Special Issue Sociology

Development of Gamified VR Content to Enhance Indoor Disaster Preparedness and Risk Perception

In Japan, natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods are frequent. However, many citizens view such disasters as impersonal events rather than imminent personal threats. This has led to low participation rates in local disaster drills and poor retention of disaster prevention knowledge, posing significant challenges. Against this backdrop, existing research has reported the effectiveness of disaster prevention education utilizing gamification and VR. However, when applying existing approaches to VR-based disaster prevention education, it is necessary to consider the potential psychological burden of highly realistic depictions, opportunities for self-directed hazard identification, and replay-oriented design. Therefore, this study developed VR disaster prevention learning content incorporating gamification. The content was designed to foster a sense of crisis about disasters and interest in replay while considering psychological burden. The proposed content employs a "spot-the-difference" game mechanic, requiring users to actively identify deficiencies in indoor disaster preparedness measures. As a proof of concept, a questionnaire survey was conducted immediately after the experience with 123 participants, including high school students. Many participants reported an increased sense of crisis regarding disasters and an intention to replay the game.

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