The Characteristics of Recruitment and Assistance Among Peers in Social Virtual Reality Gameplay

This study illustrates how recruitment and assistance unfold in social virtual reality. Using conversation analysis, the study examines audio-visual data of peer interaction on the social VR platform Rec Room. Novice users’ actions are examined as they familiarise themselves with the virtual environment and seek assistance from their peers. The findings show that participants orient to explicit requests as recruitment and respond to them with advice, whereas embodied trouble displays do not elicit assistance from the recipient. In turn, the examined advice turns show how participants avoid taking an expert position, and their turns are framed as suggestions. Recruitment and assistance make visible asymmetries of access to virtual and physical interactional resources and different perspectives in social VR.