Silverwolf's Auditorium

I watched computer games evolve from simple text to ASCII grafix, to Color, and eventually into 3D (i.e. Most modern FPS games today are High-rez Full 3D).

Now, over the years there have been literally thousands of 3D games developed, I have personally tried hundreds of them.

And do you know what I found out ?

I discovered that some of these new 3D games made me sick, after playing for an indeterminate amount of time.

Over the years I had tried to nail down exactly what the problem was (Rather unsuccessfully up to this point).

What I found out is the following :

• Not Every Game bothered me, some games I could play for hours and hours without any problems.
• I could play some games up to 20 minutes or more before I feeling sick.
• Other games would bring me to my knees in 20 seconds.

My Symptoms were:

• Cold Sweats (Especially on my forehead)
• Waves of Severe Nausea
• Pale, Clammy skin on my face

So, with these problems I found myself unable to play most 3d fps games for more than a few Min's at a time.

I had always assumed that this mysterious ailment was only affecting me, since my friends were able to come over and play the same games I could not play, for hours and hours with no problems (just looking at the screen while they were playing would make me sick).

That's pretty much where it stopped for a long time, I lost interest in FPS because I couldn't play them without extreme physical discomfort

10 Years drift by, and a new friend of mine made a comment that she has the same problems when playing FPS video games that I do.

That changed one of my earlier assumptions that was now clearly false.  Whatever my ailment is, it affects other people besides me.

This gave me a reason to do some more research on the subject with the hope that someone would have figured it out by now.

Well, 5 Min's on goggle turned up the answer !  It's called "Simulator Sickness" and it affects many many people.  I'm a little fuzzy on the science of what actually causes it, but it's pretty much the same as getting "Car-Sick".

Several people on various forums had stated that standard Motion Sickness OTC Meds might be effective so I decided to try them.

The Item I purchased was "DIMENHYDRINATE TABLETS" 50mg.  It seems to be the standard, cheap treatment for car-sickness.

I took one pill and then waited half an hour like the box said, and ended up sleeping 3 hours in the middle of the day. (It made me extremely drowsy, worse than Benadryl Maximum Strength.)

After my little nap though, I woke up and played several different games (Half-life, Blue Shift, Half-life2, Portal) total play time was about 6 hours, and not a single problem.

I could tell that the Meds were still making me drowsy, and messing with my equilibrium but I hadn't felt sick at all.

The Next Day, I took the same dose, but this time I followed it up with a couple glasses of Mountain-Dew (About 180 mg of Caffeine).  I wasn't tired at all, and I spend several hours playing full 3-D High Res FPS games with no issues what so ever.

I noticed that CVS has a "Less Drowsy" formula for Motion Sickness, I may give that a try.

Until that happens though, you now have a workable solution that allows you to play some of the games you have never been able to play before.

(If you get the original formula that I mentioned above, I'd strongly advise drinking a couple of Moutain-Dew's or a cup of coffee to get some caffeine, Otherwise you'll be drowsy.)

Disclaimer: ** Obiously I am not a Doctor and cannot give out medical advise of any kind.  I am simply telling you about the experience I had in the hopes that it will help someone down the road a bit with the same problem.

You should read and follow the warning & direction labels on any medication you take, you may want to consult your doctor if you are taking any RX medications as they can sometimes interact with OTC meds.

If you follow any instructions on this site or this page you agree that you are doing so at your own risk.