The pleasure of being (there?): an explorative study into the effects of presence and identification on the enjoyment of an interactive theatrical performance using omnidirectional video

Abstract

This study explores how participants in an immersive theatrical performance perceive their role in the virtual environment (VE) and the effects of this perception on how they experience the performance as a whole. Using a quasi-experimental 2 × 2 design, narrative and task-based search was manipulated to explore the effects on spatial presence, social presence, identification and enjoyment. Results show that the effect of spatial presence on enjoyment of the performance is entirely mediated by identification with the role of the self in the VE. This could have interesting consequences for the experience of more narrative VE’s and suggests that the role of identification is something to explore further in future presence research.