There’s Desire for Social VR, But…
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Earlier this year, I surveyed regular VR users to learn their experiences and expectations of VR. Because I wanted to hear from users with substantial VR usage, I required that respondents use VR twice a month, or more, and that they utilized Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, PSVR, or Microsoft Mixed Reality devices. This research was funded by PlutoVR and I’ve previously reported results on harassment and privacy.
There is a strong desire for social capabilities in VR, but survey respondents have been slow to embrace the existing opportunities. This article is focused on what are people’s existing social patterns and stated preferences for interaction with others in VR. While there are many different types of VR platforms and applications, I analyzed the data based on whether people told me that they spent most of their time in solo versus multiplayer (or multiuser) experiences.
VR USERS MOSTLY GO SOLO
An overwhelming majority of respondents — 75% — reported spending most of their time in VR doing solo activities. Only 25% of users reported spending more time in multiplayer experiences rather than solo apps.
While some of this skew may be due to the fact that over half of the respondents use VR for work, 60% of them still reported that they preferred using VR alone.
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Where does this preference come from? I suspect this is likely because solo content offerings are more expansive currently. The number one VR app on Steam as of today is Skyrim, which is a single player experience.
One potential explanation for going solo is that the alternative is usually to interact with people you don’t know. I found that 70% of male respondents and 79% of female respondents claimed they didn’t value talking with strangers in VR. And yet, new people (aka strangers) often populate social VR platforms.
USERS WANT THEIR FRIENDS WITH THEM
When you look at the reasons that people use VR, being social doesn’t initially seem like much of a priority. Immersive and unique content are the biggest attractors. Gaming and demoing are also very popular. In fact, giving demos is about equal to gaming!
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And yet, over half of all users reported wanting to spend time with their friends in VR.
54% of solo users and 70% of multiplayer users reported wishing their friends were with them while in single player apps. And 74% of multiplayer users said they use VR as a way to connect with other people.
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There was even a 44% overlap between those who preferred to use VR alone and those who wished their friends were with them. For some, the ‘preference to use VR alone’ may be more of a preference to avoid interactions with strangers in social VR.
The data says that the desire to be social in VR exists. Users don’t see VR as a strictly solo medium, they’re waiting for their friends to get on board. They don’t want to hang with strangers and past experiences of harassment of fear of harassment is keeping them from fully embracing those platforms. There is a high incidence of harassment that our survey respondents reported to us:
49% of women reported having experienced at least one instance of sexual harassment
30% of male respondents reported racist or homophobic comments
20% of males have experienced violent comments or threats
You can read the full report on my 600-person VR user survey here. It contains more info on my approach, survey respondents’ VR usage patterns, privacy preferences and harassment statistics.