this post was submitted on 31 Dec 2025
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Explaining things to men: Imagine a video game
this study sounds a bit rediculous to be honest
It's not ridiculous. There is a whole phenomenon where players behave differently in online games depending on the personality and social expectations others will have of the character they are playing as. If your character is expected to be a dick players act more like a dick, whereas if your character is expected to be nice players act more nicely. This occurs with the same players playing on different characters. This is called the "Proteus Effect" if you want to look into it more deeply.
Given that occurs I don't find it difficult to think that people would get into the role and atmosphere even more when doing it in VR.
Okay but like what if I'm support and my carry insists on tower diving at level 2 against 4 champs with hard CC?
i think this could also work for many real life nurses as well
My MMO career was more like
I didn’t get along with many people
I'm both
FFXIV be like "ok healer sulk if you like, I'll heal myself" and then the tank just solos the dungeon
This post just gave me League PTSD flashbacks. Fucking ADC's man. Stg they'll piss their own pants and blame you for it if someone isn't around to hold their penis for them when they pee.
and it's league so you can't even buy a force staff to help them feed more
The actual study is interesting as part of a larger series of tests to demonstrate if VR can be used as a reliable clinical and therapeutic tool
Does it say how that went? My vibe is that VR would in the long term foster a sense of isolation in the user.
I think it's too quick of an experience to feel isolation. They do a survey, put on the set and do a scene where they can see a mirror where they are a 'woman' then they are put on a train platform to wait for a train to arrive, get on the train. Then take off the set, and do an exit survey.
In conjunction with a therapist I can imagine it being useful in some exposure therapies, but an unfortunate amount of the phrasing in the paper makes me think they're trying to pitch this as 'solo AI VR therapy is possible.'