University of Huddersfield Repository Price, Mathew What Impact do VR Controllers Have on the Traditional Strategy Game Genre Original Citation Price, Mathew (2019) What Impact do VR Controllers Have on the Traditional Strategy Game Genre. Masters thesis, University of Huddersfield. This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/35011/ The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of the University, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the items on this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners. 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For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/ What Impact do VR Controllers Have on the Traditional Strategy Game Genre 1 What Impact do VR Controllers Have on the Traditional Strategy Game Genre Mathew Price University of Huddersfield What Impact do VR Controllers Have on the Traditional Strategy Game Genre 2 Abstract With Virtual Reality (VR) technology becoming more accessible and popular, video games have been taking advantage of its uses. Racing games such as ‘Driveclub VR’, allows the player to have a higher level of interactivity than compared to their regular screen counterparts. This paper will investigate the impact VR technology can have on the Real Time Strategy (RTS) game genre. This paper will give game developers who wish to develop a strategy game for VR, a list of recommendations that can help guide and influence their design process. The use of these recommendations will give the developer a template on how to create their VR strategy game, that has been guided by focus groups and research and will improve the quality of their control schemes and input mechanisms. The project found that VR controllers can have an impact on the strategy game genre, but further development of the recommendations would be needed to see if they can be used in a fully developed game. Taking influence from various sources such as non-VR video games, VR Games/ Applications and tabletop games, a control scheme for VR games was created and made into a list of recommendations. The research into this found that participants design decisions were heavily influenced by Google Products such as Google Earth VR and Google Tilt Brush, this can be seen in the recommendations, especially when examining the recommendations for the UI. Other influence can be seen such as traditional strategy game style 3D spaces. Keywords: Strategy game, Virtual Reality, VR, Controls, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift. What Impact do VR Controllers Have on the Traditional Strategy Game Genre 3 Acknowledgements I want to thank the Computing and Engineering staff of the University of Huddersfield, especially the Game Design staff. I would also like to thank Duke Gledhill for guiding me in the creation of the project. His guidance has been exceptional. What Impact do VR Controllers Have on the Traditional Strategy Game Genre 4 Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ 3 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 7 Chapter One – Contextual Review ................................................................................ 9 Section 1- Literature review .................................................................................... 9 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 15 Section 2 - Existing Strategy Games ....................................................................... 17 Real Time Strategy Game Mechanics .................................................................. 17 Real Time Strategy UI/UX................................................................................... 40 Section 3 – Understanding Current Strategy Games Control Mechanisms ............. 57 Current Control Mechanisms ............................................................................... 57 How do players interact with the identified control mechanisms? ...................... 66 Section 4 – Virtual Reality (VR) .............................................................................. 92 Identified Problems with VR ............................................................................... 95 Existing VR Games and How the Player Interacts with Them ............................ 96 Existing VR Strategy Games Control Schemes ................................................. 106 Chapter Two- Research Methodology ....................................................................... 112 Section 1- Autoethnographic.................................................................................. 112 Autoethnographic Controls Table ...................................................................... 127 Section 2- Research Design ................................................................................... 128 Interviews ........................................................................................................... 128 What Impact do VR Controllers Have on the Traditional Strategy Game Genre 5 Focus Group ....................................................................................................... 130 Questionnaire and Surveys ................................................................................ 132 Observation ........................................................................................................ 133 Pilot study .......................................................................................................... 133 Ethics.................................................................................................................. 134 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 134 Section 3- Individual Interview and Focus Groups Plan ....................................... 136 Demographic of the Focus Group and How Participants Will Be Gathered ..... 136 Plan for the Focus Groups and Interviews ......................................................... 139 Section 4- Pilot study ............................................................................................. 155 Chapter Three- Implementation of Research ............................................................. 158 Section 1- Individual Interviews Results ............................................................... 158 Participant overview .......................................................................................... 158 Results Analysis ................................................................................................. 160 Interview Stage Reflection ................................................................................. 169 Section 2- Focus Groups Results. .......................................................................... 170 Focus Group Member Breakdown ..................................................................... 170 Results and Analysis .......................................................................................... 172 Chapter Four- Project Evaluation .............................................................................. 194 References .................................................................................................................. 198 Appendices ................................................................................................................. 207 What Impact do VR Controllers Have on the Traditional Strategy Game Genre 6 Appendix A: Focus Group Answer Sheet Scans .................................................... 207 Appendix B: Focus Group Transcript Part 1.......................................................... 211 Appendix C: Focus Group Transcript Part 2.......................................................... 242 Appendix D: Individual Interview Results ............................................................ 259 Appendix E: Consent Form example ..................................................................... 264 Appendix F: Applicant Application Form Responses ............................................ 266 Appendix G: Individual Interviews Summaries .................................................... 272 What Impact do VR Controllers Have on the Traditional Strategy Game Genre 7 Introduction With the advent of VR technology and the influence that it is having upon the games industry, games such as “Onwards” showcase how VR technology can influence video game genres such as First-Person Shooters, allowing the player to move in the real world and affect the virtual world. Actions such as reloading a magazine in a weapon would traditionally be a button press on a controller or a keystroke