Increasingly, virtual reality VR design and research leverages gameplay asymmetries, flattening discrepancies of interface, abilities, information or other aspects between players.
A common goal is to induce social interactions that draw players without head-mounted displays into a shared game world. Exploring these asymmetries resulted in many artifacts, creating an innovative yet disparate research landscape that showcases points for improvement in coverage of the field and theoretical underpinnings.
In this article, we present a literature review of asymmetry in multiplayer VR games, using a framework synthesis method to assess the field through a lens of existing literature on asymmetries in gameplay. We provide an overview of this emerging subfield and identify gaps and opportunities for future research. Virtual reality VR technology has received immense interest from researchers, developers, designers, and the games industry alike in recent years.
Nevertheless, the immersive quality of VR technologies, in particular head-mounted displays HMDs , has also received criticism for its potentially isolating characteristics, both technologically and socially Boland and McGill, This isolation risk has inspired game designs that enhance the VR experience by including bystanders as co-players.
These game designs can leverage the benefits of multiplayer game experiences e. Examples include giving bystanders insight into the virtual environments VEs inhabited by the HMD player e. These interactions of HMD players with non-HMD players can be considered a type of asymmetry: a difference in the interface with which users interact with the VE. However, while asymmetry of player interfaces is increasingly common in VR experiences rooted in cross-reality paradigms , there are many other asymmetry types that can be designed Harris et al.
