# Do you get Sim Sick? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 13, 2005, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994 "2005-10-13T00:34:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SpectBrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a87d85/32.png) [@SpectBrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpectBrain)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994/1 "2005-10-13T00:34:38Z")
Do you get simulation sickness, i.e. motion sickness from playing point of view video games, such as driving games? I get a queasy feeling that won’t go away for hours after playing them. You? > [@](#): > > Once used to describe the motion sickness that many astronauts experience in flight simulators, the term is now commonly used by gamers whose equilibrium is upset by the realistic graphics in 3-D computer games or other virtual reality environments. from [An article in Salon.com](http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/08/11/sim_sickness/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994/2 "2005-10-13T00:45:47Z")
Yes, horribly. Ocarina of Time, Spyro the Dragon, Grand Theft Auto III, and a handful of other polygonal games absolutely destroy my sense of equilibrium after fifteen to thirty minutes of gameplay and leave me feeling like I have a migraine. The only way I can recover afterwards is to take a long nap in a cool, dark, and quiet place. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Violaceous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Miss\_Violaceous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Violaceous)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994/3 "2005-10-13T01:01:03Z")
OH, so that’s what you mean. When I read the thread title I thought “you mean like the guinea pig flu or spontaneous combustion? 😕” ---
**Author:** ![SpectBrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a87d85/32.png) [@SpectBrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpectBrain)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994/4 "2005-10-13T01:10:00Z")
> [@Miss Violaceous](#): > > OH, so that’s what you mean. > > When I read the thread title I thought “you mean like the guinea pig flu or spontaneous combustion? 😕” I was trying to be clever and keep the title short and punchy, but on reflection, I’m guessing that most of the folks that see it probably think of the Sim city games and their variants. I do not understand your reference to “guinea pig flu” and “spontaneous combustion” ---
**Author:** ![DataZak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ea666f/32.png) [@DataZak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DataZak)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994/5 "2005-10-13T01:13:28Z")
> [@SpectBrain](#): > > Do you get simulation sickness, i.e. motion sickness from playing point of view video games, such as driving games? Yeah, but not driving games. I’m fine with those. It’s the first person shooter type games that I can’t handle. I couldn’t play _Doom_ because I would feel dizzy 5 minutes going into it. So I just stick to strategy games like the _Civilization_ series. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994/6 "2005-10-13T02:48:07Z")
Yes. I used to get this with driving games but not anymore. The worst case was um…something Gecko for the playstation. I bought the game and got incredibly sick from playing it. Of course, the store didn’t accept returns on open games, so I had to sell it at a fraction of what I’d just paid a couple of days earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994/7 "2005-10-13T02:53:44Z")
> [@SpectBrain](#): > > I do not understand your reference to “guinea pig flu” and “spontaneous combustion” Diseases that your characters can get in “The Sims”. I used to get nauseous watching my brother play some James Bond game. The scene would swing back and forth as Bond would look around, and my brother’s game strategy involved spinning around a lot. Probably for my benefit, considering he’s my kid brother and was put on Earth to be annoying as possible to me. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994/8 "2005-10-13T03:12:04Z")
When I’d start playing a new FPS (Unreal Tournament and Postal 2 really did it to me), I’d feel really sick to my stomach after about half an hour or so from motion sickness (not the blood and gore of the game, that never bothered me so much). Eventually, I’d get a better feel for the game and would start bobbing and weaving to match my character’s movements, and that pretty much took care of the sim sickness. **However** , when my wife started getting into Unreal Tournament, I got as sick as a dog within a few minutes of watching her play. Watching a rapidly-moving, realistic 3D environment but not knowing how it was going to move was really disorienting. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994/9 "2005-10-13T03:14:53Z")
After I play Sims 2 for seven+ hours my eyes want to pan in and out…I think that’s what’s happening anyway. I don’t care for the feeling. Way back when I first got the internet I spent a lot of time in chatrooms. Later in bed I’d type out my thoughts in my head as I was thinking them. I couldn’t stop it. Does that make sense to anyone but me? ---
