FPS and headaches, nausea, etc.

Vitality X

Vitality X

CAGiversary!
Anybody here also having problems playing first person shooters? for some reason my head can't handle them. 5-10 minutes in, it starts to hurt and i have a feeling to puke. It doesn't happen with any other type of games (third person shooters) just first person. Just wondering because i've done a search on yahoo and it seems like a common thing. Would like to know what the medical term for it is.
 
I don't remember RE4 being that much longer. I would also like to know if those 8 hours are single player only or co-op, because if thats only SP then I can imagine beating the game in even less time with co-op considering you could blow through everything.
 
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I get this with some games. Namely Bioshock and STALKER.

It is weird because those games will give me a headache, but I could play COD4 for hours on end with no problem.
 
Funny thing, I couldnt play the Halo 3 beta for more than about 20 min at a time before I felt headachey/queasy, but for some reason, I could play Portal for hours with no ill effects. I think it's the speed of movement that has something to do with it. I mean, I used to feel bad just *watching* people play Quake/Unreal.
 
I'm fine with any games, but the funny thing is that most Roller coasters that go upside down make me suck. Maybe thats cause it actually causes your head to jolt around though xD

My friend though used to be unable to play even mild games. Pretty sure it has to do with the camera and the sudden movements or change of scenery. I mean, I might get sick if I stared at the TV while pressing RB for hours in Mirrors Edge.
 
This to me happens very rarely last time was Timesplitters 2 on Gamecube and some random N64 games Banjoo etc.

It seems to relate to the Frames Per Second (FPS) and the lower the more chance I have to get sick...

Is it all FPS games or just ones at a lower Frames Per Second?
 
[quote name='Vitality X']Would like to know what the medical term for it is.[/quote]

I believe it's called a Fatal Frame Zero Shot.
 
now you know why i'm not a supporter of the fps genre in games. the only fps game i've ever played and manage to beat was metroid prime 1. do you know how long it took me to beat that game. there are other games that caused these type of feeling from non fps games, like silent hill [camera system was awful] or the suffering.

i believe it has something to do with the point of focus. i noticed that when i play prime 1, i often resorted samus to becoming a ball and walk around the corridors that way until i meet an enemy or something. i believe the problem is that the player can't keep a central focus of the screen and therefore when you move, your eyes aren't focusing on a particular spot on the screen and you end up with the nauseated feeling and the headache.

i though the doom days were bad [they were linear], then i saw people playing unreal and i'm like, these people are crazy. i believe the console players got it easy as compared to the pc in terms of the fps games. if you watch a pc gamer play unreal, the screen is moving so fast you sort of wonder how do they endure such frenzy.

as a side note, if you feel this way when playing fps games or games that provokes such a feeling, it's best to avoid them and don't play them. the result would probably lead to a seizure or something if you force yourself to go further.
 
I have the same problem, it has something to do with the simulated movement for me. Oddly enough Halo 1 gives me little problems but Halo 2,3 make me feel sick within 15 minutes.
 
Same problem, had it for years. It is motion sickness. I first noticed it when I played Doom 1 in PC. But, you'll notice it in different games, mostly FPS'. Sometimes games with bad camera will do it, too (force unleashed, star ocean IV, etc.).
:puke:
There is hope! Here's what I do:

1) Play in shorter bursts, one hour max
2) Old wives tale that ginger is a natural cure. Some people have tried ginger supplement pills. When playing Halo 2 (and then 3, now that I think about it), I drank ginger-ale when playing. Not sure if it worked, but with those two tricks combined I played through both and never puked!

When I used to tell people about this, they thought I was nuts. But, it's not that uncommon.
 
I read some interesting articles about the subject a few months ago. I started looking into it after 'Orange Box' sent me to bed 4 days in a row.

According to Wikipedia it is more widespread than motion sickness- but most people don't play games, so they don't suffer, or they just don't know what's happening to them. Here is part of the article:

"In a study conducted by U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences in a report published May 1995 titled "Technical Report 1027 - Simulator Sickness in Virtual Environments", out of 742 pilot exposures from 11 military flight simulators, "approximately half of the pilots (334) reported post-effects of some kind: 250 (34%) reported that symptoms dissipated in less than 1 hour, 44 (6%) reported that symptoms lasted longer than 4 hours, and 28 (4%) reported that symptoms lasted longer than 6 hours. There were also 4 (1%) reported cases of spontaneously occurring flashbacks".[11][12]"

Also- apparently it's highly pyschological, like yawning. If you go into a situation suspecting it will cause an episode, you are more likely to experience one. It's even suggested that thinking about it for a while (like yawning) can bring on an episode.
 
The only game I've encountered motion sickness with was Extreme-G on the N64. I was fine until the first track where you drive straight-down a twisting wall. From that point on I had a lot of difficultly playing that game. I haven't encountered it anywhere else though.
 
couple other suggestions -

- I noticed that having a full stomach of food actually makes the problem lessen considerably (empty stomach gives me the worst motion sickness).
- sit back from the screen more
- if you're hardcore, pop a dramamine or two
 
The only first person game that gets me is Mirror's Edge. Jeez that thing fucking hurts my head, only game I have ever put down due to feeling sick.
 
[quote name='kidu']The only first person game that gets me is Mirror's Edge. Jeez that thing fucking hurts my head, only game I have ever put down due to feeling sick.[/quote]

Yeah same here. I'm pretty sure the motion blur is what is making me feel like crap after playing the game for more then 15 minutes.
 
I get this occasionally. I swear, it must have something to do with the camera movement/speed, because I only get sick with some games. My absolute worst experiences were with TimeSplitters 3(strangely enough not 1 or 2, though), and Earthworm Jim 3D :rofl:
 
[quote name='Snake2715']This to me happens very rarely last time was Timesplitters 2 on Gamecube and some random N64 games Banjoo etc.

It seems to relate to the Frames Per Second (FPS) and the lower the more chance I have to get sick...

Is it all FPS games or just ones at a lower Frames Per Second?[/quote]
TimeSplitters 2, Metroid Prime 1, and Red Steel are the ones that I recall from the last few years. Don't play many FPS in general, but CoD, Halo, MP3, no problems.

I can believe that it's partly psychological. Happens faster the next time I play the game after having to stop due to nausea.
 
I've gotten this quite a few times. It's always caused by an FPS for me, but not all FPS games do it. I'm not sure what it is that causes it. If I do get it, I simply stop playing games for the day. Anytime I want to play one of the games that causes it (usually within an hour under "normal" gaming settings), I have to sit as far away from the TV as possible so everything is within my field of vision without having to shift my eyes around. Also, playing after eating helps, as does playing with natural lighting (normally I have the blinds closed, but I have to open them and play during the day for these games).
 
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