"What Can I Do for You'': How Should AI Companions Provide Assistance to Players in Virtual Reality Games
Abstract: Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have expanded the capabilities of non-player characters (NPCs), enabling them to perceive game states, perform in-game actions. In immersive virtual reality (VR) games, such assistance is not limited to providing hints or interface-level support: an AI companion can appear as a co-present character, share the player's spatial environment, and visibly act on game objects. This raises a design question for VR gameplay: how can AI companions best assist players while preserving their active participation in the virtual world? To explore this question, we developed a VR puzzle game for Apple Vision Pro featuring an AI companion across four gameplay modes: no assistance, command-based assistance, discussion-based assistance, and autonomous agent play. A within-subjects study with 24 participants showed that AI assistance significantly reduced players' workload. However, autonomous agent play, despite producing the lowest workload, substantially diminished player experience by reducing challenge, autonomy, immersion, and enjoyment. Qualitative analysis further showed that players evaluated the companion not only by its usefulness, but also by whether it felt like a tool, a teammate, or an integrated character in the game world. We categorised participants into four player types and summarised their expectations of AI companions. These findings provide design implications for AI companions as embodied participants in VR games.