quality of this environment depends on head mounted display devices used by the gamers. Because of these immersive gaming experiences, increasing number of gamers is now adopting the VR games (Gouveia, 2015).
However, while making a selection of any games, what parameters do the users consider while taking a decision is a very scarcely studied phenomenon. This research is going to explore deeper into the perceptions of the gamers on the experiences with the games and their choice of games based on their experiences and other factors that would affect their preferences at the time of buying or adopting a VR game (Pradeep, Alexander, Narayanan, & Polys, 2017).
Research Project Description
This research project involves exploration of the perceptions of youth gamers who play virtual reality games. The research would take the case of Ubisoft which is one of the popular companies that developed VR games. The users of Ubisoft games would be surveyed to understand their perspectives about their preferences for selecting VR games for playing.
Problem Statement
The Virtual Reality technologies have advanced over past few years reaching a wide range of applications including gaming. However, it is still at a very nascent stage where only the early adopters of the VR have started to use it for gaming. This could be due to heavy investment needed in the acquisition of the VR devices that are needed for the gaming and also because gaming is not considered as an essential or important part of lives. When the literature on the VR gaming and the gamers was explored, it was found that very little research has been done on the understanding of the preferences and perspectives of the youth consumers of the VR gaming.
VR Gaming Technology and Development
However, if their preferences can be better known, it would assist the organizations developing VR games to develop features that click with the gamers and market themselves better. Thus, this research would explore the preferences of the gamers considering VR game use or purchase which would help the gaming companies build and market games in a manner that would get them more gamers to adopt the technology for their gaming experience (Trost, Zielke, Guck, & France, 2015).
Field of Research
Virtual Reality refers to an immersive experience that makes a gamer feel like being inside the virtual world. Gamers have to wear VR decides on their head that come with built0in display or oculars which is powered by a computer, gaming console or a smart phone device. Specialized software can word with sensors to make the experience feel like a reality for the user. The virtual content is not just delivered with real like visuals but also with 3D spatial sounds that makes the experience completely immersive (MEC, 2016).
A standard price of a VR gear such as that of Samsung is between $100 and $200. It this, in the year 2015, $108.8 million value of the VR devices was sold in 2014. However, researches have shown goring interests in gamers for VR games (Rosi?ski, 2015).
Experts predict that VR technology is likely to become one of the top of the technology breakthroughs. It would become a turning point for multimedia technologies. Forecasts have been made that by 2018 the sale of VR devices would reach 18 million in 2018 in which 90% of the devices would be Smartphone based.
Last year that is in 2016, Smartphone-based goggles made around 80% of the total sales of the equipment market which was around 6 million. However, this treed would decrease by 2018 when console-based and PC based Virtual Reality will contribute 30% and 16% to the total VR sales respectively (Zyda, 2005).
Considering the previous studies done on the gaming community and VR systems, it can be said that the literature available is not sufficient to understand the perspectives of the young gamers on the virtual reality games and thus, a primary research may be required here to explore their perspectives about games. Certain criteria that are considered as important for gamers which they decide on taking an immersive experience of a game were identified in the previous researches. These included human computer interaction, human to human interaction, degree of freedom in characters, mobility, degree of interactivity, anonymity, chatting feature, WTP, familiarity with the game environment, and flexibility (Müller & Kade, 2016).
However, these criteria have not been studied specifically for any specific games but only in general to understand the views of gamers. The current research aims to fill this gap by taken the views of consumers on a specific set of games that are launched by Ubisoft which is the case taken for this research.
Obstacles
During the research, certain obstacles are likely to be faced such as:
Insufficient secondary data: An exhaustive literature study would be required to come up with the sufficient information about him gaming consumers if the questionnaire has to be prepared for the survey. However, there is limited research already been done on the community of gamers who play VR games and thus, sufficient literature may not available that would be highly relevant. The research would thus have to make a compromise by covering the theories and literature based on the general gamers and not specific VR gamers.
Research Problem and Objectives
Thus, the research would have to be majorly dependent on the primary data that would be collected by the survey to get major insights. However, this challenge also presents the opportunity to the researcher as he would be able to add value to research community of gamers by exploring the perspectives of youth on the VR games through a primary survey (Perkins Coie LLP , 2016 ).
