LLM-Integrated VR NPCs to Support Social Presence and Engagement in a Viking Museum

Supporting museum engagement and learning opportunities for a younger audience requires the adaptation of modern technologies and more diverse ways of communicating information and stories. This study explores the integration of large language models (LLMs) as nonplayable character (NPC) guides into virtual reality (VR) to enhance social presence and learning engagement in historical contexts. Collaborating with the Lindholm Høje Viking Museum in Denmark, we developed a VR experience featuring context-aware LLM-integrated digital social actors portraying prehistoric Vikings. Three interactive experiences are designed around the exhibitions present in the museum. Through a comparison with a traditional finite-state dialogue version, our findings suggest an overall increase in user presence and engagement when interacting with LLM-integrated NPCs.