This extended abstract proposes a means of classifying the “residual affect” of vertigo, startles, and similar forms of innate, autonomic response easily triggered in and by immersive Virtual Reality (VR). Employing a formal–functionalist approach, I first summarise relevant work on cognition and game emotion, then discuss how acute, involuntary responses to VR stimuli (1) necessarily feed into player experience and (2) correspond with existing categories for game emotion.