Do you have any tips for combating motion sickness caused by video games?

June 6, 2004 4:03 PM

My mom gets sick when she watches videogames. She has had this since Wolfenstein 3D. Side scroller games and fixed view games such as Rollercoaster Tycoon do not affect her.

I picked up Prince of Persia, the new one, and I would really like for her to be able to play. Refresh rate is 85hz, vertical sync on, what else can I do to help?
posted by Keyser Soze to Computers & Internet (12 answers total)

Does it have weapon swing? If you can keep that front weapon from swinging back and forth it sometimes makes the vertigo a bit less. (we taught some folks here to play front shooters and the swinging weapon was their main nausiator)
posted by milovoo at 4:06 PM on June 6, 2004

Response by poster: Nah, even in 3rd person. When the image is rendered in 3d and moves, she gets sick.
posted by Keyser Soze at 4:07 PM on June 6, 2004

It's motion sickness, I'd bet -- like looking out of a window and seeing things moving even though you're not. Does she get sick on car/train journeys too?
posted by reklaw at 4:16 PM on June 6, 2004

Response by poster: No, its really weird. Television games, computer games... they make her sick. Driving and flying do not. I was wondering if it had to do with the refresh rate or frame rate, but nothing has worked.... yet.
posted by Keyser Soze at 4:27 PM on June 6, 2004

Tough one. I don't get motion sickness, but I once playtested a 3rd person game that made me really nauseous. I eventually got over it, but only because I had no alternative to playing it for 10 hours a day, other than finding a new job. I think my brain just had to get used to it.
posted by arha at 4:45 PM on June 6, 2004

I'd love to know if there's a solution to this. I don't get motion sickness for anything (cars, roller coaster, et al.), but I can't watch first person shooters for a few minutes without getting nauseous.
From my experience, tweaking settings doesn't help and its happened with more than a few games (half life and halo to name a few). I empathize with your mom, it sucks being limited to stuff like the sims.
posted by dicaxpuella at 4:54 PM on June 6, 2004

I've gotten dizzy from 3d things...running does it to me, and a sudden shift of views onscreen also. Maybe she can play things that are less active?
posted by amberglow at 5:19 PM on June 6, 2004

AskMe 2003: "I get really ill when playing 3D video games. ... I'd like to know if anyone else deals with this problem and what they do to combat it."
posted by gluechunk at 5:57 PM on June 6, 2004

You might want to turn the "inserts" option on the game all the way off. That will help with some of the dramatic, stomach-churning camera-swooping. I also found that the PS2 version of the game had less problems than the XBox version, camera-swoopiness-wise. That's probably subjective though. The XBox version is prettier, that's for sure.
posted by WolfDaddy at 6:35 PM on June 6, 2004

i'm not sure if Dramamine would be a last resort for y'all, but i have this problem too and i discovered that it's the only thing that really worked for me, after changing the lighting and the distance and wearing the armbands that were mentioned in the other thread... and everything else short of tossing the games

then again, i don't mind being limited to the Sims

i also get this way when i sit too close at the movie theater
posted by lnicole at 8:21 PM on June 6, 2004

A co-worker of mine says his wife has this problem and that Dramamine works well for her.

I don't play games all that much but I find I get a bit motion sick from 3D games that involve running around in indoor environments (Half-Life frequently made me feel ill) -- outdoor environments don't bother me at all. The walls constantly zipping and zooming seem to be the culprit for me. I've been playing Onslaught in UT2004 (big outdoor maps) and it hasn't bothered me once.
posted by boredomjockey at 8:52 PM on June 6, 2004

A lot of times motion sickness occurs because the eyes and ears are telling the brain two different things. The eyes tell it the body is in motion, while the ears tell it the body is still. The trick is tricking the ears. In a car, roll down the window even a crack. With video games perhaps turn on a desk fan to blow air past her ears. Sometimes simple tricks work best. Good luck.
posted by FunkyHelix at 10:49 PM on June 6, 2004