First person shooters make me sick, literally.

[Baerong]

Hey guys and gals,

With Destiny coming out within a week, I was wondering. Does anybody have the experience of getting nauseous while playing first person shooters? And is there a way to counter this? Can you adapt after playing for a longer time, like training for it? I have it all the time, hence why I give up after a short time playing. It's the same with simulators in theme-parks or 'shaky-cam' movies. Makes me wanna barf.
Unfortunately I miss out a lot of good games! So my question, can I get rid of it?

Thanks in advance!

[Calfredd]

Hey guys and gals,

With Destiny coming out within a week, I was wondering. Does anybody have the experience of getting nauseous while playing first person shooters? And is there a way to counter this? Can you adapt after playing for a longer time, like training for it? I have it all the time, hence why I give up after a short time playing. It's the same with simulators in theme-parks or 'shaky-cam' movies. Makes me wanna barf.
Unfortunately I miss out a lot of good games! So my question, can I get rid of it?

Thanks in advance!

You might need to change the Field of View or FoV. This (from my understanding) is the number 1 cause of motion sickness in many fps games and other first person games in general. There are other options to change like motion blur.

[Chirri]

I think it's relatively common. As far as what's causing it, for me it seems to be a field of view issue. I simply had to give up playing games that'd make me sick. I play one game right now that originally had me getting queasy, only because I learned how to change that setting to one that works fine for me. (and they've since added a slider bar to the UI to change it, rather than the change requiring entering the setting change into the chat window)

Since FPS aren't really my thing (not sure whether learned aversion due to years of nausea or simply my personality) I can't say how different changing the FoV setting is between games. For computer games it's probably not too hard to search up what to do, but I can't speak for console versions.

[rad586]

Now you've experienced the reason why Total Biscuit is always complaining about lack of Field Of View sliders in options of many games !

With PC games there's usually a roundabout way of fixing FoV through config files if there's no slider for that, but console gamers are screwed in that regard.

[Deleted]

Play fps on a console few meters away from a tv. For PC you need like 90+ fov.

[zealo]

Its the low FoV that causes issues like these for some people, if you are on PC increase it to at least 90+ instead of the ~ 60 they usually have.

If console, the only option is to accept you cannot play them then.

[aeuhe4yxzhds]

Can also be caused by shitty head bobbing

[Looq]

Wow, I thought I was the only one with those issues. I haven't really found a workable solution. Although I have not forced myself to play FPS's through the nausea, as it kind of sucks. Distance to the screen doesn't make a difference. Changing the camera angles doesn't matter. Good luck.

[barackopala]

Motion blur and low fov are what kills me on a console fps (oh and lower than 60 frames per second).

[KOMO1211]

try changing how you are sitting in front of the monitor i suffer it sometimes as well and find moving to a differnet sitting position or just pausing the game and walking around for a few minutes clears it up.

[stellvia]

Hey guys and gals,

With Destiny coming out within a week, I was wondering. Does anybody have the experience of getting nauseous while playing first person shooters? And is there a way to counter this? Can you adapt after playing for a longer time, like training for it? I have it all the time, hence why I give up after a short time playing. It's the same with simulators in theme-parks or 'shaky-cam' movies. Makes me wanna barf.
Unfortunately I miss out a lot of good games! So my question, can I get rid of it?

Thanks in advance!

Investing in a quality monitor should help. 120hz+ LCDs are a lot smoother, and that Asus 144hz one in particular I know has Lightboost or something to lower latency, which I've heard also reduces motion sickness for many considerably. Something about strobing the backlight.

[Deleted]

With some FPS, the really fast paced ones, like Titanfall.

You get headaches and nausea because these games cause your eyeballs to move constantly and strain the eyeball muscles. But yes, you do adapt and it won't affect you in quite a short while.

Also had issues with Wildstar.

[Revi]

Yeah field of view is probably the reason for it, try changing that and also experimenting with distance to monitor, might help keeping it a bit further away if shaky-cam stuff are making you ill.

[Vankrys]

a good video on that

[Rudol Von Stroheim]

Hey guys and gals,

With Destiny coming out within a week, I was wondering. Does anybody have the experience of getting nauseous while playing first person shooters? And is there a way to counter this? Can you adapt after playing for a longer time, like training for it? I have it all the time, hence why I give up after a short time playing. It's the same with simulators in theme-parks or 'shaky-cam' movies. Makes me wanna barf.
Unfortunately I miss out a lot of good games! So my question, can I get rid of it?

Thanks in advance!

My mother has this problem, even with 3rd persons if the FoV is not favorable. Wildstar made her heckuva sick due to the odd FoV choice.

I don't think there is much you can do besides change the FoV like Calfredd said or... I believe there is possible medicine out there that can help counter it. Don't quote me on that though!

[Yunru]

My mother has this problem, even with 3rd persons if the FoV is not favorable. Wildstar made her heckuva sick due to the odd FoV choice.

I don't think there is much you can do besides change the FoV like Calfredd said or... I believe there is possible medicine out there that can help counter it. Don't quote me on that though!

Best medicine is a dark room where no other light source can do wrong with your brains.

[Kazlofski]

I used to have it as well for quite some time, only way to overcome it was play few hours a day, take a rest maybe even nap then try again.
Slowly you will get used to it and won't feel it at all anymore, kinda like getting used to driving in a bus/car etc.

[corebit]

It's not just FoV.

FPS games are usually fast paced, and there is tons of strafing / rotating / bobbing, which induce motion sickness. Competitive or deathmatch style FPS are the worst since you have to be jumping and moving like a maniac. I can't stand multiplayer FPS for that very reason because they make literally sick and my eyes hurt as hell.

Now, I can stomach slow First-Person games like Thief since I can move at my own pace.

[NightZero88]

I get this as well and I asked my doctor and eye doctor about it and there's not much you can do according to them short of taking dramamen (sp?) which is the medicine to prevent sea-sickness. It has to do with the fact our brains can't tell the difference between reality and TV.

For me personally I'm not sure what I get it from but things with quick camera movements and flashy colors get me or playing a game for too long that is to realistic. For example, the new tomb raider game got me after about 5 minutes but I can play WoW/D3 all day long with no problems. I only used to get it in games that were in 3D like space scenes in a FPS (I'm looking at you Crysis) but now I'm getting it more and more frequently.

I haven't found any solution except when you start feeling sick take a break for an hour or so then go back. Sucks but I have a feeling it will become more and more common as games become more and more realistic.

[Baerong]

Thanks for the feedback people! I only play video games (except WoW) on a console, so I will try if it helps to change distance and take breaks and see if I can make it enjoyable. If not, then I'll guess I'm stuck with 3rd person games. So unfortunate that so many shooters focus on 1st person. I got really excited about Destiny and Evolve.