Motion sickness rating for games

[Gdrazzel]

Hi I suffer from motion sickness when playing most first person games, driving games are usually an exception, I'm not sure why. It would be great if you allowed users to rate games for motion sickness say out of 10. I find if I play isometric games eg: Diablo 2 or POE, I never experience it. but often it's hard to figure out if a game is liable to cause this before buying and trying it. It can be very disappointing

[Crazy Tiger]

Motion sickness comes in various degrees, people experience it different (as you know). Such a subjective rating wouldn't help, as it will occur that other people would rate a game as "OK" even when you're having issues with it or vice versa.

Do you only experience it when playing the games yourself or also if you watch a Let's Play video full screen?

[Zekiran]

OP a lot of times, you can fix this with changing the field of view and turning off motion blur, but frankly not all games even give you those options.

I do honestly think that games which cause motion sickness of any kind in their players should at least give a nod to it - I don't know that a "1 to 10" scale would be in any way helpful, but "some players may experience x thing" would be nice to see.

(Of course what would be BETTER is all games that have motion blur enabled... should allow us to turn it the hell OFF, and adjust the FOV without having to resort to config or ini alterations I'm looking at you Borderlands 2...)

[Cathulhu]

Motion sickness is hard to generalise as many players experience it very differently.
Had a friend who got motion sick from playing the original Wolfenstein 3D, but was fine in other FPS games.
It's hard to pinpoint how much a game will trigger motion sickness in a player.

[Start_Running]

Motion sickness is too subjective to rate. People have it in varying degrees and have different triggers. I know people who are fine on oboats and jetskis and even roller coasters but put them in a car and they have issues.

Motion sickness is just a state where your sensory input is sending conflicting data and your brain can't make sense of it.

Any fps, TPS, iso, or top down game has this potential. VR games do have this worse than most and the solution I've heard from one frioend is just to sit a bit further from the screen.

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by Gdrazzel:

Hi I suffer from motion sickness when playing most first person games, driving games are usually an exception, I'm not sure why. It would be great if you allowed users to rate games for motion sickness say out of 10. I find if I play isometric games eg: Diablo 2 or POE, I never experience it. but often it's hard to figure out if a game is liable to cause this before buying and trying it. It can be very disappointing

It's like asking people to rate spicy. Some people can't tolerate much spice, others like it super spicy. One persons definition of "spicy" is vastly different from another users.

[Gwarsbane]

As mentioned by others, motion sickness is very subjective. 1 thing can set it off in one game, and might not set it off in another depending on how its implemented.

When I first moved from a CRT monitor to an LCD monitor, playing the same games I had on both, I got motion sickness using the LCD screen. It took me weeks to finally get used to it. Other than changing the type of screen I had, nothing else had changed. None of my friends had this issue.

When games started including motion blur, I started getting motion sickness till I turned it off. Again none of my friends had issues with this.

When film grain was added to games, again I got motion sickness, again none of my friends had this issue.

FOV was the biggest thing for me. When its at like 90 which is I think the default view, I get motion sickness. When I turn it up to 110 or 120 it goes away. Only one of my friends had this issue.


When I get a new game, first 3 things I check for and turn off are Motion Blur, Film Grain and FOV. If I try a game on a friends system, I change those settings.



You could probably ask in a games discussion area before you buy if anyone has motion sickness with the game... and you will almost always find people who do even if the vast majority don't, you will still have oddballs like me who do. You will also never really know how common or uncommon the motion sickness is for a game.

[Gwarsbane]

Originally posted by brian9824:

Originally posted by Gdrazzel:

Hi I suffer from motion sickness when playing most first person games, driving games are usually an exception, I'm not sure why. It would be great if you allowed users to rate games for motion sickness say out of 10. I find if I play isometric games eg: Diablo 2 or POE, I never experience it. but often it's hard to figure out if a game is liable to cause this before buying and trying it. It can be very disappointing

It's like asking people to rate spicy. Some people can't tolerate much spice, others like it super spicy. One persons definition of "spicy" is vastly different from another users.

This is a great analogy. One of my friends and I love pretty spicy food, we each have a collection of hot sauces. Another friend of ours, likes spicy food, but has no where near the tolerance we have. Now we've both built it up over the years, they have not. Our tasty sauces are in the range of 150,000 to 200,000 scoville though we can go up to 300,000. Our other friend, can't handle anything above 75,000 or so. Many others we know can't stand tabasco sauce which is pretty much like water to us. We do know a couple of people who can out do us for spices.

If handed a random bottle of hot sauce everyone of us would give a different answer on how hot is is. Some people might say it doesn't burn at all, other lay gasping on the floor begging for more water. Just like everyone of us in this discussion area would give a different answer on how bad the motion sickness is in a game. Some people will never notice it, some might slightly notice it, while others are curled up with a bucket 5 minutes into the game and they have not even passed the main menu.

