Exploring UX Dimensions and Experience-Levels in VR Gaming: Insights from Online Reviews Using Transformer Models
Stefan Pasch, Seungju Lee, Min Chul Cha · International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction · 2025
Virtual reality (VR) gaming offers uniquely immersive experiences but poses challenges due to its complexity and novelty. This study explores how both hedonic (e.g., immersion, presence) and pragmatic (e.g., discomfort, control) user experience (UX) dimensions affect user satisfaction. Using over 350,000 Steam.com reviews, we developed a new sentiment analysis method combining zero-shot classification and a fine-tuned RoBERTa model. Results show all UX dimensions are positively linked to satisfaction, but their impact varies by gaming experience of users. General gaming experience strengthens the effect of hedonic dimensions, while game-specific experience diminishes the effect of all UX dimensions. Moreover, users with general experience mention all UX dimensions more frequently, whereas those with game-specific experience emphasize hedonic over pragmatic aspects. These findings reveal how different types of gaming experience shape the perception and evaluation of VR UX.