Playing with Virtual Reality: Early Adopters of Commercial Immersive Technology
| dc.contributor.author | Foxman, Maxwell | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2022-10-12T22:58:02Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2022-10-12T22:58:02Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2018 | |
| dc.description | 375 pages | en_US |
| dc.description.sponsorship | This dissertation examines early adopters of mass-marketed Virtual Reality (VR), as well as other immersive technologies, and the playful processes by which they incorporate the devices into their lives within New York City. Starting in 2016, relatively inexpensive head-mounted displays (HMDs) were manufactured and distributed by leaders in the game and information technology industries. However, even before these releases, developers and content creators were testing the devices through “development kits.” These de facto early adopters, who are distinctly commercially-oriented, acted as a launching point for the dissertation to scrutinize how, why and in what ways digital technologies spread to the wider public. Taking a multimethod approach that combines semi-structured interviews, two years of participant observation, media discourse analysis and autoethnography, the dissertation details a moment in the diffusion of an innovation and how publicity, social forces and industry influence adoption. This includes studying the media ecosystem which promotes and sustains VR, the role of New York City in framing opportunities and barriers for new users, and a description of meetups as important communities where devotees congregate. With Game Studies as a backdrop for analysis, the dissertation posits that the blurry relationship between labor and play held by most enthusiasts sustains the process of VR adoption. Their “playbor” colors not only the rhetoric and the focus of meetups, but also the activities, designs, and, most importantly, the financial and personal expenditures they put forth. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1794/27690 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Columbia University | en_US |
| dc.rights | Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0-US | en_US |
| dc.subject | Virtual Reality | en_US |
| dc.subject | Commercial Immersive Technology | en_US |
| dc.title | Playing with Virtual Reality: Early Adopters of Commercial Immersive Technology | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis / Dissertation | en_US |