Video Games
Into to virtual reality
What is virtual reality? In recent years this has been most closely associated with head-mounted-displays and also known as VR. But virtual reality also includes other forms of media such as photographs, movies, and video games played on a TV (Blascovich & Bailenson 2011). All of these share one central commonality – the brain interprets visual input from these media as a reality to varying degrees. Often there is an avatar involved. Either an avatar of a person’s photograph being seen as an accurate and real representation of the subject, or as an avatar of the player connecting them to their interactions of a video game’s reality. Because our brains interpret these media as a form of reality (Blascovich & Bailenson 2011), it is prepared to experience the emotions that go along with it. Such as crying when our favorite character dies, or the increase in heart rate that goes along with fear in horror movies and horror games.
Horror and Thrill-Seeking Video Games
Horror video games like Resident Evil or Alien: Isolation allows us to experience fear in a safe way. When the Alien (or Xenomorph) is sniffing out your hiding place in a locker and you are in VR with the Alien right in front of you, the fear experienced is real. Albeit with the safety net of being aware at the back of the mind that it is just a simulation. Likewise, with thrill-seeking video games, adventure- and thrill-seeking activities such as parkour in Mirror’s Edge, or street racing in The Crew, or jumping out of a plane and skydiving can be experienced without the inherent dangers and skill requirements of their real life counterparts.
Treating Fears & Phobias with VR
One of the ways to treat a phobia is for a patient to confront their phobia in a controlled environment. For example, a person may begin by being in the same room as a spider in a covered cage, then progress to an uncovered cage, and finally to being able to hold the spider without fear (Blascovich & Bailenson 2011). However, there are challenges in using real spiders such as environmental regulation, care, occasional escaping, and the inability of the spider to heed commands (Blascovich & Bailenson 2011). VR on the other hand allows a customized simulation to be made for the patient with the spider following precise instructions for more controlled treatment (Blascovich & Bailenson 2011). Other efforts to use VR for phobia
treatment of fears is to pair VR headsets with drugs that enhance a receptor in the brain linked to associating something to fear (Miller 2003). It is worth noting that these experiments in treating fears with VR were conducted in the late 1990s and early 2000s. This was with the older kind of VR headsets that were less immersive and graphically rudimentary compared to the current generation of VR.
-Jeff Nau
