Do first-person shooters make you ill?

[Martok]

I mean that question literally. It's not that I dislike FPS's, it's that I honestly can't play them. I long ago discovered they cause a sort of motion sickness, giving me migraines and/or inducing nausea.

I'm curious as to whether anyone else has this problem, or if it's just me.

[TevashSzat]

Yes and no for me.

I am perfectly fine with modern shooters, but can't seem to play older ones for long.

I reinstalled the original Half-Life a while ago and found that after I played for 15 minutes or so, I became extremely nauseous and had to lie down for a while. I think it has to do with poor graphics coupled with the use of monitors with high native resolutions.

A bigger problem with me is my current keyboard placement. ATM, my hand/wrist starts to hurt after I play a while which is not a good sign at all, but I'm sticking to using my computer in the basement since it is way too hot in my room.

[drone]

No, but I know a few people that do get a little queasy. I think the early, early ones had problem with parallax motion (Castle Wolfenstein 3D had a big problem with it, they fixed it for Doom). The first gen of real 3D engines probably had some issues as well, but the more recent ones should have these problems banged out though.

[caravel]

No, though I know some people that are affected by the overly fast paced jumpy titles such as the UT series. They're simply too colourful, flashy and "spinny" for some. If you play a more tactical FPS, such as a CoD series game for example, then you probably won't be affected as much.

The one thing I can't tolerate is flickering lights in some areas. There were very common in many of the older titles, even the original Doom game, but thankfully less so nowadays.

It's also important to have Vsync enabled and ensure there is a decent framerate. If you're maxing out graphics card settings to improve image quality at a cost to performance then you're going to get a serious headache from the resultant frame skipping and visual tearing.

-Edit:

...early ones had problem with parallax motion (Castle Wolfenstein 3D had a big problem with it, they fixed it for Doom)...

Wolf3D was a ray casting engine, unlike Doom which is almost a true 3D engine.

[Tratorix]

I mean that question literally. It's not that I dislike FPS's, it's that I honestly can't play them. I long ago discovered they cause a sort of motion sickness, giving me migraines and/or inducing nausea.

How do you manage to ride a camel if you can't even stand a FPS?


I've never had a problem with FPS', but I don't really get motion sickness anyway.

[Privateerkev]

For me, it isn't sickness.

What I physically can't do is move the mouse fast enough to turn around while playing MoH: AA online. My girlfriend will laugh as I'm frantically picking up my mouse and putting it back down on a different part of the mouse pad.

I need some sort of interface where I can just think "turn around" and then in the game I turn around.

[caravel]

You need to increase mouse sensitivity. I myself use very high sensitivity and minimal movement of the mouse. I also use aeroplane style vertical axis switch, I'm not sure why but I find this more natural.

[Craterus]

Only after 6+ hours. But that's the same with any game.

[LittleGrizzly]

What I physically can't do is move the mouse fast enough to turn around while playing MoH: AA online. My girlfriend will laugh as I'm frantically picking up my mouse and putting it back down on a different part of the mouse pad.

happy memorys of doing that myself

I also use aeroplane style vertical axis switch, I'm not sure why but I find this more natural.

does my head in!

[Mikeus Caesar]

If first-person shooters made me ill, my life would be very boring. I can't imagine not playing FPS's. I'd miss out on the joys of Portal.

[Timsup2nothin]

Some like it, some hate it, I love it...try a trac ball controller in place of your mouse.

[Zenicetus]

No problems here, but maybe it's because I grew up playing combat flight sims. I got used to the weird disconnects in "padlock" view systems, where the direction you look isn't always the direction you're moving. A typical FPS is nothing, compared to that, as long as the frame rate is high enough not to be jerky. I had to stop playing Bioshock when I first tried it, until I got a better video card so I wasn't wasting ammo on missed shots.

I do occasionally get disoriented in some types of games where you can't always tell what direction is up. There was a space game like that a while back... can't remember the name... but one segment had you flying inside these big structures where you could move in any direction, and it got confusing at times. But that's more a case of getting temporarily lost and having to regain one's bearings, not actual physical queasiness.

[Beirut]

I read in PC Gamer that if FPSs are making you feel ill, lower your frame rates. The lack of fluidity will help with the nausea.

Just something I read.

[OverKnight]

Older titles used to give me nausea: Doom and such, even Perfect Dark. It was comparable to motion sickness. For some odd reason, third person shooters were fine, I could play Syphon Filter on the PS One, but a comparable FPS would be unplayable.

No problems now, however, I've enjoyed CoD series, BioShock etc.

[pevergreen]

I mean that question literally. It's not that I dislike FPS's, it's that I honestly can't play them. I long ago discovered they cause a sort of motion sickness, giving me migraines and/or inducing nausea.

I'm curious as to whether anyone else has this problem, or if it's just me.

You just afraid of the HEADSHOT.

BOOM HEADSHOT!!!

HEADSHOT BABY, HEADSHOT

[Viking]

All games make me more or less dizzy; but FPS no more than others. Dizzy yes, but no nausea what so ever.

[frogbeastegg]

Another yes and no here.

I'm far more likely to become motion sick when playing PC games. It's rare for a console game to affect me. First person games are the worst for it, but 3rd person can occasionally have the same effect. A couple of the old space fighter games made me sick too ... starlancer IIRC. Bioshock on my PC made me faintly queasy; Bioshock on my 360 didn't.

