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Live-action Virtual Reality Games

This paper proposes the concept of "live-action virtual reality games" as a new genre of digital games based on an innovative combination of live-action, mixed-reality, context-awareness, and interaction paradigms that comprise tangible objects, context-aware input devices, and embedded/embodied interactions. Live-action virtual reality games are "live-action games" because a player physically acts out (using his/her real body and senses) his/her "avatar" (his/her virtual representation) in the game stage, which is the mixed-reality environment where the game happens. The game stage is a kind of "augmented virtuality"; a mixed-reality where the virtual world is augmented with real-world information. In live-action virtual reality games, players wear HMD devices and see a virtual world that is constructed using the physical world architecture as the basic geometry and context information. Physical objects that reside in the physical world are also mapped to virtual elements. Live-action virtual reality games keeps the virtual and real-worlds superimposed, requiring players to physically move in the environment and to use different interaction paradigms (such as tangible and embodied interaction) to complete game activities. This setup enables the players to touch physical architectural elements (such as walls) and other objects, "feeling" the game stage. Players have free movement and may interact with physical objects placed in the game stage, implicitly and explicitly. Live-action virtual reality games differ from similar game concepts because they sense and use contextual information to create unpredictable game experiences, giving rise to emergent gameplay.