Cyber (motion) sickness in active stereoscopic 3D gaming

Mass-market stereoscopic 3D gaming has recently become a reality on both gaming consoles and PCs. At the same time the success of devices such as the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo Wii Balance Board, Sony Move and Microsoft Kinect have made active movement of the head, limbs and body a key means of interaction in many games. We hypothesized that players may be more prone to cybersickness symptoms in stereoscopic 3D games based on active movement compared to similar games played with controllers or other devices, which do not require physical movement of the body with the exception of the hands and fingers. Two experimental games were developed to test this hypothesis while keeping other parameters as constant as possible. For the disorientation and oculomotor cybersickness subscales and the overall score of the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire, a significant interaction between display mode (S3D versus non-stereoscopic) and motion sickness susceptibility was found. However, contrary to our hypothesis, there was no indication that participants were particularly susceptible to cybersickness in S3D motion controller games.