IEEEVR 2018 first paper about “Social Presence and Cooperation in Large-Scale Multi-User Virtual Reality”

IEEEVR 2018 first paper about “Social Presence and Cooperation in Large-Scale Multi-User Virtual Reality”

How would a task in a VR experience have to be given for you to not feel as a lone wolf but find solutions together with your fellow players?

Definitely not an easy question but luckily enough exactly this can be researched.

With the help of almost 100 test persons, #IllusionWalk under the scientific direction and collaboration of TU Berlin and the University of Würzburg conducted a study during spring of 2017. In this study, participants were asked about their experiences and their biofeedback data was collected during their VR adventures. So, is it possible for VR to create a positive sense of belonging to a group?

All visitors experienced their first Illusion Walk virtual adventure with two others. But only half of the test persons “had” to work together in order to solve the tasks at hand.

It was shown that the visitors who “had” to collaborate had a stronger identification with the team and developed more social presence than the other visitors who had also experienced the adventure together but solved the tasks without the other players.
The results suggest that even in multi-user VRs, in which one has to interact via avatars with others, it is significant how tasks and experiences are designed for the users to really have the feeling of experiencing something together – and therefore are willing to return even after the first “wow-effect” has faded.

But these results are not only important to us, they are being recognized within the scientific community. We are excited that these findings will be presented on March, 21st at the IEEEVR 2018: 25th IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces. For the conference, the scientists developed the first paper about a social psychological study within the realm of VR: “Social Presence and Cooperation in Large-Scale Multi-User Virtual Reality – The Relevance of Social Interdependence for Location-Based Environments”

IEEEVR 2018
Session 8: Social VR
Wednesday, 21.03.18, 9:00-10:30 Uhr, Gand Hall
http://ieeevr.org/2018/program/papers.html#papers8

Thank you for all your work: Kristina Schindler, M.Sc., Nina Döllinger, B.Sc., and Simon Knock, B.Sc., as well as Dr. Ole Traupe and Prof. Dr. Carolin Wienrich.

We have already participated several times at the IEEE symposium with studies in or around the #ImmersiveDeck – all under the leadership of Dr. Hannes Kaufmann, TU Vienna. 2017, we even won the Best Paper Award 3DUI at the IEEE VR in Los Angeles.