Poker in Virtual Reality

Conceptual Framework

Technological developments in the 21st-century have changed society in many ways, e.g., the way we communicate via mobile phones, play games and even interact with each other on a daily basis. All facets of our lives move quicker, and society as a whole has become more entangled in the digital network, becoming more “digitalized.” Virtual Reality (VR) is a further technological development, as people become more accustomed to the ever-evolving digital environment. For instance, Ruddle, Payne and Jones (1999) conducted a study in which participants navigated four times in one large virtual building using the head mounted display (HMD) and the second building using the desktop. Players who used HMD were more accurate and faster to get at their final destination than those who used a desktop environment. VR training simulations have proven to be more efficient in a variety of ways, and they give all parties involved a lot of freedom. Also, according to McNeill’s (2007) tests, users experience the same subconscious gesture movements in Virtual Environments (VE) as they would in the offline world during virtual engagement/communication.

Imagine the following: for a birthday party a father dresses his daughter as a Princess wielding a fairy magic wand, and the son is dressed as Superman. While the father watches the son running around with his arms stretched straight simulating flight, the daughter plays with her friends as Princesses from a fairy land. While the research is not about children who dress in a fantasy world, these visualizations point to the importance of self-individual adaptability, or as Yee and Bailenson (2007) refer to it, Proteus effects, on behavior. This leads us to consider what are the possible behaviors of an avatar in a poker player on a VR social setting. Poker is a social game in which players sit around a table with other players and compete against each other in a game of cards. Players employ a variety of strategies in attempt to earn money from the pool. Deception and bluffing are two such strategies.