VR Animals: Surreal Body Ownership in Virtual Reality Games

The illusion of being someone else and to perceive a virtual body as our own is one of the strengths of virtual reality setups. Past research explored that phenomenon regarding human-like virtual representations. In contrast, our ongoing work focuses on playing VR games in the role of an animal. We present five ways to control three different animals in a VR environment. The controls range from third person companion mode to first person full-body tracking. Our exploratory study indicates that virtual body ownership is also applicable to animals, which paves the way to a number of novel, animal-centered game mechanics. Based on interview outcomes, we also discuss possible directions for further research regarding non-humanoid VR experiences in digital games.