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Motion sickness and MMOs
Antipathy
Member UncommonPosts: 1,362
Time to admit to one of my weaknesses - I suffer from motion sickness.
I'm fine when I'm driving. Or on a jet plane. However if I'm in the back seat for a long journey, in a boat in semi-rough seas, or flying in the wrong seat of a turbo prop I feel sick. I had to look away during parts of the Blair Witch Project and I cannot play many popular FPS games such as Doom and Quake for more than 20 minutes at a time.
Most of you can feel smugly superior at this point. You can do something I can't.
At the moment I'm fine with all the MMO's I've tried. I enjoy both PvE and PvP elements of games and am looking forward to the many promising titles due over the next year or two.
However I'm also concerned. MMO technology seems to be converging with FPS tecnhology. Some of the new games will use engines from FPS games such as quake and unreal, and utilize point and click targeting.
I'm no medical expert, and I don't know the exact trigger for the motion sickness. Is it the first person view? Rapidly changing scenery? I don't know. I am concerned that in the future this problem may cause some of the new games in the MMO market to become unavailable to me. And I will only discover the problem after having paid for a boxed copy of the game.
Any comments? Particularly from anyone with medical training or who suffers from a similar condition.
I'm fine when I'm driving. Or on a jet plane. However if I'm in the back seat for a long journey, in a boat in semi-rough seas, or flying in the wrong seat of a turbo prop I feel sick. I had to look away during parts of the Blair Witch Project and I cannot play many popular FPS games such as Doom and Quake for more than 20 minutes at a time.
Most of you can feel smugly superior at this point. You can do something I can't.
At the moment I'm fine with all the MMO's I've tried. I enjoy both PvE and PvP elements of games and am looking forward to the many promising titles due over the next year or two.
However I'm also concerned. MMO technology seems to be converging with FPS tecnhology. Some of the new games will use engines from FPS games such as quake and unreal, and utilize point and click targeting.
I'm no medical expert, and I don't know the exact trigger for the motion sickness. Is it the first person view? Rapidly changing scenery? I don't know. I am concerned that in the future this problem may cause some of the new games in the MMO market to become unavailable to me. And I will only discover the problem after having paid for a boxed copy of the game.
Any comments? Particularly from anyone with medical training or who suffers from a similar condition.
Comments
http://www.gamingillustrated.com/video_game_sickness.php
Found this article, which describes it a bit.
I've found that if you increase the refresh rate it helps a lot.
I suffer from motion sickness and am prone to it whenever I travel (except air travel, since I cannot sense that much motion). I too would feel nausea after playing Doom on the PC for too long (20 minutes or so). One of the main reasons for this however is a low frame-rate (below 30 FPS) which tends to trigger the nausea. Other older games that rely on quick movement but have very low FPS cause me to feel similar. Your concern for future MMOs however is unfounded. It has been a while since I felt sick playing any FPS games and with newer generation titles moving as quickly as one would expect (60 FPS being the norm for most) it shouldnt be a problem.
So basically its not so much the game, but a games FPS and the movement speed. Thats why playing an RPG with a low FPS isnt much cause for sickness. I have however never been that big a fan of First Person Shooters however having played through Halo recently and played CS source and Quake 4 a bit I can agree that its not a question of the game causing me to feel sick but things like the refresh rate and FPS (Frames Per Second).
On a ship, for instance, if you're inside you can feel the rocking of the boat at times - even when you can't visually notice the ship moving.
How bad are you symptoms in general? Do you just have discomfort (fatigue and dizziness), or do you get physically sick (cold sweat, vomiting, headache)?
If you're just experiencing discomfort, you could probably combat the symptoms (but not the problem) by proping your head forward with a pillow, or buying one of those headrest neck massager things (or something to keep your head still in general). Keeping your head still would keep your ear (one of the biggest motion detectors in the body) from thinking you're moving. Additionally, playing without footsteps or environmental sounds, including surround sound would probably help.
If you're experiencing physical sickness, I would change my eating habits up. Eating large meals, salty food, cheese or drinking milk can make your symptoms worse. Try eating a low calorie, high carb meal or snack before playing something that you know will effect you - it'll eliminate any compound problems caused by blood sugar, and sit light on you so you don't experience nausea. Also - you may try adding ginger (real ginger, not the store bought processed crap) from a health food or similar store, although not entirely proven, it does seem to help a lot of people overcome or combat the symptoms.
Obviously, though, I would suggest seeing a doctor, or even a psychiatrist - sometimes motion sickness can be caused by something like a fear of heights. I would see a medical doctor first though.
Hope that helps, and I'm sorry to hear about it.
It's not as bad as you suggest. Normally it's just a strong sense of queasiness in my stomach, which ends shortly after I stop the activity which caused the problem in the first place. I haven't actually vomited since my childhood, and the last time I fealt close to being physically sick was on a plane ride about 18 months ago.
I just don't want it to affect my MMO playing
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Edit: I forgot until I saw a post above. My sister suggested a ginger and honey tea which not only was delicious but also helps with queasiness when I travel. Like I said, it's mostly headaches with MMOs which, I think, is caused by glare and eye strain. I don't play the shooters so I'm not sure what sort of effect they'd have. I do get queasy with the camera work in some films, though.
Another Edit! Absolutely add some honey and lemon. It's lovely.
Ginger Tea Recipe
Ginger tea is thought to improve digestion and relieve nausea. It is also used to improve ward off colds, sore throat and the flu.It's very easy to make ginger tea. Here's how to do it.
Ginger Tea Recipe
4 cups of water
2 inch piece of fresh ginger root
optional: honey and lemon
Peel the ginger root and slice it into thin slices. Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan. Once it is boiling, add the ginger. Cover it and reduce to a simmer for 15-20 minutes. Strain the tea. Add honey and lemon to taste.
I would adjust your sound, especially if it's surround sound, and give the ginger a try. Combined, they may eliminate your discomfort. All the other stuff I mentioned would be more helpful with a more serious motion sickness case - but it may help if you're flying or sailing.
In any case, glad to hear it's not too bad.