Going through a period where gaming is making me sick

[futurefields]

literally. I think maybe ive just been staring at screens too much and need a break. for the last week whenever i sit down to play a game i start feeling sick.

 

[futurefields]

dear diary heh.

 

[BladeVenom]

Ginger is suppose to be a good remedy for motion sickness. Try some candied ginger next time.

 

[S3trio64v2]

Get some vitamin D..

 

[Whitestar127]

Not going to play doctor, but vitamin D is actually very important. Lack thereof can lead to fatigue, dizziness, depression and other bad things.

Very common thing here in Norway with our long, cold winters with little sun. We usually take supplements and eat lots of fish.

Anyway, a blood test will quickly determine this and a lot of other things.
Best of health to you!

Edit: The way you describe it it actually sounds more like motion sickness or similar eye/brain issue. But now I'm playing doctor again...

 

[asteldian]

Step away from the First Person games for awhile, alot of people find they can cause you to feel sick, espeically as graphics in games improve.

 

[BSim500]

literally. I think maybe ive just been staring at screens too much and need a break. for the last week whenever i sit down to play a game i start feeling sick.

What kind of sickness - fatigue at the same franchise of games getting recycled ad nauseum (ie, "I'm sick of the same old games"), or motion sickness? I don't personally get the latter, but one of my pet hates in modern gaming I find highly irritating is stupidly unrealistic "head bob" that make you feel like a giraffe wearing a surgical collar when you run...

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Make sure you turn off the head bob option if your game has it. I found that the ridiculous amount of head bobbing in Borderlands 2 began to make me queasy after awhile.

 

[Imaginer]

There are three things that may factor into this.

The obvious mention is motion sickness. Due to the realistic graphics, and frame rates - any mismatch with the rendering or your refresh rate of your display may cause this over time. The wobble/headbob for "realism" may just be enough to cause this. Other areas involve a lot of twitch camera jerking and action.

Somethings that also play into motion sickness, is the relative brightness of your room to monitor for playing - in the comfort for your eyes. Your eyes will strain given a distinct contrast (hence why I am against Occulus Rift, since the energy is literally at your eyes and for extended gaming durations, isn't healthy at all - combined with a fast moving low resolution (current) implementation.


A second reason, is the lack of other activities, mainly physical. Whitestar127 mentioned getting outside for sun, more so for the vitamin D generation your skin naturally provides. It is also beneficial in getting out of a typical house, office, recirculating vehicle's air, to breathe an expanded generation of air instead of recirculating air all the time. It leads to a more physical health problem that may cause such "sickness". Physical activity, would also keep up the cardiovascular systems and aerobic systems of the body that flows through your system, thus being more "energized" and not "lethargic" that may play into the perceived sickness.


Lastly, it could be a habituation, psychological fatigue. Too much of the same input can get boring and mundane. The mind can only get enough of a constant input before things need a change (even if it is slight and disruptive for a moment). Try changing genres of games or better yet, change genres or mediums of entertainment. Instead of crafting in an MMO, try crafting a real life craft (even basic as paper origami/pepakura projects). Again, this can also tie into change of environment (being outside in the sun).


And I say three things, but I am going to mention a fourth. You may just outgrown video games period. I myself have a huge backlog, that I still have not yet to complete - due to other activities in priority or just the relative interests. It is much the same why I have not looked back at anything anime either (due to numerous seen tropes and styles - going back to habituation).


Best of luck, perhaps I have given some ideas to your personal diagnosis.

 

[pathos]

Half Life 2 started making motion sick way back when. And, thats after playing massive hours of Quake/Quake2/Unreal/Unreal Tourney/Halflife etc etc.

It's why I don't play fps games to this day. Although I have thought about and trying a modern shooter, mostly just to see if it still affects me or not. Honestly though, shooters have evolved into something that doesn't look all that good to me as of the present. Perhaps I'd have a different opinion if I did actually try one.

 

[Punter]

Try moving your monitor back.

 

[TeknoBug]

I go through the same thing once in a while, I've been getting a lot of computer fatigue lately meaning I gotta take breaks more often.

But playing the same game after so long feels like a frigging routine job sometimes, if you take a 2 week or a month hiatus and go back to the game you like playing, it feels fresh. I was so hooked onto SWG back in the days before the combat upgrade and NGE changes and I had to take a break a few times.

 

[JamesV]

Half Life 2 started making motion sick way back when. And, thats after playing massive hours of Quake/Quake2/Unreal/Unreal Tourney/Halflife etc etc.

It's why I don't play fps games to this day. Although I have thought about and trying a modern shooter, mostly just to see if it still affects me or not. Honestly though, shooters have evolved into something that doesn't look all that good to me as of the present. Perhaps I'd have a different opinion if I did actually try one.

The Source engine used in HL2 makes me sick every time, regardless of the game that uses it. It is the only engine that makes me sick; I've played nearly every big game ever made and hundreds if not thousands of more, and only that engine gets me. Imagine how bad that sucked when I finally got my hands on HL2...

I think it has something to do with the lighting in the engine.

 

[Dankk]

Stop playing for a while, come back later. Nothing wrong with taking a break.

 

[werepossum]

There are three things that may factor into this.

