The more time I spend playing games in 3D, the worse I seem to get. I'm in the middle of reviewing another first-person shooter that has 3D support, and it's the same old story. Now that we've had a few of these, I wanna know: 
 
Do any of you do as well as or better than you used to do when you played in 2D?

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say no. But that's mostly going off of what I've heard of playing games in 3D. I looked at Crysis 2 in 3D at PAX East and it seemed like it would be hard to get good at playing in that mode.

I think it would make me do worse. Having to put glasses over my glasses never works out. All the 3D movies I see are always off.

I don't know anything about playing but I know that whenever I watch a 3D movie I have a hard time reading anything for about 15 minutes afterwards.  I imagine something similar would happen if I were to PLAY something in 3D.

Not for me. I actively avoid anything that requires the use of 3D glasses because I wear regular glasses all the time, and one pair of glasses is enough. 

Killzone 3 in 3d was neat - as well as black ops. and i enjoyed experiencing the campaigns a second time in a new way. However after trying the multiplayer in CoD (admittedly not tried killzone yet) i found myself struggling a lot more than i normally would to concentrate on the simple motor functions of a multiplayer fps.
 
However a lot of the 'oh thats nice' came from little touches (crosshair depth in killzone, scoping in Black ops) that didn't really enhance the experience so much that it made up for my major gripe with 3D - The depth of field implemented in most FPS - primarily in CoD. 
It's incredibly hard to switch your brain and eyes from where they want to be looking, to the 'window' presented to you at any given time, this is a real issue in CoD where they use a lot of  "blur everything except this one focal point" techniques that don't quite match up. 
 Add that to the frame rate drop in most cases and it's just not a compelling substitute for playing in regular ol' 2d. 
   
Maybe other types of game aren't as prone to the issue as the FPS category, but as the only one i've had the experience of it in - i gotta say it doesn't seem to help in the slightest - offline its a neat little harmless gimmick, whilst online it's an often headache inducing distraction that reduces performance in frame rate and player

" Not for me. I actively avoid anything that requires the use of 3D glasses because I wear regular glasses all the time, and one pair of glasses is enough.  "

" @MooseyMcMan said:

" Not for me. I actively avoid anything that requires the use of 3D glasses because I wear regular glasses all the time, and one pair of glasses is enough.  "

Have you tried it? "

I'm guessing the game is Crysis 2.

Back in 2002 I played some virtual reality 3D headset motion controller shooter at playdium. Judging by that I'm gonna say I hate 3D shooters. It was a brutal and confusing experience.

3D always gives me a headache, I couldn't even try to play seriously with 3D on.

I've never played a video game in 3D...

I have a slight vision defect, so I literally suck with glasses on 3d. Hoping the 3ds will be playable for me, though.

Hello Jeff
 I will do my best to answer any questions you have regarding3D.
     I have to come clean here on this and admit to some of the flaws that might have transitioned to the 3DS that have been fixed on the PC and Consoles. First person shooters are very hard to get used to when playing in 3D. This is for the simple fact that when looking down the site you end up seeing  both the left and right  side of it. This makes lining up your enemy's a very difficult task. The simple fix for the PC is just dialing back the  separation and convergence. Unfortunately, for the 3DS your only able to set the Depth, the Convergence is automatically adjusted for you .  If or when the Nintendo releases a Firmwares to let the customers not only adjust the depth but also the Convergence in the game  this will allow you to eliminate the problem significantly .
 
BTW Jeff I know your a busy guy but  if at all possible could you tell me if your able to watch Youtube clips in on the 3DS ?  I'm dieing to find out as Nintendo did mention that will be possible.  Here's a clip I made a few months back.   
 
  

I don't even personally own an HDTV, let alone anything that would allow for stereoscopic 3D media to be perused.

I tried Black Ops in 3D very recently.
I terms of online, my accuracy dropped but no other major changes in performance.
In the campaign thou I had alot of trouble telling who was on my team or the enemy. The multiplayer maps are bright so that wasn't an issue. I even started using a shotgun so I could get closer and wouldn't constantly shoot my team (even then I relied on the name pop-ups), that was not fun.

I have never tried the new 3d, only anaglyph with Nvidia drivers. From my experience most first person shooters are terrible in 3D, but games like Batman: Arkham asylum and some racing games works pretty well. Video effect like Depth of field needs to be turned off for 3D to work properly. HUD rarely works well in 3D so the best games to play in 3D are games with no HUD, or games like Dead space were the UI is integrated in to the environment. 
 
For 3D to work well you have to design the whole game with 3D in mind, something no developer have done.

