TY  - JOUR
A1  - Oberdörfer, Sebastian
A1  - Schraudt, David
A1  - Latoschik, Marc Erich
T1  - Embodied gambling — investigating the influence of level of embodiment, avatar appearance, and virtual environment design on an online VR slot machine
JF  - Frontiers in Virtual Reality
N2  - Slot machines are one of the most played games by players suffering from gambling disorder. New technologies like immersive Virtual Reality (VR) offer more possibilities to exploit erroneous beliefs in the context of gambling. Recent research indicates a higher risk potential when playing a slot machine in VR than on desktop. To continue this investigation, we evaluate the effects of providing different degrees of embodiment, i.e., minimal and full embodiment. The avatars used for the full embodiment further differ in their appearance, i.e., they elicit a high or a low socio-economic status. The virtual environment (VE) design can cause a potential influence on the overall gambling behavior. Thus, we also embed the slot machine in two different VEs that differ in their emotional design: a colorful underwater playground environment and a virtual counterpart of our lab. These design considerations resulted in four different versions of the same VR slot machine: 1) full embodiment with high socio-economic status, 2) full embodiment with low socio-economic status, 3) minimal embodiment playground VE, and 4) minimal embodiment laboratory VE. Both full embodiment versions also used the playground VE. We determine the risk potential by logging gambling frequency as well as stake size, and measuring harm-inducing factors, i.e., dissociation, urge to gamble, dark flow, and illusion of control, using questionnaires. Following a between groups experimental design, 82 participants played for 20 game rounds one of the four versions. We recruited our sample from the students enrolled at the University of Würzburg. Our safety protocol ensured that only participants without any recent gambling activity took part in the experiment. In this comparative user study, we found no effect of the embodiment nor VE design on neither the gambling frequency, stake sizes, nor risk potential. However, our results provide further support for the hypothesis of the higher visual angle on gambling stimuli and hence the increased emotional response being the true cause for the higher risk potential.
KW  - virtual reality
KW  - virtual environments
KW  - immersion
KW  - gambling
KW  - risks
KW  - embodiment
KW  - avatars
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-284662
SN  - 2673-4192
VL  - 3
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Döllinger, Nina
A1  - Wolf, Erik
A1  - Mal, David
A1  - Wenninger, Stephan
A1  - Botsch, Mario
A1  - Latoschik, Marc Erich
A1  - Wienrich, Carolin
T1  - Resize Me! Exploring the user experience of embodied realistic modulatable avatars for body image intervention in virtual reality
JF  - Frontiers in Virtual Reality
N2  - Obesity is a serious disease that can affect both physical and psychological well-being. Due to weight stigmatization, many affected individuals suffer from body image disturbances whereby they perceive their body in a distorted way, evaluate it negatively, or neglect it. Beyond established interventions such as mirror exposure, recent advancements aim to complement body image treatments by the embodiment of visually altered virtual bodies in virtual reality (VR). We present a high-fidelity prototype of an advanced VR system that allows users to embody a rapidly generated personalized, photorealistic avatar and to realistically modulate its body weight in real-time within a carefully designed virtual environment. In a formative multi-method approach, a total of 12 participants rated the general user experience (UX) of our system during body scan and VR experience using semi-structured qualitative interviews and multiple quantitative UX measures. Using body weight modification tasks, we further compared three different interaction methods for real-time body weight modification and measured our system’s impact on the body image relevant measures body awareness and body weight perception. From the feedback received, demonstrating an already solid UX of our overall system and providing constructive input for further improvement, we derived a set of design guidelines to guide future development and evaluation processes of systems supporting body image interventions.
KW  - virtual reality
KW  - avatar embodiment
KW  - user experience
KW  - body awareness
KW  - body weight perception
KW  - body weight modification
KW  - body image disturbance
KW  - eating and body weight disorders
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-292940
SN  - 2673-4192
VL  - 3
ER  -