Author Topic: Motion Sickness (Read 8476 times)

Glorb · « **on:** November 07, 2008, 08:50:27 PM »

Anyone here ever get motion sickness from a game?

I ask because I was just replaying Half-Life 2, and during the second half of the airboat segment, I had to take a break every five minutes or so to keep from barfing on my keyboard. I have never gotten motion sickness (that I recall) ever from a game, and strangely, never from any part of HL2 before. As I type this, in fact, I still feel a little hazy-headed. Is there an explanation for this?

Am I going to die?

penguinwizard · « **Reply #1 on:** November 07, 2008, 09:46:23 PM »

I've never had motion sickness (although I've had something like it in a couple non-game incidents), but the airboat sequence in Half-Life 2 is well-known for causing motion sickness in some people. I think they toned it down, but it still gives sickness to some people. There's a setting in the console to change the view angle for the airboat, I believe. Not sure if there's a setting to control bounce or whatever, to minimize the shaking of the camera.

As for seizures, I've only known one game that gave me that: Star Fox for SNES. I bet it's the bright flashing objects coupled with the low framerate, but it gave me migraines after a few minutes of playing. The way I've successfully gotten around that is to play the game in an emulator and set scanlines (black out every other line) to help tone down the intensity. Apparently I never thought of toning down the color on my TV - which I had to do once I saw how ridiculously vivid Star Fox 64 was.

Some people think the motion of the camera while you're running in Mirror's Edge has been toned down to help combat motion sickness. I hope it wasn't toned down too much because that motion seems to help the immersion and excitement.

CrossEyed7 · « **Reply #2 on:** November 07, 2008, 09:53:52 PM »

I got a little adrenaline rush the first time I played the final level in Excite Truck and the first couple of times the glacier fell down the mountain in the Brawl Ice Climber stage whose name I can't remember, but I don't think I've ever gotten sick. Maybe once or twice from the N64 podracing game, but I got used to it pretty quickly apparently. That's a really good game, incidentally.

Chupperson Weird · « **Reply #3 on:** November 07, 2008, 10:14:19 PM »

Seems like I got motion sick from riding around in circles too much in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.

Glorb · « **Reply #4 on:** November 08, 2008, 08:07:24 AM »

See, I'm a little afraid to play Mirror's Edge now, since I have both potential motion sickness AND a fear of heights (I can barely look over a balcony without immediately thinking I'm going to cartwheel over the edge). It looks hella intense, though.

ShadowBrain · « **Reply #5 on:** November 08, 2008, 08:51:25 AM »

I don't think I ever got motion sick while playing a game, though games like SMG, Excite Truck, and Shadow of the Colossus have left me a little... psycho-physically overwhelmed, I guess. I can definitely understand how Mirror's Edge can have the effect it does, but it kind of bugged me that the reason there wasn't much of a camera in SMG was because of illness-prones.

Also, are PC games more prone to cause nausea than console games?

Turtlekid1 · « **Reply #6 on:** November 08, 2008, 10:59:36 AM »

My mom gets sick watching any 3D free-roaming environment with a camera system similar to the Spyro the Dragon games; the moving stages in SSB Melee and Brawl (including Final Destination's background) make her ill, too.

TEM · « **Reply #7 on:** November 08, 2008, 11:23:42 AM »

The only game that has ever even slightly made me feel gurrrrrrrbgh is Audiosurf when hitting an unexpected corkscrew. As far as I can remember that's only happened once, and only just after I got my new monitor (and computer).

NintendoExpert89 · « **Reply #8 on:** November 08, 2008, 11:27:45 AM »

Only time I got motion sickness is from Simpsons Road Rage, when I drove around with the camera's view in the front bumper.

My friend can't play Super Mario Galaxy because he finds the constant change of gravity really disorientating-- he gets motion sickness easy.

Chupperson Weird · « **Reply #9 on:** November 08, 2008, 11:50:04 AM »

Whoa, I didn't realize Mirror's Edge was about to come out. Gotta get that.

ShadowBrain · « **Reply #10 on:** November 08, 2008, 01:08:27 PM »

Quote from: Turtlekid1 on November 08, 2008, 10:59:36 AM

My mom gets sick watching any 3D free-roaming environment with a camera system similar to the Spyro the Dragon games; the moving stages in SSB Melee and Brawl (including Final Destination's background) make her ill, too.

Yeah, it's those SMG stages that get my mom.

CrossEyed7 · « **Reply #11 on:** November 08, 2008, 01:18:38 PM »

The voice acting in Baten Kaitos almost made me throw up, but I don't think that counts.

Luigalaxy · « **Reply #12 on:** November 08, 2008, 02:08:43 PM »

I've never had sickness that involves motion from games, but I have had headaches and glossed over eyes for playing a game too much.

Sqrt2 · « **Reply #13 on:** November 08, 2008, 07:19:10 PM »

Not exactly motion sickness, but I do get queasy every time I play the second Port Town track, Sapphire Cup, F-Zero GX (maybe because it undulates so much).

Forest Guy · « **Reply #14 on:** November 09, 2008, 08:15:42 PM »

The first few days of Galaxy, I found myself perpetually tilting my head in strange directions as I tried to cope with the disorienting viewpoints. Then my body realized the television isn't moving and I got used to it.