Motion Sickness in First-Person Games

The beauty of a first-person game is that they’re designed to make gamers feel as though they are living it. The story becomes your own, because the characters you play are meant to be you. It’s a brilliant way to immerse you into the game’s world, but while the majority of gamers can enjoy or even prefer first-person gaming, there are those who can’t. It’s not for lack of want; it’s due to a troublesome setback caused by video game motion sickness.
 
Motion sickness caused by video games, sometimes called simulator sickness, is caused when there is a disconnect between what your eyes are seeing and what your body is feeling. Basically, what is all comes down to is camera movement and what your eyes focus on when looking at the screen. The symptoms of this include, but are not limited to, headaches, dizziness, nausea, heavy sweating, and excessive production of saliva.

I've been playing "Mirrors Edge" and "Elite Dangerous" as of late and I have been experiencing headache after headache to the point where I have to walk away from the screen. I don't really succumb to motion sickness as much as I used to when I was younger, but something about those two games really threw me on a loop. As I stepped away from the games every now and then, I pondered on what allowed me to outgrow my sense of motion sickness.

From what I remember, I always used to sit up close to the TV, because that's what you did as a kid. I learned later that making some room between me and the screen helped a lot, but as of late I've been playing games on my desk monitor that's 20 inches from my face. Besides that, I also always played in the dark to help with the atmosphere of the game. Turns out, that's a big contributor to motion sickness as well. Lastly, I think I just forced through them. After multiple sessions of gaming growing up, I just got used to it. Now granted, my headaches aren't as bad as when I was younger, but I haven't been playing video games for a little over a week now. Maybe my eyes just got accustomed to not staring at a screen all day. 

So what are my prevention's??

• Put space between you and the screen
• Play in a well lit room
• Just brute force it, your eyes will become accustomed to it eventually

Do any of you have any sort of remedies for motion sickness or do you still suffer from it on occasion. Share them in the comments below, who knows they might help me or others out. I've heard that some medication helps, but I never bothered. Like I said, I just forced my way through most of the time. Until next time everyone.