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tion change their preference in favor of steering tech-
niques.
Overall, there are more game-specific reasons in
Rec Room that are likely to increase the preference
for steering techniques over teleportation than to the
opposite effect, but it is unlikely that these reasons
alone could explain the overwhelming preference for
steering techniques.
3.2 Immersion
In this section, “immersion” refers to “the objective
degree to which a VR system and application projects
stimuli onto the sensory receptors of users in a way
that is extensive, matching, surrounding, vivid, inter-
active, and plot informing.” (Jerald, 2015, p. 45).
In general, real movement (i.e., physical move-
ment by the player that is mapped directly to virtual
movement) is known to be more immersive compared
to other travel techniques (LaViola et al., 2017, p.
326-328). In a comparison between steering tech-
niques and teleportation for playing, however, it is
less clear, which technique is more immersive.
Some players argue that teleportation leads to a
more “immersive” game experience for them. The
reasoning is that teleportation is often designed to re-
quire small pauses between successive teleportations
(a “cooldown period”). During these pauses, players
can only move by real movement. In shooting games,
these movements include dodging projectiles, taking
cover, peeking around corners, etc. Thus, the usage
of teleportation can indirectly increase immersion by
strongly encouraging real movement to perform bet-
ter in a game.
However, this effect depends on the willingness
and ability of players to move physically. If players
do not actually move physically, steering techniques
provide visual stimuli that match the experience of
continuous travel much better than teleportation be-
tween locations. Furthermore, the visual stimuli are
more vivid in the sense of continuous optical flow
during travel. Perceptually, they are usually more ex-
tensive since the apparent movement of a 3D envi-
ronment usually features motion parallax, which is an
important depth cue (Jerald, 2015, p. 118-120).
3.3 Physical Ergonomics
In VR, steering techniques and teleportation in Rec
Room make use of 6-degrees-of-freedom controllers.
These controllers are (at least to a certain degree)
designed for good physical ergonomics; specifically,
they require very little physical effort to use them.
As discussed in Section 3.2, however, the required
pauses between successive teleportations encourage
real movement. Specifically, dodging projectiles en-
courages unnaturally sudden and fast movements that
may result in high physical exertion. In this sense, the
use of teleportation may indirectly result in more ex-
ertion and, therefore, worse physical ergonomics than
the use of steering.
Avoiding the exertion by real movements (specif-
ically dodging projectiles) or the inability to perform
these real movements is therefore a reason to prefer
steering techniques because it allows players to per-
form some of these actions virtually just by pressing
buttons with their fingers.
3.4 Pleasure
This section discusses three features of steering tech-
niques compared to teleportation in Rec Room and
how they may shape players’ preferences: immedi-
ate feedback, integration with other interaction tech-
niques, and matching players’ expectations.
In interaction design, it is well known that “feed-
back should be immediate; otherwise users may be-
come frustrated or give up before tasks are com-
pleted” (Jerald, 2015, p. 283). As mentioned above,
teleportation in Rec Room often requires players to
pause between successive teleportations. If players
try to teleport during these pauses, immediate visual
feedback is provided but teleporting is not possible
until the end of the pause. On the other hand, steering
techniques offer “continuous control of the direction
of motion by the user” (LaViola et al., 2017, p. 339),
i.e., feedback in the form of a new direction or ve-
locity is immediate. Therefore, steering techniques
potentially result in a greater sense of freedom and
control, which may result in greater game enjoyment
(Ryan et al., 2006).
LaViola et al. suggest that a travel technique
should be chosen “that can be easily integrated with
other interaction techniques in the application” (LaVi-
ola et al., 2017, p. 368). Teleportation in Rec Room
is not integrated with virtual “jumping” (i.e., push-
ing the player’s avatar and virtual camera upwards for
a short period of time), presumably because it may
cause cybersickness. On the other hand, steering tech-
niques in Rec Room are integrated with virtual jump-
ing, presumably because players who are not nega-
tively affected by steering techniques are likely to tol-
erate jumping as well. Thus, steering techniques in
Rec Room allow for intense movements, e.g., long
jumps from buildings, jump attacks, and sliding down
steep slopes. Players who want to enjoy virtual jump-
ing or any movement that it makes possible have to
use a steering technique instead of teleportation.
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