# 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:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994/21 "2005-10-13T21:13:16Z")
> [@Hunter Hawk](#): > > 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. Curiously just about the only time I have gotten sick is in headmounts: Once in a VR lab where I was actually trying to WORK in the virtual environment, and once playing Descent in a headmount. ---
**Author:** ![flamingbananas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f4b2a3/32.png) [@flamingbananas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flamingbananas)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994/22 "2005-10-13T21:34:09Z")
Yes, for certain games. Whenever I go to the local internet cafe to play a shooter game with my brother I’ll start to feel queasy after an hour or so of playing. Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker will make me feel sick if I move around the camera a lot and I play for a while, as will James Bond. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994/23 "2005-10-14T00:50:00Z")
> [@Rushgeekgirl](#): > > 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? Oh yes. Every time I go on a Tetris binge, I find myself randomly staring at anything with a grid pattern for oddly long lengths of time (screen doors, bathroom tiles, sidewalks) seeing the shapes falling. ---
**Author:** ![GIRetchen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ccd318/32.png) [@GIRetchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIRetchen)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994/24 "2005-10-14T03:07:48Z")
Wow, I thought this was just me! I have a bunch of gamers in the family, and they were all beginning to suspect I was crazy because none of them ever have a problem. With me, it really depends on how far I am away from the screen. That means that computer games make me sick really easily while console games are generally better. Everquest was by far, the worst, but I can’t play the Bond games either. And Metroid Prime. Talk about double dizzy…all that rolling around… I’ve been in an actual flight simulator and that had no effect on me. Go figure. ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994/25 "2005-10-14T03:36:22Z")
That Windows “maze” screensaver. Urrggahhh. I got a little disorieted playing Quake II on Linux when it first came out and I was goofing around on the Beowulf cluster I was building for the university. I still played really well, I just got disoriented a bit. Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994/26 "2005-10-14T05:36:44Z")
Me. I usually have to sit WAY back from the TV when playing games, or take frequent breaks to get my stomach to settle down. If it’s a FPS or a POV game, I _will_ get sick. I also insist on sitting further back in movie theaters, and still get nauseated a lot. _sigh_ ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994/27 "2005-10-14T17:48:49Z")
Heh, from the thread title, I thought it was gonna be something along the lines of “do you ever get tired of playing the Sims?” As for VR sickness, I never used to, but now I do. ☹ I grew up on Doom, Quake, GoldenEye, etc., but I took a long break from FPS games, probably about 4 years (from Unreal Tournament and RtCW to present, for those of you keeping score), then recently installed Half-Life 2 and HL: Source on my computer. I couldn’t play HL: Source for more than an hour or so before the VR sickness got so bad that I had to stop. I _think_ in my case, though, this may be largely due to my having a dual-monitor setup, and the second monitor being on in my peripheral vision (I see mice and scanners 😉 ). Next time I’ll play with the second monitor off and see if that helps. ---
**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 15, 2005, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994/28 "2005-10-15T04:50:53Z")
> [@Hello Again](#): > > BTW, I’ve always been told the name for this affliction is VR (virtual reality) Sickness. \ The folks in my lab (which was one of the top VR labs in the world) just called it “sim-sickness”. I suppose you could call it “VR sickness” if you wanted to get pedantic, though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-sim-sick/325994.md?page=1)