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              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC">volume 
                1, issue 10</font></b></font></p>
              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC"> 
                </font></b></font></p>
              <p>  <p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono"><b><font color="#339900" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Today 
                in loonygames:</font></b></font></p>

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              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../../1.2/feat.1">Are 
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      <td width="428" height="936" align="LEFT" valign="TOP"> 
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+3" color="#0022A8">Still 
          Sick of Games!</font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font color="#804000"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By 
          Jeff &quot;<a target="_self" href="mailto:jeff@solomania.com">nonick</a>&quot; 
          Solomon</font></b></font></p>       
        <p> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">While advancing technology will 
          most likely be able to reduce the occurrence of gaming sickness and 
          injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome, Sam Winzar brought up a very 
          interesting point about the potential for technology to create new problems. 
          </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Sam mentions the possibility 
          that as games become increasingly realistic, we will begin to revolt 
          against the <i>content </i>that new technology brings to gaming. Sam 
          writes: </font></p>
        <p align="CENTER"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><i>...there 
          is another type of sickness that I think may be a problem in future 
          games. That type of sickness is just plain 'that's sick!' sickness! 
          ...what if, in a couple of years, we'll be able to create opponents 
          that look exactly like humans, and the blood looks completely real, 
          add some VR headset to that, 3D sound and you've got a very realistic 
          experience! My question is, do we really want to play this?? </i></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> That's an excellent question. 
          So far, even the most realistic video games cannot be mistaken for real 
          life. They're cartoonish and designed to portray an escapist representation 
          of our world (or other worlds). It won't be long, however, before the 
          technology will exist to play a game like <b>Quake</b> that looks almost 

          completely real. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Consider the arcade game 
          <b>House of the Dead</b>. The game presented very realistic depictions 
          of people and then allowed the player to shoot and mutilate them. While 
          the game was popular and accumulated a cult following, it also raised 
          some serious issues about the level of realism that people are willing 
          to tolerate in a violent video game. We've got Mario kicking turtle 
          shells on one end of the spectrum, and, down the road, a realistic 3D 
          world where we walk out of our offices and mutilate our bosses. Perhaps 
          this example doesn't effectively drive home the horror that this situation 
          might impose (it actually sounds a tad refreshing), but it will certainly 
          attract attention in the future, and controversy is sure to develop 
          around the issue. </font></p>
        <p align="CENTER"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Ryan Layfield 
          wrote in with a similar dilemma: </font></p>
        <p align="CENTER"><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Will it 
          ever get to the point where people won't be able to tell the difference 
          between reality and its virtual counterpart? What happens when you get 
          done playing a realistic driving game, drive off a cliff in the game, 
          come back, hop in your real car, drive off the cliff, and realize halfway 
          down you aren't in the game anymore?!? Or maybe you just played a game 
          where you shot someone resembling your friend, and suddenly it dawns 
          on you that you took the VR headset off hours ago??? Believe me, I'm 
          not BSing about this prob. This is a real concern to me. Technology's 
          awesome to play with, but I foresee much abuse of its power in the near 
          future... </font></i></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> While this might sound like 
          an extreme example, Ryan's concern certainly has merit. As technology 
          advances to the point where reality can be recreated realistically, 
          several important issues begin to surface. What is reality? How can 
          reality be altered, and what implications will this have on our daily 
          lives? We're already seeing signs of this in the movie world, where 
          James Cameron has publicly stated that he expects to be able to digitally 
          reproduce actors to star in movies in the not-to-distant future. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Finally, Ari Steinberg wrote 
          in with an idea that brings us full circle and wraps this whole topic 
          of gaming sickness up in a ironic dose of poetic justice. He writes: 
          </font></p>
        <p align="CENTER"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><i>Wouldn't 
          it be possible that if games got too realistic, than instead of simulator 
          sickness, motion sickness would be more of a problem? If in reality, 
          someone were to run as fast as the <b>Quake</b> marine and constantly 
          be dodging rockets and doing all kinds of other crazy things (i.e. rocket 
          jumping), it's pretty safe to assume that they'd get motion sickness 
          (of course, they'd be dead, but that's besides the point). Wouldn't 
          something so close to reality that our bodies think it is real also 
          cause the same problem? </i></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Considering that futuristic 
          gaming hardware will be able to almost literally place us the worlds 
          of the games that we play, this could eventually become a real dilemma. 
          It is interesting to consider that we have already reached a point where 
          we can create simulated environments that fool our bodies well enough 
          to make them react against them. As we move forward, we will find that 
          we have new questions to ask ourselves, new problems to face, and new 
          forms of entertainment to experience. The "virtual" in virtual reality 
          will take on a more subtle meaning. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> I'd like to thank everyone 
          who responded to my original article, and in the process helped to clarify 
          the issue of gaming sickness and explore other topics that relate to 
          our reactions to the games that we play. There were many responses that 
          I couldn't include in this article because of its length, but every 
          comment I received is very much appreciated, and I look forward to hearing 
          from everyone who takes the time to respond to this one. </font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><i><font size="-1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">.</font></i></p>
      
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    <td><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"><b>Credits:</b> 
      Illustration &copy; 1998 Mike Sanzone. Still Sick of Games is &copy; 1998 
      Jeff Solomon. All other content is &copy; 1998 <a target="_self" href="http://www.loonyboi.com">loonyboi 
      productions</a>. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited, so don't 
      do it...it can totally make you (or us, for that matter) sick.</font></i></td>
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