I experience nausea after playing certain FPSes but not when playing flight sims or racing even in pilot/driver cam. I've narrowed it down to two issues:

1) Certain colors trigger pukeyness for me (particularly red/brown)
2) Looking further into the horizon for sims and racing games helps to significantly reduce the puke factor.

Some of my research findings:
- Quake 3: Nausea on Q3DM7 (red and brown), no issues on Q3DM17 (gray/grey and black)
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Nausea after 15 mins (the goddamn game is all green and brown!)
- Rainbow Six Vegas : No issues
- GRAW2 : No issues
- COD: MW : No issues
- UT2004 : No issues except a couple of maps that are heavy on the red/black motifs
- Serious Sam: 2nd Encounter - No issues

Ohh, that's different. In my personal experience, 3D is great, but I get a massive headache about an hour in that fades with time. Happened in Avatar, I nearly ran out of the theatre. I have no idea why it went away later, probably the eyes got adjusted or maybe the scenery helped, but boy I don't want to go through that again if I can prevent it.

So I just went to a doctor to ask about the motion sickness pills (which I now have), and he said pretty much this. It's your brain thinking you're moving while you're body knows it isn't, and the result is that your body assumes it's been poisoned and makes you throw up, sweat, and do the things it's supposed to do when you actually have been poisoned.

That means the cause is whatever tricks your brain into thinking you're moving. The reason why it would get better in time if I just keep on playing is that eventually your brain will work out that computer games aren't real movement, and will start to agree with your body that you are still.

The doctor also said that most of the remedies described here would probably help in one way or another, soooooo....

I'm now sitting here looking completely ridiculous; wearing these silly wrist bands, ginger tea on one side, pills on the other, and some stupid sticky menthol patch on my forehead that the doctor said would work in the same way as the menthol stuff someone mentioned on a previous page. Clearly this isn't going to be a long term solution, but still worth trying. I'm going to try playing Mass Effect, which is a game I've wanted to be able to play for a long time :)

Sounds like you're all set... Let us know how it goes!

Best of luck!

LOL at the mental image ... though it's probably best not to take them all at once as the combination alone might make you sick ;)

Good luck with getting aclimatised or whatever the word is

Here's some tips you might try. Turn off the head bobbing, it should help. Unfortunately, games like Stalker doesn't have this option and i cant play it for too long or i start getting dizzy. Also, slowdown the run&gun game play, try not to play at lightening speed, turn as little as possible.

IKR, I look like a complete clown.

However, I've just played almost an hour of mass effect, which is 50 minutes longer than my previous record, and I'm not on the verge of throwing up. I feel a bit dizzy, but that's about it. I guess I now need to work out which of those things was making the difference, so I won't have to look quite as ridiculous in future. If I can manage regular hour long sessions on games that normally make me sick, perhaps I'll be able to get myself used to it :)

Thanks to everyone for all the tips and advice, you're all awesome :)

Though its not desirable as keyboard and mouse, its on Xbox Live, maybe the PS Network as well.

For anyone interested in how this is turning out:

I took the whole of this week off work (planned to coincide with the gog sale), and I've made vast improvements, to the point that I can now play some first person games, which was pretty much unthinkable before.

The things I've found make a big difference are:
- Ginger ale, and lots of it
- Playing near an open window, or at least with a small NON MOVING fan next to me (I found that the ones that move around actually made me more sick)
- Tiger balm, I keep a bottle of it next to me and sniff it when I start getting dizzy
- Not wearing headphones. I think this actually made the biggest difference. I don't know why, but it really really did.
- Space games; I won Dark Horizon in a contest here recently, and can play it endlessly in first person. I think it's because the scenery in the background doesn't really change much in space.
- Exposure; I started by playing Mass Effect, which used to make me a bit sick, but not as badly as FPS games or Witcher 2. Using the methods listed above, I was able to start playing for sessions of about 10 to 15 minutes at a time. After only a few days, I'm now up to almost an hour at a time, and the sick feeling wears off much quicker than it did after I stop playing.

I'm currently downloading Far Cry and Painkiller Complete, which I plan to test out this afternoon. If I can play them even for more than a couple of minutes, it will be pretty good confirmation that I'm making progress :)

That's great! Best of luck in continuing to make progress.

Headphone is famous for making user dizzy after long spell of use. The damage may be permanent too if the person being exposed to the loud sound continuously. i think it's better for your health if your dump it altogether.

All the 3D games, especially those with a lot of movement on the line of sight(first person game) and those with bloom or HDR, have a chance to make people sick.....
Here's some suggestion from my own experience:
1, rest well.....If you are tired or even sleepy, you are likely to get game sick. A nap can make thing better (or if it is too late at night, just go sleep).
2, exercise......I notice that at a period I do more exercise, I'm less likely to get game sick. For those period I do less not none, a video of 3D game can make me sick.
3, Reduce the mouse sensitivity of first person game, so there are less movements on the screen.
4, For first person games, try third person view if possible. Or in some games there's an option to make the width of sight larger, that helps too.


Ginger has completely opposite effect on me, it usually worsen my car sick......
That's actually because when I was a little kid, I got car sick easily, and my family always gave me salted ginger as they knew it usually help. After that, the smell of salted ginger already enough to make me feel sick......

headphones make me sick when playing games, but im ok with earphones or without any dont know why