Keywords

1 Introduction

The development of new communication and interactive strategy aiming a new look at the legacy of collective memories of a region, state or country, can be a relevant factor for enhancement of cultural aspects of the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe. One of the strategies, can be through by the development of interactive experiences based on digital games that involve users, arousing they interest in another culture and its intrinsic cultural aspects. The historical roots of São Tomé and Príncipe culture, are closely linked to reciprocal acculturation between Europeans from Portugal and Africans from the African coast south of the Sahara [1]. In this sense, the establishment of relations between the concepts of Digital Games, interactivity, culture, emotion and empathy, traditional aspects, internal and globalized space, adds value, difference and fosters reciprocal exchange between different cultures.

Tourism has emerged as a major economic sector and source of social and environmental change since the 1950s. It has also become a field of serious research and scholarship in many academic disciplines since 1970s [2]. Its characteristics should be defined: intangibility – it is a service, not a product, and as a result it cannot be touched, just experienced; heterogeneity – each customer experiences a service in a different way; inseparability – it cannot be taken home like a product and has to be consumed at the place of the destination; perishability – once the opportunity of selling a service at a certain point has forgone, it cannot be resold at a later point in time; lack of ownership – a service that cannot be owned [3]. The essence of travel and tourism experience is tourists’ encounters with the destination environments, the “realities” of others. Tourists are tempted by the allure of places and landscapes; some mainly driven by desire to experience the visual sensations of distant territories [4], others by the deeper meaning behind interacting with the sociocultural aspects of tourism destinations [5]. Due to technological advances, some studies have highlighted the use of Virtual Environments as a promising tool for tourism field [6]. Successfully supporting actions such as sightseeing in a virtual tourism destination will lead users to perceive a sense of presence, of him/herself as being in the destination. Consequently, presence explains the effectiveness of VR as substitute to and/or simulation of travel [7]. When compared to conventional methods, the advantages of using VR tools for tourism context, relate to the ability to create low-cost experimental (in some case) interactive and realistic environments, as well enhanced control of the variables.

1.1 Current Study

Understanding how potential travelers/tourists respond to various VR stimuli, the attitudinal consequences of “having been” in a destination, is of practical importance as destination managers are increasingly faced with strategic decisions to invest in various technology platforms and modalities [8]. In this context, this preliminary study emerged as an antechamber of the main research project itself (PhD thesis), through the development of a virtual reality immersive game prototype, with the aim of disseminating the cultural aspects (material/immaterial) of São Tomé and Príncipe islands, with the purpose to providing interactive experiences capable of seducing and arousing interest in the islands as a tourist destination, either by emanating intrinsic aspects characteristic of the islands or by the idyllic atmosphere as a vacation spot, using a three-dimensional virtual reality environment prototype of a beach place, through traditional hostel. Consequently, the current preliminary study is divide in two key moments: Analyze the participants interaction in virtual world, through their behavior in one side and in the other side to analyze user experience, by assessing their subjective perceptions as: Sense of presence, Simulator sickness but also using the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) and Geneva Emotion Wheel to access emotional state and reaction of participant, to assess its feasibility (i.e., protocol, content, equipment, data system) to achieve the main goal of this study.

1.2 Goals

The main goal of this research work is to evaluate a virtual reality three-dimensional prototype of a beach place, through traditional hostel, on São Tomé Island. In particular, we want to know if this virtual environment is capable of emotionally involve participants and provide interactive experiences capable to seducing and arousing interest in the islands. In addition, we also want also to evaluate the VR environment and equipment (HTC VIVE) concerning immersion factors and participants simulator sickness.

2 Method

2.1 Participants

Thirteen university students participated in this preliminary study, whose age range was between 26 and 45 years old. Of these, seven were men and six were woman. as the characteristics, they focused on those who: play regularly (4 participants), occasionally play (2 participants) and those who are not “players” (7 participants), but also in the fact that they have already used the virtual reality devices, (4 have already used and the rest have not).

2.2 Game Apparatus

An immersive Virtual Reality (VR) system set-up was used to evaluate 3D virtual reality environment prototype. Participants interact with a “mystery game” genre called SOIA, which was created using the UNITY® game engine version 5.5.0 (see Fig. 1).

Fig. 1.
figure 1

Images of the prototype developed game (SOIA).

