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              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC">volume 
                1, issue 2</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>

<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">New!!</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> The Archives have been cleaned up, fead links fixed, and printable versions restored! Also, don't miss the new comments <a href="../../../index.html">on the front page</a>!</font></p>
              
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              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../../1.10/feat/index.html">Still 
                Sick of Games</a>: Jeff Solomon's follow-up article to the original 
                &quot;Are Sick of Games?&quot;</font></p>
              
              
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        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+3" color="#0022A8"> 
          Are You Sick of Games? (continued)</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>&nbsp;</p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+1"><b>Why is everything 
          spinning around? In my <i>room</i>???</b></font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">What people 
          are experiencing when they walk away from <b>Quake</b> and stumble around 
          is a variation of motion sickness that is called simulator sickness. 
          Simulator sickness is very similar to motion sickness in terms of symptoms 
          (nausea, loss of balance, vertigo, etc.), but has a different cause.</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Motion sickness 
          most typically results from situations where a person's inner ear is 
          thrown off balance by physical motion; the internal fluids move around, 
          causing the body to lose its sense of foundation. This is what usually 
          causes the nausea and vertigo that some people experience on boats and 
          airplanes where the basic foundation is constantly in motion (research 
          shows that approximately 80% of people are susceptible to some form 
          of motion sickness). This is not, however, what is happening when people 
          become sick while playing video games.</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Simulator sickness, 
          by comparison, results from purely virtual circumstances. There's not 
          much motion involved in playing <b>Quake</b> (ducking and bobbing, perhaps, 

          but not much else), so the sickness people feel is coming purely from 
          the screen and speakers - their virtual visual and aural environment 
          - as opposed to their real environment. However, simulator sickness 
          is intrinsically related to motion sickness in terms of symptoms, and 
          studies have shown that people who are prone to getting motion sickness 
          are also more likely to experience simulator sickness (and vice versa).</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">This is actually 
          pretty amazing: a computer-driven, virtual environment can fool the 
          body well enough to cause some of its most basic support systems to 
          become confused. This didn't happen twenty years ago with <b>Pong</b>. 
          In fact, while people have been experiencing simulator sickness for 
          years in training environments (for commercial airline and military 
          use), only recently have video games become sophisticated enough to 
          produce the kind of virtual world that is realistic enough to cause 
          simulator sickness.</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+1"><b>Yeah, 
          but how can a <i>game</i> bring this on?</b></font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">What causes 
          simulator sickness? Surprisingly, there's no simple answer, and very 
          little research on the topic. The most popular explanation for the cause 
          of simulator sickness is the "cue conflict theory," which states that 
          the discrepancy between the stimuli that different senses detect causes 
          confusion for the body. Basically, this means that if your eyes think 
          you're moving, and your body does not feel any motion to support that 
          claim, you can become confused and disoriented.</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">This makes sense, 
          especially when applied to people who get sick while playing games like 
          <b>Quake</b> and <b>Unreal</b>. If you're totally immersed in the game, 
          and the game is presented in a first-person point of view that includes 
          fast-moving audio and visual cues, your eyes and ears are reporting 
          that you're running through hallways, jumping, ducking, and falling. 
          Your body, however, is stationary. While this seems like an obvious 
          distinction to the mind, it is surprisingly easy to fool your nervous 
          system. Which can lead to simulator sickness.</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Another theory 
          as to the cause focuses on the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR), which 
          is the part of the eye that is responsible for keeping eye movements 
          in sync with head movements. When your head moves to the left, right, 
          up, or down, your eyes move as well to compensate for the changing field 
          of view. If you turn your head twenty degrees to the right, for example, 
          your eyes will move twenty degrees to the <i>left</i>. The VOR moves 
          your eyes the same amount that your head moves in the opposite direction.</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">This might not 
          be easy to understand at first, but go to a mirror and take a look. 
          Look straight ahead and turn your head to the left and right a few times. 
          Your eyes remain fixed straight ahead at the mirror. Since your head 
          is moving, then your eyes <i>must</i> be moving in order to appear to 
          be staying in the same place. In fact, they're moving the same distance 
          (in terms of degrees) as your head is moving. Pretty cool.</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">There is research 
          that shows that virtual reality is not friendly to this reflex (the 
          VOR). In most virtual reality scenarios (including computer games), 
          there is very little eyeball or head movement; all of the action is 
          constantly focused right in front of the player. However, when there 
          <i>is </i>movement, it is most typically either only eyeball movement 
          or only head movement- not both at the same time, since the viewing 
          target is fixed in place.</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">This kind of 
          fixed visual target forces your VOR to either keep your eyes focused 
          on a single location while your head is moving, or to move your eyes 
          while your head is still. While these demands are not unusual (you did 
          the same thing when you looked in the mirror a few seconds ago), prolonged 
          exposure to virtual reality can cause strain and possibly even damage 
          to the VOR. </font></p>
        <p>&nbsp;</p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+1">(<a href="index3.php" target="">continued 
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    <td><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"><b>Credits:</b> 
      Are You 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, as it 
      can make you (or us, for that matter) really sick.</font></i></td>
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