Instructed perception and action: The mutual accomplishment of manual know-how in using VR games

This paper investigates how manual know-how is manifested in instructed action in a technologized setting characterised by distributed spaces and bodies. Drawing on data from a temporary game lab where co-present participants try out virtual reality games, it analyses how an experienced VR user instructs novice participants in accomplishing the steps required to set up the game, in interacting with virtual objects and resolving troubles with tasks in the virtual environment. We show how instructions are fitted to and serve to advance the practical activity, and how they are recipient designed to teach novice users the manual and bodily techniques for interacting with the virtual game and its features. • Instructing novice users of virtual reality shows orientation to manual skills. • Practices of instruction involve tactile interventions and manual actions targeting correct techniques for using the controllers. • Instructional practices include use of touch to guide users' understanding of relevant features of the tactile interface. • Experienced player guides novice's perception by drawing attention to system instructions.