SEEING THINGS

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Almost across the board, I can't play FPS games because of the inherent lack of immediate visual information that I have access to, and not just from a strict first person POV either: I had to give up on over-the-shoulder cameras like RE4, and MGS3 which in principle had a limited camera "lens" because the producers got rid of the radar.

I get very motion sick after about 30 minutes of playing any of these games, and not simply because of pure motion sickness. I'm usually anxious about what I can't see: is there a badguy off the screen, or worse yet, BEHIND ME, that's going to bury a hatchet in my back?? I actually get nauseous if I'm getting attacked by things that I can't see, or if I feel completely lost, FP POV or not. I need to see everything that's active in the "playing field." In non-FPS games, the action on the playing field is completely visually represented, a POV that gives a sense of distance, which perhaps addresses my motion sickness.

So the question is: how important is immediate visual information to your gaming? Or am I just a lam0r?

― Obsessing over the unobtainable and nonexistent. (Leee), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 19:41 (twenty years ago)

i'm kind of the same way--not having peripheral vision in fps games drives me crazy.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 19:52 (twenty years ago)

But that's where the ZOMBIE THRILLPOWER comes from!

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 20:18 (twenty years ago)

replace thrillpower with consistently frustrating and demoralizing feeling similar to the one created by AI cheating in shitty racing/sports games and "adventure game puzzle logic" and you've nailed it, for me (also the occasional nausea).

― TOMBOT, Tuesday, 13 December 2005 20:39 (twenty years ago)

I'm the same - can't even watch someone else play a FPS without feeling ill.

― Jaq (Jaq), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 20:59 (twenty years ago)

It's the reverse for me. I've spent way too long playing FPSs so I don't use my peripheral vision or even turn my neck. I rotate my whole body if I need to look left or right but mostly I just strafe. Also I make the same strange grunt whenever I jump which is quite often.

― adam (adam), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 00:21 (twenty years ago)

you guys are very, very unlucky. my sympathies to you.

― snowkitten (g-kit), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 09:58 (twenty years ago)

I'm with kit. If lack of peripheral vision freaks you out so much in games, how do you cope with real life?

― JimD coulda been anything that he wanted to be (JimD), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 12:11 (twenty years ago)

Haha, g-kit OTM.

― melton mowbray (adr), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 14:15 (twenty years ago)

Roffle @ Adam's post.

Leee, don't most games have a camera control that you can either swing around 360 degrees or at least check your peripherals (like in RE4)?

The only time I can remember feeling visually thrown-off like that is the part in RE4 where you're forced to look through the sniper scope to save Ashley while at the same time you're being attacked from close range, and every time you turn the scope off you know there's going to be an evil monk right in front of your face or behind you but it's startling anyway. That was, like, one of my favorite parts of the game though.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 14:23 (twenty years ago)

If lack of peripheral vision freaks you out so much in games, how do you cope with real life?

What? Real life comes with peripheral vision!

― ledge (ledge), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 16:28 (twenty years ago)

god bless RE4 and it's quick 180 turn around.

I'm so used to GTA with it's handy 'L1+L2' look-behind option that I get frustrated with games that don't offer enough 360 vision.

having said that, San Andreas has a grotesque too low external car-in-the-middle-of-the-screen camera view that can't even be improved by switching cameras (apart from in car view but who the fuck wants that)

― Ste (Fuzzy), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 16:54 (twenty years ago)

I don't get sick from over-the-shoulder cameras as much, but in any case to me it's typically too much of an extra annoyance to have to control a camera and movement at the same time. I can't stand first-person anything, not even Metroid Prime.

― TOMBOT, Wednesday, 14 December 2005 17:25 (twenty years ago)

I had no idea anyone actually used "look-behind" in GTA, I assumed it was just there as a logical extension of what L2 and R2 do.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 18:03 (twenty years ago)

The feeling of panic and wtfness is key here. See also: the fine balance in multiplayer FPSs between staring through a scope at some douchebag across the map vs getting clubbed by some dude right behind you.

― adam (adam), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 18:36 (twenty years ago)

Leee, don't most games have a camera control that you can either swing around 360 degrees or at least check your peripherals (like in RE4)?

Maybe that's why I didn't get past the first level!

If lack of peripheral vision freaks you out so much in games, how do you cope with real life?

What? Real life comes with peripheral vision!

Real life also doesn't come with lowrent henchmen popping bullets into me.

Amusing story about my inability to cope with FPS.

Last year, I participated in a campus study where I played some FPS, I think Unreal Tournament. Complete the study, which would take about an hour, get $10. I'm worried that I won't be able to get through it, but $10! I make a mental note of blinking a lot, which I've read helps with motion sickness. 20 minutes in, I'm a little woozy, but bearable. The blinking is working!

Then, 10 minutes later, I'm breathing heavy, sweating profusely and inches away from puking, and I tell the study guy I have to sit out in the hallway for a little bit, I'm feeling sick. I rest for 15 minutes, and I just can't do it anymore. I lose my $10 because I have trouble keeping my cookies while playing a video game! (He was nice and gave me $5, though.)

For the REST OF THE DAY, I'm feeling nauseous!

― Obsessing over the unobtainable and nonexistent. (Leee), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 22:40 (twenty years ago)

this thread makes me sad.

― snowkitten (g-kit), Thursday, 15 December 2005 09:06 (twenty years ago)

The feeling of panic and wtfness is key here.

Supertwee version = being attacked by more than one of the seahats in The Wind Waker, where you have to switch to first person and whack them within .5 seconds or BANG! you're out of the boat into the water again.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 15 December 2005 10:06 (twenty years ago)

I had no idea anyone actually used "look-behind" in GTA, I assumed it was just there as a logical extension of what L2 and R2 do

doh! i actually meant the R3 look behind when you are on foot, not the car camera. but i still regularly use that one as well.

― Ste (Fuzzy), Thursday, 15 December 2005 10:47 (twenty years ago)

San Andreas has a grotesque too low external car-in-the-middle-of-the-screen camera view that can't even be improved by switching cameras (apart from in car view but who the fuck wants that)

Amen. I end up trying to drive, shoot and raise the camera angle manually all at the same time.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Thursday, 15 December 2005 16:55 (twenty years ago)

Real life comes with peripheral vision!

Haha, the morning after I posted that, I was on the tube going into town and suddenly thought "shit, I said 'lack of peripheral vision' on that thread, when I actually meant 'inability to see behind you'...ah well, I guess nobody will pick me up on it".

Course, it would be you, wouldn't it? :)

― JimD (JimD), Friday, 16 December 2005 00:23 (twenty years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.