The Familiarity With the Virtual World: Research on Continued Intention to Play HMD-based VR Game

Compared with traditional games, virtual reality (VR) games can provide the realistic scene and interactivity thanks to the developing technology of VR and artificial intelligence. However, VR game cannot achieve the same popularity as the traditional game until nowadays. Although it can create the illusion that users live in the virtual world, users can still identify the difference between the real world and virtual world. As few studies discussed the factors affecting continued intention to play VR game, this paper intended to present quantitative study investigating the effects of familiarity with virtual scene and interactivity on sense of embodiment(SOE), flow experience, and continued intention to play VR game. Meanwhile, this study also showed the moderating role of perceived cost in this model. The results reflected that familiarity with interactivity positively related to SOE and flow experience while familiarity with scene only positively affect SOE. Perceived cost was found to positively moderate the influence of flow experience and negatively moderating the influence of SOE on continued intention to play. This study draws theoretical implications for future VR game research as well as practical implications for VR game industry.