Evaluating Wearable Tactile Feedback Patterns During a Virtual Reality Fighting Game

A two-study approach was used to explore the effects of tactile feedback patterns on virtual reality gaming experiences of participants, including presence, flow, usability, emotion, technology adoption, and tactile sensation. In our main study, participants were instructed to play a virtual reality fighting game. Five experimental conditions with different tactile feedback patterns (no-tactile, random, fixed, discrete, and realistic tactile feedback) were examined. The results of our study indicated that: (1) tactile feedback patterns have no significant effect on flow and emotion, and (2) the no-tactile feedback condition was rated significantly lower by the participants than other tactile feedback conditions in terms of presence, usability, technology adoption, and tactile sensation. A follow-up study was then conducted to understand the different effects of realistic feedback in active versus passive fighting games. The results of our follow-up study indicated that participants rated tactile sensation and usability higher when under the passive gaming condition. We discuss our findings along with the study limitations and future research directions.