Full size image

To perform VR experience, the participants used the Virtual Reality HTC VIVE® Development Kit with one Head-Mounted Display (HMD), two controllers and two motion sensors/bases (see Fig. 2). This game was divided into three parts: initial logos, training zone (tutorial) and Hostel (gaming experience). The objects and virtual 3D environment were developed in Autodesk Maya®, and later attached to the UNITY® game engine. As for gameplay, actions and movements within the virtual environment, we use features developed in our laboratory - ErgoVR, as well as the VRTK features made available by Sysdia Solutions Ltd and Steam VR® at UNITY ASSET STORE for free.

Fig. 2.
figure 2

Sequence of game moments.

Full size image

The game was run on an ASUS® computer, with Intel® Core ™ i7 processors, 16 GB RAM and NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1080 M graphics.

The simulation’s image frame rate, i.e., number of rendered frames per second (FPS), oscillated between 100 and 60 Hz per second.

2.3 Virtual Environment Prototype

In the first moment of the game, participants visualize the logos “Yanick Lambert” and “ERGO-VR-ULisboa”. Participants are then virtually transported to the training zone where they will interact and view visual and sound information, to accomplish tasks and appreciate the VR experience:

  • Information about the use of HMD, (his eye in the virtual world).

  • Locomotion area and limits, as well as safety procedures (avoid colliding with objects and walls in the real world).

  • Movement and information regarding the way he can move in the virtual world using teleporting, as well the areas which it can move or not using the HTC VIVE controller.

  • Touch, grab and manipulate objects in the virtual world using the HTC VIVE controller.

The tutorial takes approximately 10 min to be accomplished.

After completing the tutorial, the participant is teleported to the Hostel located on the São Tomé island. At the beginning, it will have a sound introduction with a voice so that he can get a sense of where he is. As for the interactions and moments of the gaming experience, the user will have to perform the following tasks:

  • Find the gold key on the table.

    After finding the key, an opening animation of the balcony door that is closed at the beginning will be triggered.

  • Move to the balcony.

    On the balcony, a collision box was placed and will trigger the next sound information related with the landscape and the place (São Tomé island).

  • Find the phone.

    In the balcony, the participant will have to locate the mobile phone that is on top of the bamboo table. He will have to grab it using one of the interaction controller and go back into the room.

  • Take a picture of the painting.

    Again, inside the room, the user will have to position the phone as if it were taking the picture, and will immediately receive feedback corresponding to the action, through the highlight the painting frame in green tones and with a countdown so that it has the feeling that he’s shooting something.

  • Information concerning the painter will be presented in 3D space as an information hologram.

  • End of the experience.

2.4 Measures

One usability test was conducted, to gather behavioral and subjective measures. This usability test, sought to analyze the participants’ overall user experience and satisfaction with the game prototype, by assessing their subjective perceptions about their interaction with the virtual environment. To achieve the evaluation goal, the following steps were accomplished:

Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM): A non-verbal pictorial assessment technique to measures the pleasure and arousal, associated with the participants affective reaction to a wide variety of stimuli [9] in three moments (tutorial zone, in game/hostel bedroom and the balcony). The Geneva Emotion Wheel (GEW): Discrete emotion terms corresponding to emotion families that are systematically aligned in a circle. Underlying the alignment of the emotion terms are the two dimensions valence (negative to positive) and control (low to high), separating the emotions in four quadrants: Negative/low control, negative/high control, positive/low control, and positive/high control. Also, in the very center of the wheel, the response options “no emotion” and “other emotion” is offered [10]. These two methods (SAM ad GEW), was used for more accuracy in the results. The Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ): in order to evaluate to what extent, the VE prototype could be satisfactorily used by the participants and the occurrence of any Virtual Reality Induced Symptoms and Effects [6] Participants were asked to score 23 symptoms on a four-point scale. The Presence Questionnaire (PQ): this questionnaire, which was applied at the end of the simulation, intended to evaluate to what extent the participants felt present inside the VE [6]. Participants were asked to score the quality of their VE experience according to their sense of presence, and a number of factors pertaining to the VE’s characteristics/system set-up, namely: sensory factors; level of realism; interaction factors; distraction factors; and display image quality. Each question was ranked using a 7-point scale, where participants indicated the strength of their agreement with the questions’ statements. The last two questionnaires were applied at the end of experience after the SAM and GEW questionnaires.

