Book chapter 54 views
The Presence Assemblage: Understanding Presence in VR Games through Breaking It
Leighton Evans 
Virtual Reality Gaming: Perspectives on Immersion, Embodiment and Presence, Pages: 177 - 189
Swansea University Author:
Leighton Evans
Abstract
VR gaming has seen significant growth over the past decade, establishingitself as more than a fleeting trend. This chapter explores how the sense ofpresence in VR gaming is best understood through its limitations andbreakdowns. The author introduces the ‘Presence Assemblage’ conceptderived from Ihde...
| Published in: | Virtual Reality Gaming: Perspectives on Immersion, Embodiment and Presence |
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| Published: |
Emerald
2025
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa69211 |
| Abstract: |
VR gaming has seen significant growth over the past decade, establishingitself as more than a fleeting trend. This chapter explores how the sense ofpresence in VR gaming is best understood through its limitations andbreakdowns. The author introduces the ‘Presence Assemblage’ conceptderived from Ihde’s post-phenomenological relations with technology. Theframework developed argues that presence emerges as a phenomenal state inplayers, contingent on the balance of design elements and players’ affectivereception. Specifically, presence in VR is a combination of the focal,embodiment and hermeneutics relations a player has with VR and the game.The hermeneutic relation is critical but cannot be achieved without focalimmersion and embodiment. By examining moments when presence ‘breaks’or is interrupted in games like Borderlands 2 VR, Myst VR and VR Karts:Sprint, the chapter dissects factors contributing to and detracting frompresence. These case studies reveal how issues with interfaces, game design,graphical fidelity and tactility illustrate presence as an assemblage of interdependentelements. The chapter argues that the breakdown of presenceoffers a crucial lens for understanding VR gaming dynamics. Using Heidegger’sanalysis of tools, it contends that presence is a state of ‘readiness-tohand’,disrupted when technology malfunctions, making it ‘present-at-hand.’This disruption shifts the experience from unreflective use to consciouscontemplation, providing insights into what makes a VR gaming experienceimmersive. The chapter concludes by highlighting the intricate relationshipsbetween game design, narrative structures and technological affordances,stressing the contingent and interdependent nature of presence in VRgaming. |
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| Keywords: |
presence, post-phenomenology, focal relations, embodiment relations, hermeneutic relations |
| College: |
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Start Page: |
177 |
| End Page: |
189 |