Salute, Escapist
Remember the backlash when Rust first introduced randomly assinged races and sexes that were tied to the user's Steam ID? While a significant portion of the player base were indifferent, there was a good chunk of the community that were unfortable in playing a game with a character that is very different from them. Even the more diplomatic users claimed that it took a while for them to adjust to their new "shells".
There have been plenty of studies of how character customization and virtual avatars affect the human psyche (google "Proteous effect"). I have a hypothesis that this effect might be aplified in VR because of the enhansed immersion. Imagine looking down and seeing a body that is different to your own in build, skin colour or sex. So far this has been used to treat real conditions such as PTSD and Phantom Pain and as experimental method for sensitivity training.
This got me thinking, do you imagine dropping a game because you are forced to play a character who's body you don't like from a VR perspective? Certainly, the tech isn't quite there yet, but it's fun to speculate.
Remember the backlash when Rust first introduced randomly assinged races and sexes that were tied to the user's Steam ID? While a significant portion of the player base were indifferent, there was a good chunk of the community that were unfortable in playing a game with a character that is very different from them. Even the more diplomatic users claimed that it took a while for them to adjust to their new "shells".
There have been plenty of studies of how character customization and virtual avatars affect the human psyche (google "Proteous effect"). I have a hypothesis that this effect might be aplified in VR because of the enhansed immersion. Imagine looking down and seeing a body that is different to your own in build, skin colour or sex. So far this has been used to treat real conditions such as PTSD and Phantom Pain and as experimental method for sensitivity training.
This got me thinking, do you imagine dropping a game because you are forced to play a character who's body you don't like from a VR perspective? Certainly, the tech isn't quite there yet, but it's fun to speculate.