Just yesterday as I was trying to play Tomb Raider again, I had my worst case of motion sickness yet. In general, I get it about half of the time when I play that game, if not more often. It started quite recently, this year. Maybe because of the new games I've been playing, which look more real, but still fake enough to confuse the brain. Especially Tomb Raider has a lot of camera wobble and motion blur going on. Also, there are things like FOV and refresh rate to consider.
Other games guilty of that include Portal 2 and Fallout New Vegas.
I'm wondering, how common is it though. So vote away. Sorry for no Potato, But I realized that loving potatoes and having (or not having) motion sickness are not mutually exclusive.
Which games have made you ill? And is there anything special you have done about it? I'm considering buying travel-pills, not sure if they work, but they may.
Have a game that shouldn't make you sick, unless you're allergic to strategy.

8 years ago*

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Have you experienced sickness from games?

View Results
Yes, it's a problem.
No, never.
Only once-twice, not really an issue.

Never happened to me yet. May also be because my computer can't handle the latest games or even most of the older big names with maximized settings.

8 years ago
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The only time I felt sick in combination with video games was when I watched a video of all Mortal Kombat X fatalities. Other than that, motion is not impacting me.. Neither on thrill rides, travels (on ground / air / water) nor in videogames but I might have not played the "right titles" to fully judge the topic.

8 years ago
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Portal 2 made me so sick..
Killing Floor is also guilty of giving me headaches and making me feel nauseous. I felt bad, because a friend of mine bought me the game so I could play with their group, but about ten minutes into it I had to go lie down. Certain elements of Garry's Mod have also done it, but that's mainly when I sit in some sort of ride-like contraption and proceed to get spun multiple times.
I used to be able to play any game just fine, and not worry about getting sick, but within the past couple years it's just started.

8 years ago
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I had issues with killing floor and killing floor 2. I adjusted a bunch of settings in both and it pretty much stopped the motion sickness. For killing floor 1 I also had to edit an ini file to turn off weapon bobbing and head bobbing.

8 years ago
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Only had this issue in longer sessions of Borderlands, but that's mostly because of the inability to change the FOV (Well, you can actually change it via the config file, but it didn't seem to help much as it would reset quite often)

8 years ago
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Oh yeah Borderlands had a tricky FOV. Had to bind that FOV change to my forward and backward key so it would change it back after every time the game decided to mess it up.

8 years ago
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That's a pretty good idea, actually ;p

8 years ago
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The FOV in Boderlands didn't make me sick but it annoyed me so I modified it and gave it a hotkey on my Steam Controller for easy swapping in case it would go back to the original FOV (happened most of the time when getting in a catch-a-ride or out of it :D)

8 years ago
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I personally had it bound to F11, but it didn't make it any less annoying that it kept resetting. Sprinting also seemed to ignore the forced FOV, which made for a weird combination.

8 years ago
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Ahh you're right, running is actually worse than getting in/out of the car.
But with my Steam Controller binding I could fix the issue really soon, it annoyed me so much.

8 years ago
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I am not sure i would call it cyber sickness...

Seems to me you suffer from motion sickness which a lot people do while playing games,my uncle can not even play GTA IV while being drunk as it messes with him and makes him feel like he is going to get sick

Your brain has a hard time separating that your in game and it is not happening to you in real life.

I do know if i look down cliffs or long drops or get close to edges in game,i panic as if i am the one that could fall and die.That is the only thing that ever bothered me and it does not always bother me.I guess it is kinda like in real life,some heights scare me some do not.

Also eye strain can cause the same symptoms,or needing glasses but not wearing them.So i wonder how many suffer due to eye fatigue or needing glasses?

8 years ago*
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Okay, I've edited the thread. When I did my earlier reading, I discarded motion sickness too fast because it was mostly about travel sickness, but now I read it can include video game sickness too. Thank you.

8 years ago
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I think I should just add info about motion sickness without deleting cybersickness.

For example, I was cybersick from two games and it had nothing to do with motion sickness :P

8 years ago
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Hm, I'm still not quite sure about the difference, but it looks like motion sickness is a broad term for many kinds of sicknesses, including cybersickness. So you're definitely welcome here, no matter how you define what you had.

