Multiplayer VR
Multiplayer VR Experience:
The most appealing part of the multiplayer experience was the type of experience as it was an escape room. Others joined in to solve the clues to escape the room in VR which felt much like being in a physical escape room. One issue with the experience was being confined to one single area due to the bounds of the VR play area with multiple people in the same space. In a physical location, everyone can easily see where the others are in physical space whereas in the VR experience the player can only see where players are in the VR world. This can lead to issues where players walk into one another in physical space but would not in VR space. Overall, the most important aspect of this type of experience is player location in both VR and physical space to ensure comfort and safety for everyone playing.
Concept Multi-Participant VR Experience:
My idea for a multi-participant experience is actually a combined experience of virtual reality and a physical setup for Quidditch matches. This would take a lot of technology to ensure the experience is as realistic as possible for virtual reality. Each player would be in their own room where there is a broomstick-like saddle that would need to be fairly comfortable to sit on so there would have to be padding on the broomstick. The VR headset would have the arena and everything that goes with the sport. Fans need to be placed around the room to simulate wind for flying around while playing. There would also need to be special controllers that work with the game that provide haptic feedback such as a bat that would simulate a hit when knocking a bludger. Sound is also very important to the experience so high quality speakers need to be placed around the room and have to sync with the headset to ensure sound comes from the appropriate direction.
Quidditch as a virtual reality experience with full teams of other real players would create an immersive multiplayer experience that would provide an awe factor for everyone. The idea of presence comes with how the experience is set up. When all of the technology comes together to create the experience—fans, audio, haptic feedback—the players truly believe they are playing Quidditch for real.