Physical Tolls of Gaming

[Underground Man]

Oh, the pain of nintendo thumb. Or for PC users, the RSI of too much time on the keyboard. I've been looking for some tips on how to avoid it (short of not gaming...yeah, right) and here's what I've found so far.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZZC8BOA1NQ

http://www.wellnessjunction.com/athome/disease_prevention/apta.htm

What strategies do you use, or do you just grin and bear it? The best controller I've used thus far is from Logitech, but that still doesn't solve my typing/PC gaming problem. And the there is always the specter of chronically bad posture....

 

[Smurfferdid]

I just have poor eyesight from staring at a bright screen all the time. I don't know about this gamer's thumb and carpal tunnel shiz, never had such problems. I guess my fingers are too worked to be bothered by it at this point.

 

[The Man With the Soap]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I read the article, and I can see it now...Fox News or CNN get a hold of this and turn it into, "Video Games: They're Killing Our Kids!" What an utter load of shit.

 

[SimuLord]

Every time I have to write an essay question for a test at school, I end up having to stop repeatedly and massage my sore hands---too many video games, methinks.

I've taken to bringing a stuffed animal to class and using him as a stress ball. Pain relief, and it's cute!

 

[Underground Man]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I read the article, and I can see it now...Fox News or CNN get a hold of this and turn it into, "Video Games: They're Killing Our Kids!" What an utter load of shit.

I thought the article was pretty benign, but I could see it getting hyped on a slow news day.

My biggest problem is in my wrists and thumbs from typing too much. I can't go more than a few hours without my computer.

 

[johnsom]

Take a lot of breaks. My mouse hand gets sore at the wrist sometimes. When playing through the Halos I would get sore shoulders. Oddly, it seems to be the only game that does it.

 

[LemonMelon]

No lasting damage.

Though my hand was bent out of shape for a couple days after a 10+hour guitar hero session.

 

[Reep]

Nothing apart from very rarely getting a sore fore arm, but that was mostly caused by writing a million essays for school.

 

[Antitonic]

I cry bull on this. If it were that simple, I'd have been diagnosed months ago.

 

[Cazza]

Taking breaks is best. Lets face it though no one takes enough breaks for that to work. I get up and sit back down a different way. Works for my legs, feet, back and arms. Not the hands though.

 

[Underground Man]

Taking breaks is best. Lets face it though no one takes enough breaks for that to work.

-snip-

Haha, this is true.

I can't wait until we can just plug video games directly into our brains. But then we'll probably get neuron fatigue or some crap.

 

[Layz92]

The only noticeable problem I have found is that the wrist bone of my mouse hand that rests on the desk seems to have thickened, though it may be just a thick callus. Either way it is still more useful than it is a hinderance.

 

[Snarky Username]

I have a huge callous on my right wristbone because it's always rubbing against the mousepad. Other than that, I've never been injured gaming except for that one time I accidentally hit myself with the N64 remote because Grunty is a cheating bastard.

 

[JacobyPAX]

I get gamer's thumb once in a while and if I play longer than a few hours I get blurred vision.

 

[Bon_Clay]

When I used to play Stepmania a lot it got pretty brutal on the hands. NES controller is a painful to use for a long time too. But other than that new age controllers are pretty good and I have a wrist pad in front of my keyboard. Also I use my mouse farther away from me so my whole arm takes up the pressure and not my wrist.

Staring at a screen for a long time can result in some eye strain, but taking a break fixes that, doesn't have any lasting effect. If your eyes went bad they would've anyway even if you had never seen a TV.

 

[Blackadder51]

My fingers start to have cramps after intense GH. Or if im contracting really hard on a song, ill get a random WTF nosebleed.

 

[n19h7m4r3]

Only problem I have is that if I sit to long my wallet digs into my bum and it might go numb a bit.

So I get up walk or stretch for a bit. Simple and effective.

 

[Dommyboy]

I get RSI from writing some times, pretty much never from video games though.