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Designing Virtual Fear: Maybe Not

xanderdavis
Honored Guest
Survivor horror games in VR. Seems like an obvious concept, right? I'm a huge fan of Silent Hill and loved Amnesia.

But after playing HL2's Ravenholm in VR, y'know what? My brain is telling me NOPE.

This is me after the first black headcrab jumped in my face in fully immersive 3D VR. 😛



And I totally had to laugh at myself afterward, but when I kept playing, I just kind of got to a point where I wasn't even having fun anymore. It was actually too stressful to be enjoyable at all. At least for me. And Half-Life 2 is one of my favorite games of all time.

But this got me thinking...

Maybe designing products that create genuine horror/terror in VR is a very bad idea.

I'm not talking about thrills. A thrill is usually from overcoming an understood intense threat. I'm talking about making players feel terror. In horror, especially, this is usually done through shocking players with intense surprise from a non-understood threat, kicking the brain into a fight or flight, primal instinctive mode.

And look how easy it was with a blocky vector 2D Flash game on a low res CRT monitor.



Everyone's laughing but the victims... until they (barely) realize what happened and only start smiling, still dazed and confused, out of embarrassment in the face of laughter at their expense. And even then, you can see it on their faces-- the fear still lingers. I mean, there's a woman in the above video that literally falls back out of her own chair. A child freaks out and starts hitting his monitor. He knows it's just a silly monitor and some pixels, riiiiight?

Now strap an Oculus Rift to their heads. Wouldn't VR, with all of its total three-dimensional immersion and modern game engine fidelity strapped to your face, multiply this effect exponentially?

And to top it off, Valve has been R&D'ing biofeedback and seems to be en route to playing your fear like fiddle.

Maybe with these intense moments of designed shock and panic, VR could be too good at tricking the brain about it. Also, in the above video, notice how everyone instinctively flees every time from the screen; you can't get away from VR in VR without pulling the headset right off. You've locked yourself in. Imagine a VR moment of terror so shocking, horrific, and intense (and we should expect no less from the imaginations of designers today), that it sticks with people (especially kids)... and causes anxiety, nightmares or possibly newly-developed phobias long after the play session ended. There's a very long thread on this forum about VR apparently bringing about vivid dreaming, and I posted an article about VR imprinting more sophisticated, spatial artificial memories.

What does this mean for VR software designers? Well, while consumers may be in love with the idea of a survival horror VR game, what if when they finally play it, it's so intense that they actually reject it? What if it truly terrifies players to the point where they get defensive and actually angry at the game/developers for it? I brought this up on Twitter and someone suggested the first survival horror VR games may sell really well, but then sales would sharply fall after when everyone realizes the experience, fundamentally, sucks.

And, jokes aside, if VR can be used to treat PTSD, then it would be reasonable to think perhaps it could create degrees of the opposite effect, especially with kids. That could possibly be actionable. The issue isn't with subject-matter, as the argument against horrific content in games usually goes. This is one of effect on consumers, which is already demonstrable with a simple 2D Flash prank-game, let alone a full VR triple-A survival horror production.

It'll be interesting to see what happens when the first Rift-specific horror games emerge. If anything, it could result in a lot of broken Rifts, a la Wiimotes.

What do you think?

:shock:
Remote Consulting to Clients Worldwide in UI / UX / VR: http://www.xanderdavis.com
13 REPLIES 13

Novalmauge
Honored Guest
What about haunted houses?

I believe there will be people who seek these kinds of thrills, or genuine terror. I'd rather the games be made so people do not miss out.

Edit**

As far as the health implications to Virtual Reality... It's hard to say. One of the biggest ploys against gaming is the desensitization of the 'horrid', such as harming others or meaningless violence. VR makes it all more so, it seems there might be more of this campaign against games.

Still though, is it the developer's fault or the consumer's fault. ESRB exists for a reason, parents/consumers should pay it more heed. Granted it isn't as descriptive as we would like but it still carries warnings related to violence or mature content.

TL:DR slap a warning label on it. problem adverted... liability lost...

danielbln
Honored Guest
I think it depends on the susceptibility of a person to that sort of thing. I'm a complete wuss when it comes to suspension horror, even just on a monitor. Ravenholm in HL2 was quite stress inducing to me, and I played a mere total of 5 minutes of Amnesia before I Nope'd out of it. But I do know plenty of people who are just completely immune to that type of sensation and don't get scared (and therefore stressed) by it. And maybe for those people, VR horror will finally induce what regular horror already does for the faint of heart. Different thresholds and all that...

