How do you get motion sickness?

After the latest reveal that there are motion sickness settings in the Shadowlands build I felt the need to ask…

How are you guys experiencing motion sickness in WoW?

As far as im aware, motion sickness is caused by an imbalance between senses and perception.

I can understand it in VR games… You’re perceiving yourself in VR running around with your head bobbing while back in reality you’re sensing that you’re fairly motionless and for some reason your brain hurts itself in confusion for -5 HP and now you have to hit the PokeStop before the gym.

But a game like WoW is a 3-dimensional construct projected onto a 2D-plane. Your peripherals can clearly perceive that both yourself and your environment are at rest… So how does this work?

Im assuming to experience motion sickness your brain needs to unconsciously believe it somehow entered the Twilight Zone. I may be putting too much faith in the human brain but I find it hard to imagine your brain can be convinced it was sent to the Shadow Realm and panic accordingly because stuff is moving on a computer monitor.

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I don’t know about motion sickness, but whenever my character falls from a great height (or even jumps from one), I get vertigo.

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When I was 16, I got into a skateboarding accident—brain aneurysm that I fortunately recovered from. As I was recovering, I tried to play WoW and found looking at the game made me incredibly dizzy/nauseous like motion sickness.

Fortunately for me, this didn’t last long. Not everyone is so lucky.

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I’ve actually experienced this a few times but it goes as quickly as it came.

This to me makes perfect sense though. Im mainly focused on those that consider themselves to be in relatively good physical/mental health.

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I haven’t experienced it in WoW but in my last game, If I’d be super focused into the game sometimes while playing I’d feel a sense of nausea when my character was shaking around (first person viewpoint)

It takes a lot more to experience anything from a video game though. I’ve never gotten super sick from one. But there might be others who are more sensitive to it.

It’s most in real life, I hated going in cars and buses as a kid/teen for that reason.

I used to work with a guy who couldn’t play shooters because of motion sickness. As he described it, it was largely because of the motion on the screen jarred with everything around it being still. He said it was much less noticeable if he played on a larger screen or for slower games.

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I’ve never had it from WoW I don’t think, the most I’ll get is a headache or something from using some of the more jerky mounts. I probably do get it from things like the 3D feature on the 3DS. Boy is that thing awful.

I’ve only had motion sickness from first person shooters like Borderlands or Halo, because of the movement of the camera when the character runs causing the screen to bob up and down.

Oddly, I don’t get sea sickness or motion sickness in cars. It’s only fps videogames, which I’ve always found weird.

I don’t get motion sickness but it can happen pretty easily in video games for some people.

My understanding is the worst offenders are first person games, especially ones that don’t have a field of view slider(which can help mitigate the problem).

I have heard of people getting it in third person view games though.

As far as I know, for a lot of people it’s just kind of a quirk of how their brain is wired.

I’ve found that I get that too. I didn’t always have problems with FPS games; I used to be able to jerk the camera around with no issues, but I’ve noticed it more in recent years.

I’m not sure exactly why I get that. It is dependant on the game. I had no problems with Overwatch, where others will make me nauseous within an hour. So, I’d imagine it has to do with the game camera (motion blur?, other effects?) or the frame rate.

I do get motion sickness from cars if I don’t look out the window occasionally–especially if I’m reading a book (phones seem to be ok…). No problems with moving boats, but a boat stopped on the ocean will have me vomiting in seconds.

Geez, nobody here able to share their experiences with motion sickness in WoW while over on the Wowhead news post, seems like just about everyone who comments on that site has been suffering for years waiting for these options to be added to the game.

It’s probably more accurate to call it vertigo than motion sickness. My eyes have a problem with sudden movement and I experience symptoms akin to motion sickness.

I can handle normal movement, but if the camera swings too fast, or I turn to fast to walk left or right in the real world, my eyes take a bit to catch up.

EDIT: As a note, I can handle long car rides and have no problems with flying, so I don’t have motion sickness. But I do experience vertigo issues.

I remember the quest in Legion where you were teleported to the top of that mage tower. It’s really high up you see no land around you. Then Dalaran is already floating high up. Totally got some vertigo there.

i get that vertigo too, but i see it more as me panicking that i’m gonna die… then i hit the ground.

Wolf mounts are the worst.

Well I get the same thing in rl now (didn’t when I was a kid, but it gets worse as I creep closer to death).

My brother had a friend in middle school who got sick watching FPS games. Other than that I’d swear I’ve never heard of it. I can get motion sick for sure, but games don’t trigger it at all.

The only time i’ve experienced it was after a well-rendered VR game with normal movement and headbobbing. I decided to disregard a friends advice and played far longer than I should have.

I ripped the headset off and projectile vomited like I was inspired by The Grudge. Haven’t had the slightest hint of that feeling since.

This is what I was assuming as I wrote the post. Based on my 1st grade understanding of motion sickness, you’d have to be so thoroughly tunnel-visioned into playing WoW that outside of keeping you from dying spontaneously your brain is almost entirely focused on Azeroth.

My only issue with this is that I have moderate-severe combined-type ADHD and hyperfocus is something I experience multiple times on a daily basis… How are they getting motion sick and im not?

Cloud Serpent type mounts I find discomforting. Not actual motion sickness, but that swaying back and forth is something that leaves me feeling a bit queasy.

Vertigo can create the same SYMPTOMS as motion sickness. Which is why people often confuse one for the other. But I have no problem with car rides or plane rides. Can’t comment on boat rides as I haven’t been on a boat since I was like four years old.

It’s likely related to the action cam, it can cause a shake to the screen you probably would not notice unless you were effected by motion sickness similar to how flashing lights can trigger seizures in some players. There have been /commands to control the action cam, but now it’s getting UI support in the options menu.

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