As a child, I was captivated by a book series commonly referred to as “Choose Your Own Adventure” books. I read and reread these stories trying to uncover each of the unique endings, or at least as many as I could. I would spend hours living the same adventure over and over, seeing how I could make it differ. The VR experience I would like to implement capitalizes on this interest in discovering the unknown based on one’s reactions in certain situations, or moral crises. While I spent hours pouring over old books, the new generation of students have the ability to become that much more captivated by a story that has lasted over 200 years- Frankenstein.
Frankenstein is a perfect avenue to teach empathy especially when combined with the mechanics of a Choose Your Own Adventure story. It calls into question the actions of the user, and can be programed to trigger more empathetic responses. By rewarding empathy at a young age, we can bring up a generation that is more caring to their neighbors. Virtual reality is often coined “the ultimate empathy machine” and will be the best avenue to bring a VR experience based on a timeless book to life (Herrera, Bailenson, Weisz, Ogle, & Zaki 2018).
Frankenstein VR is a completely immersive Virtual Reality application that allows the user to make choices based on their own empathetic levels. With continued use past the VR headset, and with the development of a user friendly smartphone app, Frankenstein VR can easily transcend and persist in our society. By making the app an engaging and unique experience with a whole cast of characters right out of everyone’s favorite Gothic novels, empathy can be taught to everyone in society with smartphone access, and therefore become a forethought in our daily lives.
Citations:
Herrera, Fernanda, et al. “Building Long-Term Empathy: A Large-Scale Comparison of Traditional and Virtual Reality Perspective-Taking.” Plos One, vol. 13, no. 10, 2018, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0204494.