2.5 Procedure

All participants will respond to a written consent form and the entire game experience will be held in the same place and under the same conditions. The experiment was performed in a room using a desktop computer, with the presence of two researchers, the head research and another that belonging to the ERGOVR laboratory. A few moments before the game experience, each participant receives the essential information about the game. Soon after, the participant will perform a pre-test using SAM and Geneva to measure the emotional state, through generic examples in order to familiarize himself with the two methods that will be applied at the end of his VR experience. Each participant will perform their game experience in approximately 20 min. After finishing the game experience, the participant will respond first to the SAM questionnaire, where we will use two scales: affective valence scale (Pleasure/Unpleasure) and the activation scale(Calm/Excited) in three different moment of the virtual experience (Tutorial, Hostel/bedroom and Hostel/balcony. For accuracy of data collected, they also will respond to the Geneva Emotion Wheel to access emotional state in a particular moment of the game experience. Then the participant will respond to the questionnaire survey, Questionnaire (A): PRESENCE and the Questionnaire (B): Simulator Sickness, and the participant will not be able to tell the next participants what happened in their experience to not affect the next and future participants.

3 Results and Discussion

The data collected for SAM emotional measures reveal that the average pleasure score was 7,7 and the average arousal was 4,5 (values between 1–9). If we look to the values in specifics moments of the game experience (see Fig. 3), we can see that the Hostel zone (bedroom and balcony) present highest value of pleasure when compared with tutorial zone. Regarding the arousal, the excitement level was higher in the tutorial zone, and in the hostel, participants presented values closer to the middle.

Fig. 3.
figure 3

SAM: average-pleasure and arousal.

Full size image

Analyzing the results at specific moments in the game (see Fig. 3), we can provide a more detailed analysis. In the tutorial zone, the arousal values were close to 6 (Arousal Average = 5.8, Standard Deviation = 2.5), this is due to the fact that it is the first moment using virtual reality, is a moment of discovery, experimentation and learning. The tutorial is a practical and demanding exercise, so it activates users. The pleasure presented values close to seven (Pleasure Average = 6.5; Standard Deviation = 1.9). When teleported to the hostel/bedroom, some participants verbalized their reaction or nodded in approval (Arousal Average = 3.9; Standard Deviation = 3.1), (Pleasure Average = 8.1; Standard Deviation = 1.3). Analyzing the values of the three moments evaluated, the balcony was the one in which the values of excitement were the lowest, that is, the participants felt more calm and relaxed. This can be justified by the fact that they are contemplating the landscape and the view of the beach in line with the sound of the sea water. These results are in coherence with other studies using SAM to evaluate VR user experience [11]. In this same place the participants also chose as the area where the level of pleasure was the highest (Arousal average = 3.8, Arousal Standard Deviation = 3.3) (Pleasure Average = 8.5; Pleasure Standard Deviation = 1.1). Figure 4, shows results of the 13 participants in the balcony zone.

Fig. 4.
figure 4

SAM: participants emotional reaction in balcony zone.

Full size image

Concerning GEW, we analyzed the emotion experienced by the participants inside the hostel (whether in the bedroom or on the balcony). All emotions circumscribe the positive valence (see Fig. 5), whether with high or low level of control. All participants reported two types of emotions, always with a high intensity of 4 or 5 (1 minimum/5 maximum). The emotion that was often reported was contentment, 7 times corresponding to 27% of the choices. The second most felt emotion was pleasure with 19% of the choices (6 times). The other emotions registered were: Interest (16%), Admiration (15%), Amusement (15%) and Joy (8%).

Fig. 5.
figure 5

Emotions reported by participants in the hostel using GEW.

Full size image

As for the SSQ’s, the data gathered exposes few numbers of occurrence. The presence of symptoms in SSQ is reported in four levels. Absent, light, moderate or severe. Six from the thirteen participants reported a total absence of symptoms. No one presented moderate or severe symptoms. Seven participants reported slight symptoms. Two of them reported 1 symptom, two, 2 symptoms, one 3 symptoms and 2, 7 symptoms. The Table 1 reports the frequency of each symptom for the reported light symptom. The three symptoms more often reported are difficulty concentrating.

