Working with existing VR material: content analysis

This chapter explores how content analysis can be used to examine VR materials. Commercial VR content, both games and other experiences, have been subjected to relatively little examination by critical scholars. There is great potential to adapt interpretative tools from other disciplines, particularly game studies, to undertake this analysis. Game studies helpfully emphasise playing the text, rather than simply examining the story, though in the context of VR, the body of the player needs to be woven into this kind of analysis. The chapter reflects on the advantages and limitations of autoethnographic approaches for examining VR content as interactive texts. As a worked example of this approach, we reflect on our analysis of Half-Life: Alyx (Valve, 2020), the first big-budget franchise game to be released exclusively for VR.