Sample Size Limitations: As the numbers of gamers who have adopted VR technologies for gaming are limited and difficult to reach, the size of the sample would be less and thus, the results may not be generalized for a larger audience. However, there are only the early adopters of the VR games today and thus, the research could only be limited for them and it would not be possible to reach out to every game.
Data Collection Problem: The data has to be collected from the users of one of the VR gaming organizations which in the current case are Ubisoft. As it would not be feasible to reach all the gamers as they may be very scattered, they have to be reached as per convenience of availability. Moreover, the researcher may not necessarily find sufficient number of gamers playing Ubisoft games and thus, all the gamers including those preferring games from other companies would be included in the sample (Driscoll, 2011).
Permission from Ubisoft: If the actual users of Ubisoft have to be reached in large number then the details of the same has to be taken from the organization for which Ubisoft needs to give permission for the data collection of their customers. However, the company may not be willing to share the personal details of their customer which would be required for this research. Thus, the research would take a different approach and would reach out to the customers of Ubisoft in the gaming stores where the researcher would personally meet them to take the permission for the participation in the survey on gaming. Either forma can be distributed to them directly or .
permission can be taken along with the ID for forwarding the same later on for the survey. However, in the case of permission, the possibility of getting responses from them would be low. Moreover, most of the potential respondent say not agree to be the part of the research and thus, the sample has to voluntary such that only those customers willing to share their views or perspectives would be included in the study.
Research Outline
The research report would have following sections covered:
Introduction: In the introduction section, the aims and objectives of the research would be identified and documented. It would also include the coverage of the significance of the project and brief description of the deliverables of the project. The introduction section would include the background of the research which would help an audience understand why the research is conducted and how it would be useful for the research community in the gaming environment.
Literature Review: In this section, an in-depth exploration of the past literature on the gaming researches on the VR games and the gaming consumers would be explored. It would also include all the related theories about gaming and about the gaming consumers or customers who would help in understanding how consumers of the games make decisions or preferences related to the games for buying or trying a VR game. The review would form a base or foundation for the further research in the context.
Field of Research
Research Methodology: In this section, the research methods that would be used for conducting the current research would be documented. The section would outline the research philosophy, the research paradigm, data collection methods, data analysis methods, ethical considerations, limitations, sampling criteria, data reliability measures and data validity measures. This section would help researcher take a decision on how the data would be collected, measured, analysed and presented during the research. The data would be collected using a survey which would be conducted on the young VR gamers (Baek, Song, & Seo, 2004).
Data Analysis: In this section of the research report, the data that is collected during the survey with the young VR gamers would be input on the SPSS software and statistical analysis would be done on the same to explore the patterns of preferences with respect to specific game attributes of Ubisoft. It would make use of standard tests like correlation and regression analysis to identify if the preferences of the consumers for certain attributed was dependent on any criteria which could be demographic or other. The findings would be used for making interpretations that would be based on the learning obtained during the literature study and the insights would be developed accordingly.
Conclusions and Recommendations: The last section of the research report would summarize the key findings and interpretations of the research and based on the lessons learned from the research, it would make certain recommendations on the promotion or marketing of the VR games to meet the preferences and interests of the young gamers of today.
Research Methodology
As this research needs to explore the perspectives of the gamers who have not been included in any major studies before, a primary data would be required and thus, this research would conduct an empirical investigation on the phenomenon and would make use of a primary research. As the research is targeted on the consumers of VR games whose opinions and behaviours have to be understood, a survey method of data collection would be the most appropriate thing to do. As the area of research does not have a large amount of information already published, the primary survey would be used for gathering the needed information easily (An instrument to build a gamer clustering framework according to gaming preferences and habits, 2016).
Data Collection: The research would make use of a survey which would be conducted on the young gamers between the age group of 15 to 25. The study would include 200 respondents who would be the gamers and would have played at least one VR game. In the survey questionnaire, they would be given questions for the choice of preferences with respect to certain game assessment criteria such as human computer interaction, human to human interaction, degree of freedom in characters, mobility, degree of interactivity, anonymity, chatting feature, WTP, familiarity with the game environment, flexibility, and so on. Besides this, certain demographical values would also be recorded in order to form the clear profiles of the respondents such that they can be segmented based on certain criteria (Nilsen, Linton, & Looser, 2004).
