Exploring the Effects of Different Asymmetric Game Designs on User Experience in Collaborative Virtual Reality

2025-10-16

AI Summary

This study addresses social attenuation in collaborative virtual reality (VR) caused by technological isolation, investigating how asymmetric game design influences user experience. We developed four VR experimental conditions varying in environmental sharing degree and interplayer dependency directionality (unidirectional vs. bidirectional), and conducted a mixed-methods user study (N=64) to systematically evaluate usability, presence, sense of control, and intrinsic motivation. Results indicate that bidirectional dependency significantly enhances system usability and intrinsic motivation; environmental sharing alone does not directly improve experience—rather, dependency structure serves as a critical moderating factor. Crucially, role asymmetry and virtual co-presence do not synergistically enhance experience; dependency configuration emerges as the core mediating variable. This work provides the first empirical evidence that “dependency-centered design” outperforms “presence-centered design” for optimizing social VR. It establishes reusable design principles and theoretical foundations for developing highly collaborative, asymmetric VR systems.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Game Design — Virtual Humans, NPCs and Autonomous Characters
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction
• Multiagent Systems: Mechanism Design

Application Category

• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Practical large-scale studies of user experience
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Virtualization and resource management in Web systems and infrastructures

Abstract

The risk of isolation in virtual reality (VR) stems from the immersive nature of the technology. VR can transport users to entirely virtual environments, often disconnecting them from the physical world and real-life interactions. Asymmetric multiplayer options have been explored to address this issue and encourage social interaction by requiring players to communicate and collaborate to achieve common objectives. Nevertheless, research on implementing these designs and their effects is limited, mainly due to the novelty of multiplayer VR gaming. This article investigates how different game design approaches affect the player experience during an asymmetric multiplayer VR game. Four versions of a VR experience were created and tested in a study involving 74 participants. Each version differs in terms of the sharing of virtual environments (shared vs separated) and the players' dependency on the experience (mutual vs unidirectional). The results showed that variations in game design influenced aspects of the player experience, such as system usability, pragmatic UX quality, immersion control, and intrinsic motivation. Notably, the player roles and the co-presence in the virtual environment did not simultaneously impact these aspects, suggesting that the degree to which players depend on each other changes the player experience.

Problem

• Investigating asymmetric VR game designs' impact on user experience
• Addressing player isolation through collaborative virtual environment designs
• Analyzing how player dependency affects system usability and immersion

Innovation

• Created asymmetric VR game with shared environments
• Implemented mutual dependency in player interactions
• Tested four design variations on user experience