Abstract
Roller coasters are often acknowledged as the icons of amusement and leisure with their towering structures forming an integral part of any theme or amusement parks’ prestigious ride infrastructure. As with any infrastructure roller coasters come at a high cost, but inevitably also become outdated. By leveraging the power of Virtual Reality (VR) technology, there is an opportunity to integrate innovative, creative and captivating new VR experience overlays with existing roller coasters, thereby generating new interest in older ride infrastructure. While VR additions to roller coasters are still a fairly recent introduction (as of 2015), the adoption rate is high. Despite this observation, very little research has been conducted pertaining to the VR enhanced roller coaster experience – and even less so from an end user’s perspective. This is a shortcoming in current research literature which merits further investigation. As a result, in this research, we examine existing literature (pertaining to the core elements of best-practice VR experiences) and original data gathered from VR roller coaster thrill seekers (pertaining to their likes, dislikes and expectations of current VR enhanced roller coaster experiences). Based on our findings we present a model, Burt’s VR Entertainment Primer, which identifies six categories (Description of VR Experience, Rules of Entertainment, Queuing & Headset On/Off Boarding, Audio/Video Experience, Hardware Experience, General Findings) with supporting elements that should be taken into account in order to develop a successful VR enhanced roller coaster experience overlay. Due to the generic, user-centric nature of the model, it may possibly also extend itself to the VR amusement and entertainment industries within a broader context, thereby supporting the innovative application and assessment of VR in entertainment overall.