8 years ago
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It does have a broad use for it,and it started out as a way to describe sickness while driving,flying or what not or say twirling in circles for a long time until your brain takes awhile to catch up that you are not twirling anymore.

But as games came a long and graphics advanced into 3D this became a problem playing games and caused the same effects,so they just used motion sickness to describe it,

Both fall under the same symptoms and both can very wildly but they all have can have the same symptoms.But both do act different,while one is from an event actually happening to you,then other one is from your brain thinking it is happening to you.

8 years ago
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Cyber sickness refers to what happens when you use a VR well at least back when they first where trying to be a thing,and still some suffer from it even with the current ones.

That is why i pointed more toward motion sickness,it is more commonly used and knowing so more people might know what it is.I was not doing it to be right or wrong just trying to be helpful

8 years ago
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It is okay i was not doing it to say hey change it,i just was not sure if you was aware of that and that it was an issue and a thing for many people who play games.

It can be described either way,but more people are aware of motion sickness ...and well cyber sickness is the same thing only a different way of some describing it

Cybersickness is a term to describe motion sickness experienced by users of head-steered Virtual Reality systems (McCauley and Sharkey, 1992 in PRESENCE ). In a typical Virtual Environment, users often view moving scenes while they remain physically stationary.

And the way i put it did seem kinda like i was saying cyber sickness was not a thing when i was just trying to point the more common use term to describe such a thing.

Both have the same basic effect which is your brain has a hard time understanding that it is a game or not real and it think it is really happening to you.

Though Cyber sickness was more so based on using earlier VR system which where notorious for causing motion sickness and hence labeled the use of VR as with cyber sickness.

8 years ago*
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I was aware, just not sure about the correct term. I Googled "nausea from video games" when I first started having this, and it gave quite a few hits.

8 years ago
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I also get the vertigo heart rush when encountering precipices in games. I used to get "car sick" if I'd read in the car while traveling. But I haven't since I was a kid. I've never gotten "air sick". I've never gotten nauseous on boat. I've never been on a ship, unless you count video games. I didn't get sick on those.

8 years ago
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Wait, your uncle can get to the PC while drunk? I salute him, never managed to get that far xD

8 years ago
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Ahh i must assume you never played GTA IV and experience the drunk cam?

I wish GTA V had that,it is one thing i miss...

Going to a bar a getting drunk and then staggering around trying to just not fall,then try and get in the car and then swerve all over the road,then smash into vehicles trying to drive strait just to have the police chase me for being drunk...just like real life only without the tickets and jail time.

In short he was not drunk before playing....but while the game simulated being drunk that part he could not handle ...so it almost like he was drunk in real life...so maybe he was? lol

8 years ago
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facepalm you people are talking about been drunk ingame...

8 years ago
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-364YYJ-Hg

Also you can active it with a trainer if you want to be drunk all the time.

Though it was also used as a form of DRM as if you had a pirated copy after bit of time in game it would switch to that and on top of that you care would drive itself lol

8 years ago
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I have gotten sick on PS1 games, none so far on PC.
Gauntlet Legends - headache guaranteed for me after 10 minutes
Dont remember names but a game where you control a train/tank - motion sickness
game where you explored a dungeon, with rogue like elements, first person view - made me violently ill for hours.

8 years ago
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Almost every FPS games causes it for me.

8 years ago
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Same here, some worse than others though.

8 years ago
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It started with Half Life 2 and it's still the worst one for me.

8 years ago
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Not experienced it (yet and hopefully never will). Have heard multiple times already and have a friend who's got it (presumably). She can't play things like Mirror's edge - quickly shifting screens in first person view and the like) because she was getting a headdache and getting disorented pretty quick. She just stopped playing or watching games like these. So I have no suggestion for you how to work around it/get rid of it, but have a bump :)

8 years ago
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I had a light dizziness once or twice in Dying Light when I was climbing through some high, windy places.

8 years ago
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Aw man, when I first checked out Dying Light on the Steam store, I was hyped. Went to watch a trailer, and felt absolutely ill. It was so disorienting, and I haven't been able to watch any gameplay since.
How is that game?

