The Nature of Nurture in VR
For two decades, there’s been a formal tradition in digital gaming of appealing to the nurturing instincts of players. This has expanded the market of gamers by including those who are not interested in competitive play, but are instead motivated to care for something and proudly exhibit that object of their affection. The practice came into mainstream consciousness in the mid-90’s with the handheld virtual pets Tamagotchi when they could be found on the belt loops of many grade-schoolers. It even became a cause for concern among parents when their children endured a brief period of mourning upon the demise of a virtual pet despite their limited options for interactivity, such as ‘feed’, ‘love’, etc.
The tactics employed by developers throughout the generations of games to engage nurturing players are simple and fairly consistent. Give players a virtual creature to raise — oftentimes starting from the day the animals are born/hatched, ensure the creature is adorable or at minimum shows tenderness and loyalty towards the player, give the creature vulnerabilities which will make them dependent on the player for their well-being, give the creature milestones/pitfalls that show the progression of their skills, health, and training. The point of divergence for this genre of game comes with battling, where some players want to raise their beasts for competitive ends while others consider raising the creatures an end in itself and would never thrust their beloved pets in harm’s way. The emergence of VR has seen and will continue to see new iterations of this genre which are worth discussing.
Note: I would like to comment on the relative strength of players’ nurturing instincts towards their creature across platforms (e.g. Desktop vs. VR vs. Mobile), but I’ve been unable to find solid data. The heightened sense of presence offered by immersive VR experiences would suggest that that VR would instill more affection in players, but this is only an assumption and results in such research can often be counterintuitive.
Dream Pets VR is an experience exclusively about raising puppies. Players choose from multiple breeds, which they may take home, feed, play with, and teach tricks. You may also accessorize the puppy more elaborately than should be done with a real pet. The experience is designed for cute, giving users an endorphin fix in each play session. Raising your puppy is, as advertised, the sum total of the experience and fans of earlier games, like Nintendogs, will not be disappointed.
If I may digress for a moment, CurioPets is an AR experience that puts the experience of digital pet ownership in the context of travel. Your animal companion is cared for in the same way as traditional pet simulation, but credits towards food and accessories for your pet may be earned through travel. Pets absorb energies that are specific to certain sites and regions. Unlike Pokémon AR experiences which ask you to collect multiple creatures by visiting different places, this allows you to unlock abilities and items for the same pet through your travel. An interesting 255-day travel diary featuring an AR dog named Coop can be found on their website.
OrbusVR is a fantasy RPG in SocialVR that asks users to assume a class like those found in many RPG games, such as Runemage, Warrior, Ranger, or Musketeer. Though it’s not required or even prevalent, players are able to raise and breed dragons within the game, which can vary in size, color, and element. Their inclusion was a particularly clever design choice because having a cute baby dragon following users and munching apples is likely to attract a wider user base. In communication design, complementing another user’s dragon is a good conversation starter in much the same way walking a real dog in the park often draws wanted attention. On a personal note, the first time I played Orbus VR a kind 20-lvl mage gifted me a red, sleepy-eyed dragon who I named Lance Junior-Junior, giving me an immediate affection towards it, the SocialVR platform, and its community.
I have yet to find examples of raising digital children in SocialVR, something that has long been a part of Second Life, but I did find experiences that flip the script, giving users the POV of a baby. One is Baby Hands VR, which puts you on all fours and has you interact with the world as an infant. Another is a 360-video from Johnson and Johnson meant to instruct parents on how to communicate with children, but it’s likely to arouse unintended responses in viewers, ranging from extreme awkwardness (my case) to amusement or even paraphilic infantilism.