**Author:** ![TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/51bf81/32.png) [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994/10 "2005-10-13T03:23:50Z")
Yes, I do, and only recently. I find this troubling, as I’ve been an avid and constant gamer for 18 years. It seems to only happen when I play FPS games, and only when I play them on the computer. I think it has something to do with the monitor being only a foot or two from my face vs. the TV being 6 or 7 feet away. I’m not really into FPS games, so it’s not terribly upsetting. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994/11 "2005-10-13T03:35:02Z")
Only on some games, so it’s not too bad, but when I get it, it’s very yucky. Usually, it’s not a big deal to me to stop playing the game. However, there is one that comes to mind that I liked a lot, so I used to suffer through and play anyway – American McGee’s Alice game. I am nearly sick right now just remembering it! **Rushgeekgirl** , I used to get the same eye zooming thing after playing the Sims 2 … I think I’m past that now, but I know exactly what you’re talking about. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994/12 "2005-10-13T05:00:51Z")
> [@VCO3](#): > > Yes, I do, and only recently. I find this troubling, as I’ve been an avid and constant gamer for 18 years. It seems to only happen when I play FPS games, and only when I play them on the computer. I think it has something to do with the monitor being only a foot or two from my face vs. the TV being 6 or 7 feet away. Yeah, the field of view for the display plays a role in sim-sickness, as does the locus of control and the mapping between updates to the display and the actions of the user. The main source of sim-sickness is a disconnect between the signals that your brain is getting from your eyes vs. from your inner ear, but there are psychological factors as well. I never got sim-sick using either a 90-degree FOV projection display or a helmet-mounted display in the VR labs I was in, because I was controlling the action in the virtual environment; in contrast, I do get sick watching IMAX movies, especially if they’re in 3-d. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994/13 "2005-10-13T08:09:07Z")
Nope, I never get it - not with modern games at least. Doom and Wolfenstein definitely make me a bit queasy but I don’t the get extreme retching-and-heaving that some people here seem to get. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994/14 "2005-10-13T10:40:05Z")
Certain games cause it for me, or specific parts of other games. Very twisty/turny parts will really get to me, so like in City of Heroes the tight underground cave maps will make me queasy after about 10-15 minutes; same with EverQuest in the basement in Plane of Mischief and a couple other areas. I can’t play anywhere in Morrowind for more than 15 minutes at a time - pity, as it seemed like an interesting game but I couldn’t bring myself to load the game more than a few times, as it wasn’t worth feeling like that. I can’t watch most IMAX films, either. One that was a calm, placid coral reef adventure in 3D was fine, but any of that zooming up and down and I have to close my eyes. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994/15 "2005-10-13T16:07:23Z")
The only game that ever did that to me was Doom II, but it was so bad that I really couldn’t play it for more than a minute or two. No other FPS affected me in that way. I think it was because the character had this bobbing up and down side to side motion when he walked that was just too much. ---
**Author:** ![DeadlyAccurate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994/16 "2005-10-13T16:17:19Z")
Yes, if I’m watching someone else play FPS or games with faster than usual movement, like Grand Theft Auto. I also get it in FPS if there is any kind of first-person auto mode. I still haven’t finished Half-Life 2 because I’m currently on the dune buggy level, and I can’t play long without getting rather severe motion sickness. Anyone know if Dramamine would help? I was only able to finish Far Cry because I could switch to third person on the vehicle areas. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994/17 "2005-10-13T16:36:59Z")
> [@Sublight](#): > > Eventually, I’d get a better feel for the game and would start bobbing and weaving to match my character’s movements, and that pretty much took care of the sim sickness. I had a similar experience. I felt dizzy and lightheaded the first time I played a 3D FPS game; learning to move with the character’s movements really helped. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994/18 "2005-10-13T16:54:10Z")
Yes, I get terrible vertigo watching or playing any sort of first-person shooter. They make me nauseous and dizzy. Driving games, for whatever reason, don’t really bother me. BTW, I’ve always been told the name for this affliction is VR (virtual reality) Sickness. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994/19 "2005-10-13T17:36:52Z")
Only trouble I ever had was with Dungeon Seige and its tower stairs. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994/20 "2005-10-13T19:57:56Z")
Moderately often, usually with first-person shooters. How I managed to finish _Doom 2_ despite my queasiness continues to elude me. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994.md?page=2)