CfP: IEEE Transactions on Games - Call for Special Issue on User Evaluation for VR Games

[Georgios Yannakakis]

IEEE Transactions on Games is inviting researchers to submit abstracts for the upcoming special issue on User Evaluation for VR Games and we would be very grateful if you could share with your conference attendees. We think it could be a good opportunity for many of them to submit the research presented at the conference to a journal.

Abstracts are expected by 30 July 2022 and detailed information about the call can be found below.
IEEE Transactions on Games Special Issue on User Evaluation for VR Games
Background
The rapid development of motion tracking, miniature displays, communication technologies, and the unique characteristics (immersion, realism, engagement) of immersive virtual reality (VR) technologies have changed the nature of gaming and, to a large extent, helped shape its future. The way players interact and experience VR games is very different from traditional platforms. For instance, VR players are moving from (1) 2D screen-based gaming to 360° gaming, (2) playing the character to being the character, and (3) limited sensory feedback to complete feedback (e.g., touch, taste, smell). Despite these changes, current research on VR games still relies primarily on user evaluation methods and approaches designed for traditional 2D screen-based games. As VR becomes more pervasive, more attention needs to be paid to designing, reconfiguring, or validating methods and approaches for evaluating gameplay and experiences in VR games.
There are several limitations of applying traditional questionnaires and methods for measuring VR gameplay: (1) traditional questionnaires have not been validated for VR games, (2) they are not designed for VR gaming, and the unique characteristics of VR gaming (e.g., immersion, sickness, fatigue) are often not included in their measurements, (3) it may interrupt the overall VR game experiences (e.g., sense of immersion) if used outside of VR. On the other hand, VR enriches performance data generated by the players and offers several physical movement data generated by the users, which might also provide insights into the overall gaming experience. Therefore, there is an urgent need to establish new and novel metrics for measuring VR games.
Several consumer-based headsets are now using (or compatible to include) physiological sensors, including eye-tracking, electroencephalography, and electromyography. As such, VR provides a golden opportunity for using real-time measures of human responses essential to the players' experience. Traditional physiological or biometrics such as eye-tracking and heart rate (i.e., attention and stress responses), electroencephalography and electromyography (e.g., cognitive load), emotions/expressions (e.g., users' feeling) could be considered and adapted for assessing VR gameplay experience, but they need to be validated. In addition, these physiological data have the potential to be used in real-time to improve the user and gameplay experience. Real-time use of such data remains largely underexplored.
Suggested Topics
This special issue focuses on exploring novel and state-of-the-art user evaluation methods for VR games. We are looking for model papers with high standard, rigorously tested user evaluation methods that other researchers can follow and build on. The special issue aims to bring together researchers from various backgrounds to report their novel methods, approaches, and designs to assess VR gameplay and experience. Suggested topics include, but are by no means limited to:
Metrics tailored for VR games
Performance
Experience
Physiological
Methods and devices for measuring these metrics
Development of integrated physiological sensors in VR headsets
Development of algorithms for analysis of players' performance
Performance/Experience modeling
Studies that use physiological measurements in VR games
Real-time adaptive gameplay and experience
Dynamic in-game questionnaires
Multimodal, multi-source measurements
Important Dates
Abstract submission to guest editors and the EiC 30 July 2022
Paper submission 1 September 2022
First decisions 30 November 2022
Early access SI publication (online) Early 2023
Publication in print Late 2023
Submission
Submission Guidelines are available here
Guest Editors
Hai-Ning Liang
Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China
Email: hainin...@xjtlu.edu.cn

Wenge Xu
Birmingham City University, UK
Email: Weng...@bcu.ac.uk

Yiyu Cai
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Email: MYY...@ntu.edu.sg

Fotis Liarokapis
CYENS – Centre of Excellence, Cyprus
Email: f.liar...@cyens.org.cy

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