Assessing the effects of a full-body motion-based exergame in virtual reality

Abstract

There is a growing number of commercial exergames tailored for virtual reality (VR) head-mounted displays (HMDs). However, empirical evaluations of the feasibility and effects of such games, especially those requiring full body motions, are still limited. This research investigates the effects of playing a full-body motion VR exergame. We have conducted a study with a game that has two modes, single- and multi-tasking, and with two types of displays, a VR HMD and a 50-inch Large Display, to collect data about users' game experience, simulator sickness, and brainwave responses. Our results indicate that (1) Participants have the same level of game experience and simulator sickness when playing the exergame in VR and Large Display; (2) VR has increased participants' Theta wave; (3) Participants believe multi-tasking is more challenging and show a higher level of simulator sickness than single-tasking; and (4) Participants have a worse game performance in multi-tasking than single-tasking.