Expect every game to trigger motion sickness, to what extent, well thats up to your body.

[Cathulhu]

200,000 Scoville? That's insane. At least from my perspective. I enjoy the occasional 10,000 Scoville meal, but that's my personal limit. I can do more, but that's not something i'd call enjoying.

[Brujeira]

Originally posted by Cathulhu:

200,000 Scoville? That's insane. At least from my perspective. I enjoy the occasional 10,000 Scoville meal, but that's my personal limit. I can do more, but that's not something i'd call enjoying.

Ah, 200k isn’t too bad IF you’re into that kind of thing - it’s my limit but I’m desensitised to both chilli and pain. I once made the mistake of trying a 1 million Scoville Ghost Pepper sauce - never again. Took one bite of the food, realised I’d made a terrible mistake and wound up hyperventilating and waiting for the room to stop moving.

Back on topic, I don’t get motion sickness in games unless my character is upside down. It’s the shift in perspective that does me in - up is down, left is right, does not compute.

[Tito Shivan]

A Motion Sickness 'rating' would be so subjective it'd be useless.
Not two people experience motion sickness the same way or from the same sources.

Instead a few of the usual factor that intervene in motion sickness and could be used to alleviate it could be noted.
For example if the game has a FOV slider or a toggle for head bobbing. I usually scout the reviews or forums for that kind of information.

Originally posted by Gwarsbane:

FOV was the biggest thing for me. When its at like 90 which is I think the default view, I get motion sickness. When I turn it up to 110 or 120 it goes away. Only one of my friends had this issue.

FOV, Motion blur and head bobbing is what triggers mine.
It's specially annoying in (lots) of games designed with consoles in mind with really shallow FOVs (70-80º)

[Satoru]

My friend can play any FPS with any FOV with no issues

Yet he literally can’t play more than 5 minutes of a 3rd person game like Batman or AC without throwing up

Nausea is so personal and subjective

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Originally posted by Gdrazzel:

Hi I suffer from motion sickness when playing most first person games, driving games are usually an exception, I'm not sure why. It would be great if you allowed users to rate games for motion sickness say out of 10. I find if I play isometric games eg: Diablo 2 or POE, I never experience it. but often it's hard to figure out if a game is liable to cause this before buying and trying it. It can be very disappointing

I think that the main problem with this is that motion sickness (or technically, "simulation sickness") works different for different people.

For example, people often advise turning up FOV to reduce simulation sickness in FPS games, but I find that turning it down helps me more.

As for something that affects game types, I find 2D games just fine, while I think my mom used to comment that games like Sonic on Genesis gave her an uncomfortable visual blur, which might have been simulation sickness (though I haven't confirmed this). This may be related to ("actual") motion sickness, since I know some people find it nauseating to read in a car.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

FOV, Motion blur and head bobbing is what triggers mine.
It's specially annoying in (lots) of games designed with consoles in mind with really shallow FOVs (70-80º)

Originally posted by Satoru:

My friend can play any FPS with any FOV with no issues

Yet he literally can’t play more than 5 minutes of a 3rd person game like Batman or AC without throwing up

Nausea is so personal and subjective

My wife tried all different ways and none work for her. She can play Overwatch fine, but any other game, with a fast moving camera, seems to give her a headache and nausea.

We suggested we try motion sickness medication before, but she hates taking such things.

She plays games like PoE and LoL just fine, due to the lack of camera movements

Yep, just too many ways to possible give a proper rating to. Not like an epilepsy warning where triggers are know factors.

[tlktk]

Originally posted by Gdrazzel:

Hi I suffer from motion sickness when playing most first person games, driving games are usually an exception, I'm not sure why. It would be great if you allowed users to rate games for motion sickness say out of 10. I find if I play isometric games eg: Diablo 2 or POE, I never experience it. but often it's hard to figure out if a game is liable to cause this before buying and trying it. It can be very disappointing

I would love it !

if we could help the industry in order to increase overall quality in games and how new implementations are being made. I can't see anything wrong with that.

[Count_Dandyman]

Originally posted by tlktk:

Originally posted by Gdrazzel:

Hi I suffer from motion sickness when playing most first person games, driving games are usually an exception, I'm not sure why. It would be great if you allowed users to rate games for motion sickness say out of 10. I find if I play isometric games eg: Diablo 2 or POE, I never experience it. but often it's hard to figure out if a game is liable to cause this before buying and trying it. It can be very disappointing

I would love it !

if we could help the industry in order to increase overall quality in games and how new implementations are being made. I can't see anything wrong with that.

Maybe you should read more than just the first post before replying if you had you would have seen the massive flaw in this idea.

There is no standard type or strength of motion sickness or any standard in what sets it off. Without a solid baseline to work from there is no way to make any meaningful rating system.