By Jonas Schild, University of Duisburg-Essen,
Joseph J. LaViola Jr., University of Central Florida,
Maic Masuch, University of Duisburg-Essen

Setup consisting of Nvidia 3D Vision glasses, MindSet NeuroSky, and ear plugs beneath the headset.

Recent advances in digital game technology are making stereoscopic games more popular. Stereoscopic 3D graphics promise a better gaming experience but this potential has not yet been proven empirically. In this paper, we present a comprehensive study that evaluates player experience of three stereoscopic games in comparison with their monoscopic counterparts. We examined 60 participants, each playing one of the three games, using three selfreporting questionnaires and one psychophysiological instrument.

Our main results are (1) stereoscopy in games increased experienced immersion, spatial presence, and simulator sickness; (2) the effects strongly differed across the three games and for both genders, indicating more affect on male users and with games involving depth animations; (3) results related to attention and cognitive involvement indicate more direct and less thoughtful interactions with stereoscopic games, pointing towards a more natural experience through stereoscopy. [more…]

Source: Proceedings of the 2012 ACM Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2012)