The actualization of meta affordances: Conceptualizing affordance actualization in the metaverse games

Drawing on the theory of affordance, we conceptualize affordance actualization for the metaverse games (MG) relative to the affordances of internalized and embodied experiences by users. Focusing on MG players' affordances, we examine how they affect the user experience by exploring how affordances are realized and enacted in an extended environment. Based on mixed methods of empirical analysis, we identify relevant affordances, theorize affordance actualization, and characterize the duality of affordance in the metaverse. A heuristic process of immersion and selection of affordances through underlying cues together actualize a player's sensory representations of affective affordances. By identifying how extended reality mediates interactions with users, we contribute to prescriptive knowledge in the form of theoretical considerations and practical implications intended for academics and practitioners working in the context of the extended environment. We propose that affordance actualization helps to theorize the duality of affordance in the metaverse that users shape their metaverse based on their actualized affordance, and at the same time, the metaverse becomes a part of the structure shaping and constraining user actions.