The Effect of Body-Based Haptic Feedback on Player Experience During VR Gaming

As the interest in virtual reality (VR) technology as a game console has rapidly grown over the past few years, many new technologies are also being developed to further enhance the VR gaming experience. One of these technologies is haptic feedback vests, which are beginning to hit the market with claims of elevating the player experience (PX). Since the use of haptic vests during gameplay is still in its early stages, their influence on the PX during VR gaming is understudied. Accordingly, the current study investigated the effect of providing body-based haptic feedback on players’ sense of presence and overall PX during VR gaming. Participants played a VR-based rhythm game both with and without a haptic feedback vest and provided self-reported ratings of their sense of presence and PX. Results revealed that there was no significant difference between playing with a haptic vest and without a haptic vest in terms of players’ sense of presence and PX during the gameplay. As a whole, these results indicate that providing body-based haptic feedback using a haptic vest may not always increase sense of presence and PX levels when playing a rhythm game in VR.