Paper Short Abstract:

"Phantom feel" is a sensory phenomenon experienced in virtual reality that allows for cybernetic extension of one's proprioceptive faculties. This paper will show the utility of phantom feel in the field, in the writing of ethnography, and within one's own ontology as ethnographer.

Paper Abstract:

"Phantom feel", or "phantom sense", is a sensory phenomenon experienced by virtual reality users allowing for the cybernetic extension of one's proprioceptive faculties. Lexically tied to, and in valence with, concepts of "game feel" in the enjoyment of videogames and "realfeel" - a term for the perception of realism within a simulation, borrowed from the popular videogame Cyberpunk 2077 - 'phantom feel' is a faculty learned within nascent metaverse platforms that prefigures identity construction. This paper will draw upon three years of virtual world ethnography to show the utility of phantom feel and related phenomena, such as moe emotion, not simply in understanding emergent posthuman and postbody behaviours among research populations but also in the writing of ethnography and one's own ontology as an ethnographer.