MikeArms24
Honored Guest
That's a good case you make, but I've never been able to have too much HD, 3d, realism, or immersion. To each their own, but like you I'm sure sometimes I will be taking my rift off saying I've had it with this. In fact, I've done that when playing more than a few horror games. Typically, however, it is because it gets too repetitive or too much "scare" without any actual "fun".
Riftmax Theater 4D Multiplayer VR Cinema! http://www.riftmax.com - Latest DK2-ready version 0.415(11/27/2014)

AnotherAtreyu
Protege
Some interesting points made from everybody so far. I personally think there will be definitive shifts in the psyche amongst regular VR 'players' both for better and for worse. Something this immersive can't possibly be completely benign, especially when you consider horror as OP suggests; but I do agree that it will be quite dependent on the users sensitivity just how much and how far they are effectively changed by the experience.

Geez, just the other night my Wife and I watched the movie Dark Skies and holy hell did that ever elicit some visceral reactions from my body. I ended up with palpitations and a headache the movie scared me so bad, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if many others thought it was tame.
I can watch the Saw and Hostel movies without much issue (excessive gore kind of aggravates me though) but for some reason the Aliens in Dark Skies made me feel like curling up in a ball and rocking myself to sleep shaking. lol

Not sure how I would react to that in VR. I could see it being quite dangerous to those with heart problems.
“If you are willing to look at another person’s behavior toward you as a reflection of the state of their relationship with themselves rather than a statement about your value as a person, then you will, over a period of time cease to react at all.” (~I really gotta remember this shiz~) ― Yogi Bhajan

Prelucid
Honored Guest
I remember being a kid delightfully interested in horror stories. Starting out with books, watching episodes of Are You Afraid of The Dark. As I got older, I watched more terrifying things that kept me up at night. Much later I recall forcing myself to watch Darkness Falls over and over, mostly for thrills, until I became desensitized to the horror side of it. Today I can watch pretty much anything without a lingering sense of dread or fear. I still watch things over and over and I know from personal experience that you can get desensitized to the imagery. These ideas lead me to the conclusion that it's very important that people make decisions or have opportunities to face their fears.

A few nights ago I had a dream that my mother transformed into the ghost from the Grudge and she was coming after me out of a picture frame. The funny thing is I recall the hairs standing up on the back of my neck but when she started moaning a dreadful sound, I actually did that sound back and found myself being the one consuming her instead. Even when I woke up, I felt a level of satisfaction from facing that.

In college I had two VR fear related projects and noted several people's reactions to it. Girls couldn't watch past the beginning and were screaming after two seconds of seeing it. A few guys shrugged it off (for appearances or just because they really weren't affected). Myself, even though I'd stay up until 2am filming empty swingsets in an empty school yard, viewing the imagery after post production still got me in a weird way. But all these variety of reactions make me think someone has to be willing to open themselves up emotionally to feel something, and others have the power to close themselves off to it. A testament to the human mind.

I don't know which side of the spectrum is better, but I can't believe that being completely unable to feel something is good, and if you feel so much that you can't face something, you're temporarily limiting your own opportunities until you can. I say we need more horror and we'll see more players getting into them when they find the stones to do it on their own time.
Viktor: Yes, he was wrong. But just as some things can be right and useless at the same time, can't something be wrong... and priceless?

RubberCircus
Honored Guest
See my real fear is when you get to that moment where BAM it's right in front of you and you jump back and OHSHITTHERIFTISSTILLATTACHEDTOME!!!!!!! :cry:

zfalconer
Honored Guest
I can see how these things could end very badly, especially with modern graphics.
Something that hasn't been taken into account is that ALL horror games right now are designed for a 2D screen, and must be over emphasized to get similar-to-real emotional results.
To remedy this problem, simply tone down the violence. Jump scares don't have to be nearly as in your face as they are now, and you could even make them take a longer time to jump out from somewhere.
My overall point is something that should be taken into consideration for all games, not just horror/thrillers: tone it down. You're not playing through a window, you are in the game, and will feel even simple things emphasized.
"If you can do something about it, why worry? If you can not do something about it, why worry?" ~dalai lama

Ananas
Explorer
Jump scares have always been the worst form of horror in videogames. Surely they can startle you, but nobody wants that kind of horror with Rift.

Good horror has always been a result of a spooky atmosphere. Atmosphere cosists of right sounds at right time and place, great soundtrack/ambience, usually the feeling of isolation/loneliness, unpredictable happenings, feeling of mortality etc etc.. All this played in first person is great, but with Rift the immersion is 10x better. I would like to see immersive and atmospheric games with Rift. Games like System Shock 2, Thieves, STALKERs, Bioshocks and so on. I don't want to see games where you are in completely dark forest with a dim flashlight and suddendly some jump scare startles you and hurts your ears.

I've always loved how a game can make fear only by being atmospheric. I'll propably love that even more (or less) with Rift.

Jalaman
Honored Guest
Like Ananas pointed out, I think the holy grail of "horror" (at least for me) is atmosphere rather than jump scares. I'd want to walk around Silent Hill before I played certain parts of Amnesia for example.