Great Escape
When Working in Virtual Reality Makes You Sick
If it’s your job to build imaginary, escapist tech, the side effects can be real
The first time Christopher Crescitelli contracted what he calls “VR arm syndrome,” he stopped playing one of his favorite virtual reality games for five days. “My arms feel disconnected from my body, almost like they were my virtual arms,” he says. “When I first started experiencing this, I thought, ‘Did I break myself?’”
Crescitelli is a VR designer and developer, the owner of Las Vegas–based Dreamland Entertainment, and the founder of VR Fest, a sprawling multiday event now in its fifth year. Yet even Crescitelli, a person with more than 10 years of experience with VR, says he occasionally has to force himself out of the virtual realm to ensure he doesn’t suffer from headset fatigue (or VR arm syndrome).
Virtual reality is a modern-day beacon of escapism — a way to fully immerse yourself in other worlds — and it’s seeing unprecedented applications. VR-based exposure therapy, for instance — in which patients are exposed to the sources of their fears — is already changing how some psychologists treat patients. VR is finding myriad applications in health care. And there’s seemingly no limit to its use in games and, yes, porn.
