Axel Strohm European Correspondent	Recent Favorites: Wipeout Fusion, Final Fantasy X Most Wanted: Wreckless, Halo, Star Wars Galaxies

Motion Sickness: Common Among Gamers?

Something I've been meaning to discuss for a long time is the topic of motion sickness and how many of you out there are familiar with the problem as it relates to 3D games. I remember that I experienced this problem for the first time when I played Duke Nukem 3D on the PC with friends of mine in a deathmatch over a LAN. We played all day, actually, and at the end of the day...boy, did I feel sick. I felt like I'd been sitting in a car reading; or maybe it was just the pizza I ate earlier acting up on me. Even though I didn't want to accept it, I knew the pizza wasn't at fault. I'd just had a way-too-intense Duke Nukem session. And ever since that day, I've had problems with first-person shooters making me feel sick. Sure, call me a wimp--fair enough. But I know I'm not the only one who can't stand to look at shooters and other fast-moving games for very long.

Many of my friends complain when they watch someone else playing a first-person shooter or a racing game in which they are not in control of the joypad. I've had similar problems with games like Quake, Quake II, Unreal Tournament, or any other multiplayer deathmatch-oriented game.

Unreal 2 looks pretty, but will it make us dizzy?

So why does motion sickness occur in gaming? And how come it's all of a sudden become more of an issue than ever before? Is it because consoles have become powerful enough to display vast 3D worlds? That may be one of the main reasons, because either movement speeds in games have become so fast that we need all of our focus to keep up with them or some of our brains simply cannot handle the speed at which some games are moving. For example, it was pretty much impossible for me to play Quake III Arena, neither on the PC nor on the Dreamcast. I pretty much just gave up on it. On the other hand, neither GoldenEye nor Perfect Dark ever troubled me, really.

I've wondered about why. After closely looking at all those games, I believe that motion sickness must be linked to camera handling. Games with wobbly cameras, like Tomb Raider, will always cause problems for people like me. Some of the kart racing games have the same effect. It's not only about the camera, though, but also about the speed of movement in the game. I never had problems with GoldenEye, because in that game, you mostly just have to sneak through corridors, picking off enemies from long range. It wasn't a run-and-gun game like Quake III Arena. The same goes for Perfect Dark, unless you played the deathmatches, of course. So yeah, the camera is important, and the speed of gameplay is too. Jason Rubin of Naughty Dog interestingly said in a recent interview that they--or rather, Sony--ran tests with kids for Jak and Daxter. And they tested to see if kids had motion sickness after playing the game. Based on that, they optimized camera handling.

			Have you experienced motion sickness from playing games? Yes Maybe a little No Can't remember--was too dizzy

Besides shooters and action games, racing games can be tricky too. Just look at Wipeout Fusion, for example, or any of the previous Wipeout installments. In the higher leagues, races become lightning fast to the point where you don't even want to blink. It will make you feel tired after a while, and you might need a break.

Wipeout Fusion. Too fast for kids these days?

Things become even more difficult when the racing games are completely offbeat, like the Extreme-G series from Acclaim. I remember that, on the N64, I really couldn't play the game because I kept crashing from left to right. Next thing I knew, I was going at the speed of sound, only to come to a full stop seconds after, then accelerating again, and so on. It drove me crazy. Coupled with the insane track design, with twists and loops everywhere, it most definitely was too much for my poor brain to handle.

The Extreme-G series has always been a test for your stomach.

So in the end, I think a lot of responsibility will fall on game developers to literally make sure people can stomach their games, as games keep getting more and more complex. I think camera handling is sometimes not getting the attention it should. Maybe the ongoing discussion about motion sickness and the fact that even companies like Sony are examining the nature of this issue will lead to it getting more attention. It's unlikely that much will change in games like Quake or Unreal, but action game designers can only benefit from listening to player feedback regarding problems with motion sickness.