Table 1. Reported light symptoms in SSQ.
Full size table

In what concerns the Presence questionnaire (PQ) the scale ranged from 1 to 7, the data gathered reveals that: (1) the participants felt highly present/immersion (Average = 5.5, Standard Deviation = 0.7); (2) the VE’s sensory factors were very compelling (Average = 5.9, Standard Deviation = 0.7); (3) the VE’s overall realism was also high (Average = 6.1, Standard Deviation = 0.6); (4) the VE’s interaction factors were fairly good (Average = 6.1, Standard Deviation = 0.4); (5) overall, the participants were not distracted by the system set-up’s devices (Average = 2.8, Standard Deviation = 0.7) and could easily concentrate on the task. If we looked at the first question related to the immersion level, “During the simulation, did you feel that you were” inside “the virtual environment?” we found that the responses tended to “always” (score 1–7), we found that most participants felt “always” “inside” the virtual world (Fig. 6).

Fig. 6.
figure 6

Most scored: first question related to the immersion level.

Full size image

4 Conclusions

This paper emerged as part of the constructive process of a methodology that allows us to create an experience in virtual reality in order to seduce and arouse interest on the São Tomé and Príncipe island and some cultural aspects associated with it. As for the goal we proposed for the elaboration of this study, it was successfully achieved with feedback on the virtual environment very positive, not only from the point of view of the virtual environment created, but also from the curiosity about the island and some elements present in the virtual world. For example, one of the participants showed an interest in one of the paintings present in the bedroom, asking questions about where it could be seen and if it was for sale. The results were very positive, either from the point of view of emotional data collection through SAM and Geneva, as well as the more technical aspects related to the interaction and the virtual environment created and some aspects related to the state after the simulation.

As for the emotional aspects, the valence (pleasure) reached values close to the highest value in the scale, as well as the arousal scale revealed that the environment created a state of calm and contentment in the hostel area, especially when the participant it was in the balcony area. Regarding presence, the results show that the participants were very involved in the experience/immersion, the level of realism was also good, and the sound and visual effects present in the VR provided an even more immersive experience. Regarding the general state after the simulation, few factors were reported and even those reported were not more than slight symptom. This means that in general the interaction strategies, quality of the visual image presented as well as the actions realized in the virtual world by the user were quite fluid and with few delays in the actions performed.

Concerning the tutorial zone, two participants mentioned that the tutorial is too long. We also noticed that in some cases the participants would move their heads out of the game field. The delimitation of the area of locomotion not so close to the walls can help us to get around this problem. Already in the hostel and standing inside the bedroom with the doors closed and when the initial animation start, three participants touched the key in the inverse position to expectable, and so the animation of the key (flying) going to the door lock was not to desirable, since the participant was on his back to the door, not seeing the animation and in some cases was crossed by the key. To get around this position problem, instead of a single trigger, we can place two collision boxes, one of which triggered animation in one position and the other in another. Another method would be through a path, that is, after touching the key it would follow a path and when there was some object in its path it would bypass that object and then return to the path (a bit like the mechanics used in some car games). One of the participants also mentioned that the fact that the key has a fanciful and not a realistic animation, took some realism from its experience inside the bedroom at the beginning. On the balcony, one of the users complained about the reflection of sea water (“hurt the eyes”). Although this problem was not reported by anyone else, is necessary to consider in a next phase of this research work, by incorporating a new shader for the water reflection. Also, two participants reporting a little delay when moving the phone. This is related to the frames per second (fps) that in the future we can increase through the optimization of the virtual environment. One participant put into action a dilemma that may or may not have been reckless to the other participants, due to the fact that it had some difficulty in differentiating the emotional state on the balcony, since at the same time the user felt very calm, but at the same time he was also very excited, thus having some difficulty in choosing the corresponding emotion.

In the next stages, it will be necessary to develop a more complex game narrative, involving the creation of characters and short stories, as well the introduction of more objects in order to spread cultural aspects of São Tomé Island. The incorporation of characters and environments from the traditional tales of the São Tomé island within the virtual world, is one of the great challenges/ objectives of the main research work, as it will help to share one of the intrinsic cultural aspects of the islands, the traditional tales that were handed down from generation to generation by the elders.