Why do some people get sick playing video games?

If you’ve been sick playing a video game, welcome to the club. Caused by very active games stimulus confusion because even if we stand still, our eyes tell us that we are moving.

“like giving slope This information is not conjugated because it is not equal between systems. That’s when the person feels nauseous, this weakness,” explains Mônica Alcantara de Oliveira Santos, an otolaryngologist and researcher.

Confusion arises between the sensory systems responsible for the sense of balance by capturing the responses from the external environment: “The three main systems we have identified are vision, proprioception, a special type of touch, and the labyrinth. These all go to one area in the central nervous system and the cerebellum, which organizes all information. together with it is understood inside.”

The condition is called motion sickness

Symptoms may be accompanied by other symptoms such as stomach pain and headache, motion sickness. It gets a special name when we talk about games: from English, cyber sicknessAdaptation of the term motion sickness, meaning motion sickness.

But motion sickness isn’t just about playing games: it can also occur in other situations that cause sensory conflicts, such as when using virtual reality glasses, watching 3D movies, or traveling by car.

“When you’re traveling in a car and sitting in the back seat, your eyes look inside the car and don’t see the movement. So you feel the movement, but one of your senses tells you that you’re standing still.”

This is also the reason why some people get sick while using their cell phone or trying to read in the car: their eyesight says they are motionless, but others, which are responsible for their sense of balance, reject movement.

In virtual reality glasses, especially older models, gaps between pixels on the screen can be seen, known as the screen door effect. The effect that gives the screen a grid appearance causes visual disturbance and can lead to motion sickness. When the problem is specifically related to this, upgrading to a higher quality glasses or a more recent model may resolve the situation.

Some recent games have even identified the problem and taken steps to minimize motion sickness. According to the Eurogamer website, testers of Sonic Frontiers, released in 2022, were nauseous and unable to play. The producer of the game said, but without specifying, that measures have been taken to reduce unwanted episodes.

Children and people with migraines are more susceptible to motion sickness

Santos reports that some people are more susceptible to the condition, such as patients who have or have had a family member with migraine. “It’s not mandatory, but migraine sufferers are more likely to get this motion sickness,” he explains.

Also, children often have this feature. “We hear the story ‘I had seasickness when I was a kid and traveling with my family, but then it got better.’ This is because we treat motion sickness through exposure. By succumbing to this stress, this movement, you get your systems used to it, you learn to live with it, and it gradually improves. “

That is: we no longer have this state because our body is accustomed to being exposed to the tangle of stimuli over time in a compensation scheme.

Because of him, Santos says there was an increase. complaints of motion sickness after the most intense period covid-19 pandemic: “People drove less, traveled less, took less boats, so they kept moving less. And then it was like people who already had a certain sensitivity didn’t do their daily chores, so they started having a day off . increased incidence of motion sickness.”

How does the treatment work?

The condition usually subsides over time as there is greater exposure to contradictory stimuli. Including this is why there are children who stop getting motion sickness as they get older.

However, there are situations where Santos recommends seeking treatment: “When the condition causes a loss in quality of life, or when you plan to go by ship to roller coaster parks and you already know that you normally feel bad, there is a way to treat it first.”

Diagnosis is made by otolaryngologists, who then refer to speech therapists, physiotherapists and otolaryngologists who treat the condition. “In rehabilitation, you will subject the individual to movements, exercises that challenge this conflict. However, the person will feel a little worse each day, but this is where the central nervous system begins to adapt and learn to work with this reality.”

Thus, just as games and virtual reality glasses can trigger this condition, it can also be a tool to treat it. “While this is a new reality, they can be used as a form of therapy. We’ve had experience with therapeutic video games since the Wii Fit era,” says the doctor.

I’m bad with games; What should we do?

When it comes to games, there are some actions that can alleviate nausea. Voxel’s editor, Vinícius Munhoz, listed tips for those facing the problem and cited games that could aggravate the situation. Read below.

In some games (usually on PC, which offers more customization), disabling certain features helps reduce motion sickness. The options consist of:

• Increase the Field of View (FOV or field of view) whenever possible, this helps the player see more of the game environment (unfortunately some horror games do not offer this customization);
• Disable motion blur (or motion blur), a feature that creates blur trails on moving objects;
• If possible, turn off the head, ie the camera shake effect that some games offer to increase immersion (titles where explosions shake the screen, walking creates bumps in the camera, etc.);
• To have a fixed reference on the screen, place a reticle on the screen, even in the form of stickers, if the game does not offer it;
• Play at the highest possible performance, i.e. the highest framerate the PC or console has to offer (in other words, it’s better to play a game with better performance and without feeling sick than a nice game). Titles that work poorly and have noticeable crashes can greatly exacerbate motion sickness, especially when the camera is first-person.
• Turn on the air conditioner or fan: It may seem like a silly tip, but wind in your face and cooler temperatures can help a lot;
• Chewing gum.

First-person perspective titles are among the biggest villains for those suffering from motion sickness (like Call of Duty, Bioshock, Doom, and others, which put us in “character view”). In games with this kind of camera and this level of action, all of the above tips are even more important.

PC gamers should have no problem disabling or replacing the aforementioned items, but on consoles the story may be a little different. Desktop video games have a more closed architecture and do not offer such a high range of customization, but more and more developers and distributors are trying to offer accessibility options in their games.