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VR still makes 40-70% of players want to throw up, and that's a huge problem for the companies behind it (www.pcgamer.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Why virtual reality makes a lot of us sick, and what we can do about it.

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[–] 40 points 2 years ago (6 children)

Idk about 40-70% that seems ludicrously high. I play all the time, mild motion sickness when I could not run the game well, otherwise no issues.

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  • [–] 16 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    That seems high to me as well. Obviously this is anecdotal, but I've introduced probably 20 friends/family members to VR and none of them have had issues with motion sickness.

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  • [–] 34 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Simulation sickness is real, and more common than most gamers (a population that tends to self-select for people without that trait) think. This prevalence doesn’t surprise me at all. It’s not severe for everyone. You might not notice if a friend had it, except that they might play fewer video games with you. (They might not, some people are fine unless in full VR.) People aren’t generally keen on going “You know that thing that you like doing and that I’ve seen 5-year-olds do on the internet? I can’t do it, it makes me vom.” It doesn’t exactly feel cool.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    That's a true statement. They might just be macho, or they might be just sparing your feelings about a really expensive device you own. I know it made me nauseous, but I didn't say anything because my buddy was excited and spent a lot of money on it. It's not like I have to play it forever... it's just that one time.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    Mine’s so bad I can’t even play FPSs without getting sick, but being very open about that means I hear from a lot of people with less severe systems who will power through their nausea for short sessions with friends to avoid embarassment, which is why I think the way I do.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago*

    The statistic quoted is for "users", so presumably the measurement was made against randomly selected individuals of the general population (though the article frustratingly fails to cite a source). This is important because the effect is not evenly distributed among demographics, per the article:

    What’s more, we don’t know why some people are so much more susceptible to it than others, but we know that there are numerous markers that make us more likely to experience it. Women, as mentioned previously, are more likely than men to get VR sick. Asian people are more likely than other ethnicities to experience motion sickness in general. Age is another factor—we’re more likely to experience it between the ages of 12 and 21 than in our adulthood... until we reach our 50s, upon which the likelihood increases again.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago

    I started by playing while standing and moving smoothly in game and I couldn't last long before getting sick. Now I play seated with snapping in game movement and I can play for hours without issue. Depending on how you define it, I don't think it's surprising to see so many people say VR makes them sick.

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