Definitely hit or miss for me too. Only for first person stuff.
Played New Vegas on some kind of FOV for over 100 hours. No problemo.
Played Bioshock 1 for like 45 minutes, i thought I was going to throw up.

Right now I'm playing Unreal Gold, and though it's gradual, I slowly start feeling a headache/nausea.

It sucks cause these games are fun, but not if I feel like shit during and afterwards.

Same for me. And from what I've read that's the usual response. Narrower FOV/zoomed in == more motion sickness. Larger FOV/zoomed out == less motion sickness.

Other offenders are: screen shaking/bobbing, motion blur and over the top depth of field effects.

Depends. If I stay close to the monitor, as I would while gaming, then yes I end up getting sick, but for me it takes longer than it does while playing. However if I stay farther away then I'm fine, which is as expected, for games low FOV.

However modern day FPS games have properly implemented FOV sliders, and once you change it to something appropriate(around 100FOV for 1920x1080) all negative effects should be negated. However I have heard of people getting motion sickness no matter how high the FOV, which clearly throws a wrench in the works. Your only option is to personally try a FPS game(with proper FOV) and see how it affects you. As a recommendation, you could try DOOM or PREY. Both amazing games.

Dear Esther. Tried to play it. Gave up nauseous after 15 minutes. Tried to play it again. Gave up nauseous after 10 minutes. Learned how to change the FoV several years later. Made three attempts at different settings. None lasted more than 10 minutes.
Just so much nope there. And that's the only game I've ever had it with. Also used to read books incessantly in driving cars, and still do on busses and trains. Ne'er any problem. But that game...? *shudders*

I got motion sickness when playing the original Doom demo for the first time; High school computer club. It was all new and totally different compared to Wolfenstien 3d. I got used to it never got motion sickness again.
It might be the FOV as other posters said, screen FPS lock in a minimum fps?, monitor refresh rate new monitor? Just throwing out some wild guesses.

I got headaches from playing Unreal Gold recently, funnily enough.

I remember that the original Doom gave me motion sickness.

But more interestingly, it was also the case with the excellent Jaws Unleashed, on my second playthrough. Not on the first.

Just out of curiosity, did you ever try playing the newer Landmark Edition? That version is running on a different engine. It would be interesting to know if that makes any difference.

Amazing replies ... But why would you assume i mean MotionSickness ?
Its not motion sickness, its more like ... i feel unconfortable playing them.
I somehow can not emerge in those worlds (anymore)

I had no problems with Oblivion by release, but for years now, i have. And i bought NewVegas during a steam sale like 4-5 years ago and i also felt unconfortable in the first town, doing the first missions.

Im not sure what else we could possibly have thought you meant.

Back in the days, I felt sick once after watching a friend play Quake or Quake 2 for a while. But I guess that's different, more like car sickness, when you're not the one driving and don't anticipate all the turns and such. And I think the visual style of the game added to it, this stark contrast between pale white bodies and red blood, felt kind of disgusting.

I don't usually get motion sickness when playing myself, but occasionally when games don't run as fluidly as they're supposed to run, e.g Dark Forces 2 where the image is out of sync with the movement on my setup, always lagging a fracture of a second behind, I sense that I would get a headache or nausea after playing for more than a few minutes.

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I get serious bouts of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusions_of_self-motion -- particularly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris_effect -- after some games. SNES Mario Kart was the worst I ever had it. I also get "dock rock" really badly when I go onto a boat. It's just how I'm wired.

Because it was incomprehensible gibberish.

I'm feeling sick seeing certain 'games'. Neither playing them nor buying, that's the best remedy ; p

Thanks. I'll remember to adjust the FOV when the time comes.


It indeed got better with age. Nowadays I never get sick if I am the driver, and very rarely as a passenger. There are some things that help:
-Chewing gum.
-Keeping a cool temperature inside the car. In my climate, this means being moderate with heating in the winter and generous with AC in the summer. And never wearing any coats or jackets while travelling.
-For very long trips ( > 3 hours), I just take a sickness pill and I forget about it.

I wonder if any of this would apply to gaming. I have never gotten sick while playing but I sometimes get some terrible migraines, and of these, a few occasions after gaming; however, this is very rare so I haven't been able to properly identify a cause.