8 years ago
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With Dark Souls (playing without the patch and with the keyboard, people told me after that i should play with a controller)

8 years ago
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Oh yeah, small FOV really is an issue for me. Gets even worse if the game is in third person.
I can't really do much about, I just avoid getting those games I think would be bad for me. I look for info if the game has any way to adjust FOV and for some video of gameplay to see how it feels.

8 years ago
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Max FOV for the win? :D
no? okay ._.

8 years ago
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Never experienced it with games that use motion blur, wobbly wiggle thing, nor high graphics.
But i guess i did feel sick back when i was a kid while watching my brother play Spyro and Tony Hawk. Weird.

8 years ago
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Spyro is the only game that made me sick since I've started playing video games in 93~94.

8 years ago
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Spyro is weird :\
orrr is it me that is weird?

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8 years ago
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I think it had something to do with the camera, as far as I remember it was always moving pretty quickly around the dragon even when you had to jump....

8 years ago
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Only really had some slight problems with the motion blur in Resi4.

8 years ago
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It's only happened with one game so far, I had some really bad times with The Talos Principle. It made me feel sick and dizzy most of the time, it sucked. I got around to adjusting sensitivity and whatnot so now it fortunately doesn't happen anymore.

8 years ago*
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8 years ago
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+1 the only game for me, too. What's wrong with it, really?? :(

8 years ago
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8 years ago
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Half-Life 2 <3

8 years ago
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I turn off all the fancy graphics stuff ever since I got sick after playing Divinity II: Ego Draconis. I can't stand antialiasing either. but that's because it just doesn't look right to me.

8 years ago
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The only game I've really experienced this issue with was The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. There were multiple posts in the Steam forum from people having this issue and with possible settings changes to reduce it, so it seemed to be fairly widespread.

8 years ago
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I'd never experienced it with any sort of game until. Then I was using the first Oculus Rift, was maybe 10 minutes in and I was feeling really off. Had a bit of a break and tried another game and same thing.
Really bummed me out because I was really excited about playing with OR )=

Heard DK2 and other kits have made refinements that address issues that cause people to respond badly to VR but I've yet to try them.

8 years ago
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It started with Wolfenstein 3D and Doom for me.

8 years ago
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8 years ago
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I can't play dead space for more than 15 minutes :|

8 years ago
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BUMP!

8 years ago
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While it's not directly related to cybersickness, I recently played Portal 2 (and The Talos Principle) and was amazed at how some of the environments triggered a real anxiety related to my fear of heights (or more accurately, my fear of falling). It made me a bit giddy, and I kept jumping off of things to trigger that little surge of adrenaline. :3 Virtual environments can definitely trick our perception, so while I don't suffer from the kind of motion sickness you described, I completely understand how it can affect you.

8 years ago
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I'm afraid of heights, and Portal 2 those places where you have to jump into a portal.. they were a little creepy, but nothing compared to almost throwing up...

8 years ago
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The sensation when falling from great heights in games is normal, pretty much everyone experiences that.

8 years ago
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What about cyberEVIL awareness? We need more of that... Yea, definitely moar cyberEVIL awareness! :P

I haven't had any issues I'm aware of but I almost wonder how it might be with those VR helmets.. I can see if you turned your head fast they may be an issue? I haven't been able to try one yet so I have no idea though.

I did get a really nasty bout of vertigo a couple years ago that put me on my ass for about a week... it was pretty terrible.

8 years ago
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No CyberEVIL awareness anymore, edited my post since motion sickness seemed to be a little better term than cybersickness. :P

8 years ago
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Wait.... then my post makes no sense and that's possibly LESS CyberEvil awareness... which isn't what I asked for at all.

I'm gonna go pout!

8 years ago
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It's okay. You have a cool name and I'm aware of you.

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8 years ago
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I can't play any FPS. Throw up in 15 mins or less.

8 years ago
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how come?
PC? Console? game? motion-blur?

8 years ago
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PC!
Last console i played was an Genesis.
Any FPS. Doesnt matter the settings. FOV, motion blur, nothing changes.
But i can play racing games on cockpit view just fine.
My brain is just stupid I guess =)

8 years ago*
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Same brain :p

8 years ago
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