Methodology and Approach
Data Analysis: The data that would be collected through the survey would be coded and entered into the SPSS software which would be used for analysis of the quantitative data obtained. The data analysis would make use of correlation analysis to identify if any of the variables are correlated to each other in the data based on which the regression test would be run on the variables that are fund correlated to test the dependence of one variable on other such that it can be determined whether there exists a causal relationship between the two variables.
Ethical Considerations: As this research uses a primary survey as the key method for the data collection, the ethical considerations are important for the research. Thus, the researcher would follow certain ethical codes of conduct including voluntary participation, confidentiality, anonymity, and researcher bias. The researcher would allow the respondents to refuse or accept the participation and the use of the information on the survey for the purpose of research.
For this, a consent form with details of the research methodology, significance of the survey and a promise to use the responses only for the purpose of research would be given to the respondents and only when they agree to the terms and decide to take part in the survey voluntarily, they would be selected as final respondents for the survey. To maintain confidentiality, no personally identifiable data would be taken from the respondents accept the demographic characteristics that are required for the purpose of analysis. The questionnaire which the researcher prepares could be biased and thus, it would be given to peers and the tutor for a review such that if there is any possibility of the bias, it would be eliminated based on the suggestions from those who would review the questionnaire for survey.
Timeline
|
Milestone |
Period |
|
Refine objectives |
1 week |
|
Literature study |
2 weeks |
|
Refine Research Methodology |
1 week |
|
Data Collection |
1 week |
|
Data Analysis |
2 weeks |
|
Write up Results chapter |
1 week |
|
Write Report – Literature review – Theoretical framework – Research Methodology – Outcomes |
2 weeks |
|
Proofreading and Editing |
2 weeks |
|
Pre-submission review |
2 weeks |
|
Final submission |
References
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Baek, S., Song, Y.-S., & Seo, J. K. (2004). Exploring Customers’ Preferences for Online Games . Seoul, Korea : Hanyang University.
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Caltrans. (2007). Project Communication Handbook. Caltrans.
Driscoll, D. L. (2011). Observations, Surveys, and Observations, Surveys, and Interviews. Library of Congress.
Gallagher, M. D. (2015). ESSENTIAL FACTS ABOUT THE COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY. ESA.
Gouveia, P. (2015). GAMING AND VR TECHNOLOGIES, POWERS AND DISCONTENTS . Lisboa, Portugal: Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade de Lisboa .
MEC. (2016). Spotlight on Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and 360 Video. MEC.
Müller, V. C., & Kade, D. (2016). Ethica of Virtual Reality Aplication in Computer game production. Västerås, Sweden: Mälardalen University.
Nilsen, T., Linton, S., & Looser, J. (2004). Motivations for Augmented Reality Gaming. Christchurch, New Zealand : University of Canterbury.
PDA. (2007). Project Management: Project Justification and Planning. 1st: Scottish Qualifications Authority .
Perkins Coie LLP . (2016 ). AUGMENTED AND VIRTUAL REALITY SURVEY REPORT. Perkins Coie.
Pradeep, S., Alexander, A., Narayanan, S., & Polys, N. (2017). Immersion and Engagement in a VR Game. Virginia Tech.
Rosi?ski, ?. (2015). Report on the current state of the VR market . Reality 51.
Royal Academy of Engineering. (2014). Public projects and procurement in the UK: sharing experience and changing practice. Royal Academy of Engineering.
Trost, Z., Zielke, M., Guck, A., & France, C. R. (2015). The Promise and challenge of virtual gaming tehnologuy for chronic pain: the case of graded exposure for low back pain. Future Medicine Ltd.
Utexas. (2014). Video Games: History, Technology, Industry, and Research Agendas. Universty of Texas.
Warman, P. (2016). 2016 GLOBAL GAMES MARKET REPORT: AN OVERVIEW OF TRENDS & INSIGHTS. New Zoo Games.
Zyda, M. (2005). Simulation to Simulation to Virtual Reality to Games. USC Information Sciences Institute.
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