Invite Only VR: A Vaping Prevention Game: An Evidence-Based VR Game for Health and Behavior Change

Invite Only VR: A Vaping Prevention Game is a virtual reality (VR) videogame intervention focused on e-cigarette prevention in teens. To our knowledge, Invite Only VR is the first theory-driven e-cigarette prevention game to be developed for a VR platform, making it unique among the limited pool of existing e-cigarette intervention programs for adolescents. Invite Only VR capitalizes on the use of VR by delivering an intervention that arms teens to deal with peer-pressure situations surrounding e-cigarettes. VR is especially well-suited to this type of intervention because VR facilitates greater social presence, the subjective experience of being present with a “real” person, than other forms of technology. Invite Only VR not only simulates the presence of plausible peers, but it also uses voice recognition software throughout the game to allow the player to practice refusing peers in real time using their own voice. The game was developed with input from 4 focus groups comprised of 5 adolescents each to create a game narrative and situations that would feel authentic to the target audience. This careful background research ensured that the virtual characters would behave in the manner expected by players and use the appropriate colloquialisms when speaking about e-cigarettes. The intervention is currently being evaluated in a non-randomized cluster trial with 285 middle school students. Preliminary feasibility testing conducted on a prototype of the game indicates that playing Invite Only VR increases player e-cigarette knowledge and perceptions of e-cigarette harm. Moreover, teens who played the game reported a lower likelihood of experimenting with e-cigarettes in the future. In this initial evaluation, 83% of players agreed that they enjoyed playing the game and 78% said they would tell their friends to play, suggesting that Invite Only VR is an engaging way to convey the dangers of e-cigarettes to youth.