I have tried 3D gaming at my friends, and although I think it looks pretty cool, I do much worse. I seem to always get distracted by all the shit flying at my face that I die. The worst is when there is a 3D effect when you take damage in FPS games. A perfect example is Killzone 3 in 3D. 
 
 
I tend to also get dizzy sometimes when playing a fast paced game in 3D. I dont normally get dizzy playing regular 2D games... Has anyone else noticed this?

In the land of 3D, the one-eyed man is king.

" In the land of 3D, the one-eyed man is king. "

Of course it won't improve one's skills, it's just a useless gimmick

Constantly vomiting does not add to my gaming skill, no. 

My only real experience gaming with 3D is at PAX Prime 2010 I got to play Dead Rising 2 with the 3D turned on. The visual effects were novel but it didn't add anything of merit to my gameplay experience. I don't think it affected my ability to play the game but I didn't want to continue playing it because of the strain on my eyes. 

" I've never played a video game in 3D... "

Is there even anything that 3D would help you do in game? I've never played a game in 3D, but it doesn't seem like there is really anything it could add that is useful. At least not for games designed to be seen in 2D.

"In the land of 3D, the one-eyed man is king. "

Not at all. I've played a fair amount of BC2 (and other games) on a friend's 3D Vision kit - at least, enough to realize that aside from making every game look like Paper Mario, 3D doesn't really do anything.
 
@GunnBjorn said:

" @Jimbo said:

"In the land of 3D, the one-eyed man is king. "

With just one eye you've got no perception of depth. You need stereoscopic vision to perceive 3D.    "

What about ones that require lead shooting such as flight games? The only game I've played in 3D that requires lead shooting is Mount and Blade, and I noticed I was able to score more hits with arrows and thrown weapons than normal. Too bad the one-frame right eye delay ruins nvidia 3D for me, as if the anaglyph colors weren't bad enough.
 
Or what about Pilotwings? Is lining up rings any easier? I always had that problem on N64 and ever since in open games where you have to fly through rings (San Andreas, ARMA 2 tutorials, etc...)

I'm far to scared to try 3D. 3D movies just give me a headache. And I wear prescription glasses already, so piling another pair of 3D glasses on my face isn't the most comfortable thing.

" @Recostar:   I'm sorry but what jumped out at you that he was playing a 3DS game?  Jeff has a 3DTV and has been playing 3D games on it with his PS3...they were all shit.  My friend has a NVidia 3D set-up that came with his PC last Christmas, it is also shit...  They aren't fixing anything... "

I still haven't had a chance to play any games in 3D- but I did watch a tennis match in 3D at a Bestbuy, and now my elbow hurts. 

Might be a case of them having to perfect it.
Avatar in 3d gave me terrible headaches while saw 3D was a comfortable experience. 
 
It might even be a case of us having to get used to it with our archaic 2d configured brains, like how people new to video games cant move two anolog sticks at the same time. My nephew might be getting his first game console soon; a 3ds. Will be interesting to see if he takes to it better than us with our years of playing in 2D.

... wait, 3D is meant to make you play better?

Three times the dumbness.

Simply put, no.  Right now, 3D is mainly cosmetic in focus because it's not the base standard.  My simplest analogy why 3D won't help many people is that it's like giving everyone a pair of glasses with the one lens type.  Some people will see more clearly but a great many will see less clearly.  Until 3D can be quickly and effectively tuned to each individual's eyesight it will only hamper most people's aim.

I love 3D in games and movies but it's not doing anyone any favors... The crosstalk, darker image and general 30 frame per second cap (on consoles at least) are major disadvantages. 
 
  

To be honest I'm not all that excited about the 3D,  
it has upcoming games I want and seems like a nice handheld overall.

3D is just another thing that guys in suits thought would be a good idea.   It's a gimmick that hopefully will go away very soon, because it detracts from almost every medium it is used with.

The 3D in Zen Pinball 2 is definitely worth checking out. It's the first implementation I've seen that doesn't feel novel. I play in "View 1" which is a static camera. The table transforms from a squished square to a full rectangular playfield. Some of the 2D tables now seem incredibly distorted to me; the Hulk table, Moon Knight, and Thor seem the most noticeable. Oddly the 3D doesn't seem to improve the Blade table, but the Spiderman, Infinity Gauntlet, Fear Itself, Tesla, and Ninja Gaiden tables are drastically improved.

To answer the original question, "Yes, the 3D support on Zen Pinball has certainly improved my skill. My estimations for speed of the ball were confused at first, but now the ball speed appears to be consistent since the perspective includes depth perception."