Doom makes me sick. No, it's not because of the violence.

[Neverhoodian]

I thought I'd take a moment to find out how many of my fellow Escapists suffer from a problem I have with certain FPS games. You see, I suffer from DIMS, or Doom Induced Motion Sickness (the official name is simulation sickness). Basically, whenever I play early FPS games like Doom, Marathon, Dark Forces, etc. I end up feeling nauseous after about 30 minutes. I have to stop and take a lengthy break soon after or risk purging the contents of my stomach.

I think it has something to do with the "pseudo-3D" effect of these old games for me. Most early FPS titles only simulated 3D by manipulating the 2D pixels and vectors that constituted the game world. My brain can't handle this visual approach, and thus I become sick. I'm fine with newer titles that utilize actual 3D environments (though some sufferers of DIMS can't handle these either).

So how about it? Do you get sick playing certain 3D/3D-esque titles? If not, do you know someone who does?

 

[fix-the-spade]

Nope, I don't get DIMS, but my dad does, I use it against him.

I actually think it's the speed of older shooters, Doom especially plays out much faster than current shooter type games. It can be very disorientating even if it doesn't make feel ill.

 

[Flying-Emu]

Do you mean those games that use 2D sprites in a 3D environment?

If so, yes, I get extremely nauseous.

 

[Kae]

I do not but my brother does and I feel so bad for him because he cannot play TimeSplitters which is one of the best FPS of all times

 

[lacktheknack]

They annoyed me no end, but never made me vomit my guts out.

 

[s0p0g]

funny that this thread comes up today; i talked about that with a coworker a couple of days ago

he does have DIMS, and can play a game from first person perspective for one hour, max. i really feel sorry for him, as FPSes are my favourite kind of games, and he cannot experience the pure awesomenessness of shooters
he also said that it's even worse when he watches someone play an FP(S), because he doesn't know in advance where the camera will move to, as opposed to playing himself.

 

[Kenko]

Never even heard of this before. So I guess I dont have it and none of my friends either.

 

[sunami88]

The only game I've ever gotten that from is the 360 port of Marathon (I think it was Durandell, right?).

It was really quite awful. I didn't puke, but I thought I was going to, and had a massive headache.

 

[TitanAtlas]

I thought I'd take a moment to find out how many of my fellow Escapists suffer from a problem I have with certain FPS games. You see, I suffer from DIMS, or Doom Induced Motion Sickness (the official name is simulation sickness). Basically, whenever I play early FPS games like Doom, Marathon, Dark Forces, etc. I end up feeling nauseous after about 30 minutes. I have to stop and take a lengthy break soon after or risk purging the contents of my stomach.

Acctually i developed the same sickness.... its very bizarre since i was classics addict..... but playing the game nowdays, watching the movement of the characters and the world, makes me want to vomit... people often think im sarcastic or a deuche, but i am serious....

the other day i was playing half life 1 (one awsome game), and after a while, especially when i reached the water tunnel, i felt obnoxious and my head looked like it was spinning around.... i had to stop playing it immediatly....

im sure theres more people with this condition....

 

[Danceofmasks]

For some reason, Dead Space is the only game, ever, that gives me motion sickness.
:S

 

[teh_Canape]

motion sickness?

well, Mirror's Edge gave me quite a funky feeling everytime I played it

also, Assassin's Creed 2, fucking 2 miles high leaps of faith

 

[DanielBrown]

I don't get it as I recall, but I'm a graphics whore so I can't play those old games anymore to begin with. /sigh

 

[Outright Villainy]

I never got that, but sometimes half life 2 comes close enough. That's about it though, I didn't even find mirror's edge disorientating in the slightest.

 

[rockyoumonkeys]

Absolutely I do. Not really modern FPS's, thank god.

I haven't tried Doom, but two FPS's that definitely make me physically ill are the original Half-Life and Prey.

Half-Life 2 doesn't make me ill though.

My theories on what caused it have changed...at first I thought it was:

Prey: the changing gravity.
Half-Life: the speed at which the camera moves/turns.

After trying Prey again recently, I've realized that it's neither of these, but rather simply the way the room/world moves around you.

In most modern FPS games, the dimensions of a room don't really change in relation to where you're looking, but in Prey (and presumably HL), there's this weird effect where something that seems far when directly in front of you winds up swinging in closer as you turn away from it. It's this weird kind of tunnel vision. I don't know how to explain it better. Just thinking about it makes me queasy.

 

[JRCB]

I have it with some games. For instance, I can't play Half-Life 2 for long periods of time because it makes me sick. Same with Bioshock.

 

[TAGM]

I don't actualy have that condition myself, but my mother hasn't played games in years because of it. Like, any 3D game, at all, she starts to feel sick after watching for, what, 10 minutes?

 

[badgersprite]

Those were some of the first games I played as a kid, and I sunk a lot of time into them, so it seems safe to assume I never had a problem with their look. Maybe going back into it and playing them now would be a different story.

EDIT: Oh, but I will say that looking at the "shaky cam" footage of Kane & Lynch 2 was enough to give me a headache. Haven't played it though, because I've heard horrible feedback about it, so I can't confirm whether that would really be a game that set my headaches off.

 

[higgs20]

I'm not a sufferer as far as i know but on occasion portal made me feel a bit queezy,i think it's the way the room spins sometimes when you fly out of the portal.