The obvious mention is motion sickness. Due to the realistic graphics, and frame rates - any mismatch with the rendering or your refresh rate of your display may cause this over time. The wobble/headbob for "realism" may just be enough to cause this. Other areas involve a lot of twitch camera jerking and action.

Somethings that also play into motion sickness, is the relative brightness of your room to monitor for playing - in the comfort for your eyes. Your eyes will strain given a distinct contrast (hence why I am against Occulus Rift, since the energy is literally at your eyes and for extended gaming durations, isn't healthy at all - combined with a fast moving low resolution (current) implementation.


A second reason, is the lack of other activities, mainly physical. Whitestar127 mentioned getting outside for sun, more so for the vitamin D generation your skin naturally provides. It is also beneficial in getting out of a typical house, office, recirculating vehicle's air, to breathe an expanded generation of air instead of recirculating air all the time. It leads to a more physical health problem that may cause such "sickness". Physical activity, would also keep up the cardiovascular systems and aerobic systems of the body that flows through your system, thus being more "energized" and not "lethargic" that may play into the perceived sickness.


Lastly, it could be a habituation, psychological fatigue. Too much of the same input can get boring and mundane. The mind can only get enough of a constant input before things need a change (even if it is slight and disruptive for a moment). Try changing genres of games or better yet, change genres or mediums of entertainment. Instead of crafting in an MMO, try crafting a real life craft (even basic as paper origami/pepakura projects). Again, this can also tie into change of environment (being outside in the sun).


And I say three things, but I am going to mention a fourth. You may just outgrown video games period. I myself have a huge backlog, that I still have not yet to complete - due to other activities in priority or just the relative interests. It is much the same why I have not looked back at anything anime either (due to numerous seen tropes and styles - going back to habituation).


Best of luck, perhaps I have given some ideas to your personal diagnosis.

Nobody should ever get too old to enjoy games.

Nobody should ever be young enough to enjoy anime.

 

[futurefields]

I get plenty of exercise. I think its the games im playing. Dead Island has some kind of simulated footsteps/headbob, and GTA4 has that cinematic camera which is great but kind of loosey goosey feeling.

 

[futurefields]

Half Life 2 used to make me sick as eell. Is it the limited fov i wonder.

 

[MongGrel]

I've personally just gotten a bit of playing at all after years and really haven't been myself lately.

Maybe that's what he means, rather than motion sickness related.

Just haven't been in the mood lately.

Maybe just take a break for awhile.

 

[Deasnutz]

Maybe you're just learning to prioritize. Signals from the body and mind.

 

[Grimbones]

I get plenty of exercise. I think its the games im playing. Dead Island has some kind of simulated footsteps/headbob, and GTA4 has that cinematic camera which is great but kind of loosey goosey feeling.

Yeah, i get what you're saying, for whatever reason certain games have made me motion sick, and they are kind of few and far between. Beyond good and Evil made me feel sick, which was too bad, because i liked the game...i could barely play original Far Cry because after 20-30 minutes i had to stop...Guild Wars 2 had some weird floaty character movements, and characters that would spin the camera as they dove around them...

Forced myself to deal with the camera in FC3, and i found out if you change the depth of field in that game that helped a bit because the head bobbing was less pronounced.

Take a break every once in awhile, it makes coming back to play the games more rewarding typically.

Edit: Oh, and low refresh rate in the 60hz range used to make my eyes hurt, and i actually went back to a low refresh rate monitor...so yeah, watch out for that too. Then again, your system has to be strong enough to push a 120hz monitor or so.

 

[hans030390]

Once I started developing similar problems with gaming, it never went away (almost going on 10 years now). I can minimize it with a wide FOV, high framerate and consistent frametimes (i.e. smooth motion, no stuttering), using a 120Hz display and trying to max the framerate when I can, turning off effects like head bob and motion blur, sitting a bit further away from the screen, and simply playing less.

That's not to say all games bother me, but it really started with Half-Life 2. Strangely enough, not all Source-based games affected me like HL2. For example, I had no issues playing CS:S or the Battlegrounds mod. I generally find first and third-person games to be the worst offenders. Top-down and isometric games don't seem to bother me unless they perform very poorly, though I do still develop fatigue after a few hours. While the points I mentioned in the first paragraph do help, it's never guaranteed a game won't make me feel off and uneasy even if all that criteria is met.

 

[TeknoBug]

HL2/Source games suck with vsync turned on, I always keep vsync off because it has HUGE input lag and no driver tweaks can fix it. But you can lower the max fps with the console settings in each of the games.

 

[futurefields]

I noticed that with L4D2, lots of input lag contributing to an already kind of skatey feeling game.

 

[darkewaffle]

Go outside.

/thread

 

[Revolution 11]

OP, as you mentioned, half the problem is the type of games you are playing. There are plenty of other choices, especially if you are willing to consider retro gaming or different genres such as simulation or adventure games. Also, if your hardware setup is off by a little, you can easily get motion sickness or nausea. So check your PC, monitor, and the settings of games you play. Try playing something outside your comfort zone.

But the other half can be gaming fatigue. I have found that even a small but complete break of 3 months from gaming is enough to restore my satisfaction with games. Take a year off and see if your life is better without gaming. If you still miss it, you will get back into it, if not, you are better off knowing this. Constant immersion is the best way to reduce the value of any activity you do.