Certain engines make me ill no matter which game uses them or what platform they appear on. Source is a big offender; trying to play Vampire: Bloodlines makes me queasy. Call of Juarez made me ill. I played The Orange Box on my 360; even Portal made me sick. The main problem is the dodgy physics, combined with something about the graphical presentation these games use which I can't isolate to identify. Added to that, many Source-based games have player movement which feels awkward to me. It's good that there are few games I want which use Source.

Lower frame rates make it worse for me as do several other issues which tent to occur if you lower the graphics settings, such as blurry textures.

[Praxil]

Physically no, mentally that's another thing. I love strategy games more than anything else, but after that any kind of shooters has been part of my gaming entertainment for a long, long time. Poor shooters make me sick in to my stomach. For example Call of Duty 4 on hardest difficulty level, I played it through, but never enjoyed it and can't think how any one but a true masochist could enjoy it. One thing is for sure that playing online shooters can strain a person badly, depending on the case of course. And you never feel really tired like after running or something, but in like "I can't take this **** anymore!" way.

[Spartan198]

Only when it's a Halo game... (COD4, baby, yeah!)

Okay, all joking aside now. That's actually a common problem. It is a kind of motion sickness. I've played Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six, and Doom 3, among others, for hours on end with no problems, but the only one that actually did make me ill was that one on 360 about the Native American inside the alien spaceship (can't remember the name right now), which had me retching like hell after less than 15 minutes.

If I remember the name of it, I'll edit my post so that anyone with a common case of this problem to avoid it.

[PanzerJaeger]

Not at all.

When life gets too complicated, I can turn the freakin cell phone offs and play Red Orchestra for hours. I've done 26 straight before... People ask if I was out of town.

[professorspatula]

I can't say they make me sick, although I did feel a little nauseous when I played a very frantic online session of the original Doom a few years back. It's probably the ridiculously high frame rates, relative poor response rate of the monitor, and the relentless non-stop barrage of fast action that was to blame. It was like every FPS shooter I'd played online but on steroids! The weird gun-bobbing action might have had something to do with it as well.

The only other time I've felt uncomfortable is after a very long session of a FPS online where I realise I've been spending way too much time concentrating on the screen. I don't play for long these days or online so it's not an issue anymore.

[Daimon]

The game XII made me feel really really ill... I had the lay down for hours damn flashy cartoon graphics with all those bright colors... How can my head survive that?

[Antagonist]

I've never been rendered unwell by a videogame of any description, though I have been playing them (including FPS) for about half of my life. Curiously the closest thing to nausea I have experienced (a sense of disorientation) occurred with a third-person game, I seem to be in a minority in that I find a first-person perspective intrinsically more intuitive, especially compared to "over-the-shoulder" camera.

Antagonist

[Martok]

Curiously the closest thing to nausea I have experienced (a sense of disorientation) occurred with a third-person game, I seem to be in a minority in that I find a first-person perspective intrinsically more intuitive, especially compared to "over-the-shoulder" camera.

Actually, I agree with you. It's just that I can rarely play any time of game from the first-person perspective, due to the reasons I listed in the OP. Even in racing titles and most combat sims (i.e., Rogue Squadron), I usually end up having to play from the third-person camera angle.

The one exception to this rule for me is Klingon Academy, since it focuses on combat between slow capital ships. Even when commanding the relatively swift Bird-of-prey, movement is still slow enough that I can generally play for a good while without any ill effects.

[lars573]

Mostly no, if I was feeling really masochistic I could though. All I'd have to do is wear my glasses. To this day my glasses can give me motion sickness/headaches. If I wear them while doing something outside of their correction range. The only physical discomfort they cause pain and stiffness in my neck shoulders and back from poor posture while playing.

[aimlesswanderer]

Yes, they give me bad headaches after only 5 mins. I much prefer RTS or strategy games anyway, so no big deal. Strangely, flying games are fine, so games like xwing, freelancer and X are all good.

[Decker]

they only make me ill when I kill 12 baddies on a mg, when I've naded and shot them all and their friends, who, after a slug to the head or chest, stand right back up...not to mention feeling like a one man army with "teammates" in a game that emphasis improved single player experience when it's the same as the last 3-4 games in the series.

[Syxx_Killer]

FPS games can make me motion sick (dizziness, nausea) if they take place inside buildings. I can play modern FPS games a little longer than the old ones if they take place inside buildings, but they can still make me just as sick as Wolfenstein 3D used to. I can play FPS games that take place outdoors as long as I want with no ill-effects.

[Adrian II]

Not at all.

When life gets too complicated, I can turn the freakin cell phone offs and play Red Orchestra for hours. I've done 26 straight before... People ask if I was out of town.

Same here. Every once in a while (when I have time on my hands) I dig in for a couple days and play some crappy shooter until I am very good at it.

Last year I played Wolfteam, a free online fp shooter, until I was good enough to send off all the 15-year-old haxorz kids with headshots and make them cry "haxor1!" It just feels great to know I can do that stuff at my age and not be a loser.

Aaanyway, about halfway on the second day I had some sort of quasi-epileptic attack that floored me for an hour or so. I had trouble aligning my eyesight and experienced a splitting headache. I started playing again to see if it came back and find out what caused it, but it didn't occur again.

I guess in my heart of hearts I'm still 15 myself..

[Kekvit Irae]

No, but I get weird vision when I play Guitar Hero 2 too long.