Victory in Vomit: The Sickening Secret of Mirror's Edge

http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/commentary/games/2008/11/gamesfrontiers_1117

by Shamiq • 18 years ago

57 31 18 years ago

kirse• 18 years ago

Is anyone aware of research done into how mentally stimulating various video games are? Maybe someone with one of those open-source EEGs could hook themselves up and do us a favor?

This article comes at an interesting time because I noticed recently that playing games like Rockband leave me much more mentally fired up - and tougher to calm down afterwards (oh, the irony...) - versus playing games like Team Fortress 2.

My guess is that it'd be correlated to how much direct focus the game requires. Obviously one can't do much else when they're concentrated on getting thousands of colored dots played perfectly.

jrockway2• 18 years ago

I noticed recently that playing games like Rockband leave me much more mentally fired up

I think it could have something to do with the music. I've been playing Geometry Wars 2 a lot recently simply because I enjoy the music so much. After I finish the "Sequence" mode, it is very hard to come down from the "high" -- the combination of exciting music and intense concentration is something I really enjoy. Compare this to games like Mass Effect that are fun, but I don't really feel stimulated... it's more like watching TV.

Anyway, it's too bad that many people dismiss video games as toys for kids and never get to experience this.

marvin• 18 years ago

Guitar Hero forces you to perform at peak capacity motor-coordination-wise. First person shooters do not - although if you play something with a high pace and rankings (like the Gun-game mod to Counter-Strike) you can get pretty much the same effect.

kqr2• 18 years ago

I wonder if watching someone else play makes you feel queasy too, ala Cloverfield:

http://www.webmd.com/news/20080122/whats-behind-cloverfield-...

gaius2• 18 years ago

Heh, this is nothing new. I remember playing Descent 15 years ago, standing up from the PC and promptly falling over. Never actually threw up tho'!

Prrometheus• 18 years ago

Descent used to scare me, like no scary game ever did. I guess it was the sense of 360-degree immersion.

My sister tapped me on the shoulder once when I was playing and I literally jumped out of the chair (with the headphones still on, which wasn't comfortable).

DaniFong• 18 years ago

The same sense was there in Alien vs. Predator (1 & 2), only worse. I only played it once. Never again!

mattmaroon6• 18 years ago

Sounds like a very novel and intricate way to make a game that sucks. Fascinating technology, perhaps, but who wants digital ipecac?

This is what happens when people think "I wonder if we can do this?" without thinking "I wonder if we should do this?". Or so I would glean from this article. Haven't actually played it.

ivank• 18 years ago

I'm guessing it'll be much more tolerable on the PC, once you crank up the FOV and sit close enough to your monitor. The console is just a bad setup for this sort of thing.

jrockway2• 18 years ago

Why? My console is attached to a much bigger screen than my PC.

(FWIW, I usually sit in a desk chair close to my TV when playing console games. If you think your monitor fills your field of view...)

LogicHoleFlaw3• 18 years ago

It depends on your setup. The game itself already has a pretty wide FOV. I'm playing on a 73" widescreen TV and the sense of immersion is impressive.

ojbyrne• 18 years ago

After the vomit reference, the article goes on to describe some intriguing things about the game.

mattmaroon6• 18 years ago

Can any amount of intrigue make you want to play a game that literally makes you sick?

swombat2• 18 years ago

What are you on about dude? Why would the visual immersion make the game suck?

mattmaroon6• 18 years ago

Why would one want to play a game that makes them vomit?

mattmaroon6• 18 years ago

For once I'm curious so I'll ask: why the downmodding? I was questioning whether any amount of novelty could make a game worth it if it literally makes people vomit, since presumably that's a pretty big no-vote.

Normally when I get a comment this low I can just attribute to either Apple fanboyism or a general lack of humor. This one has me a bit stumped.

Shamiq• 18 years ago

I'm guessing it's the "Haven't actually played it" you stuck at the end of your post.

robg• 18 years ago

Seeing your body parts coming into and out of view is critical. That's subtle but necessary to really fool your brain. I've always been amazed how much first-person games are more like a camera moving through space than a body.

That said, you can do a decent job hacking the brain without body parts, but they're really powerful. I remember testing a VR elevator that lifted me 100 feet into the air. I felt like I was off the ground but when looking down I didn't see my feet. That lack of reality ruined the illusion. It created a representational void where there shouldn't have been one.

hugh• 18 years ago

Who wrote this title? Is there some guide out there to getting attention on social news sites which states that every submission needs to contain the word "amazing" or "secret"?

What's the "secret"? That Mirror's Edge will make you vomit? That's no secret -- in fact, the first line of the article is:

By now you have probably heard the warning: Playing Mirror's Edge will make you vomit

DougBTX• 18 years ago

The "secret" is a bit further down:

it's because Mirror's Edge is the first game to hack your proprioception.

LogicHoleFlaw3• 18 years ago

I must have played the demo to Mirror's Edge 50 times.

Proprioception (wow, that's actually in the spell checker) has been up and coming in video games for some time now. One of the first games to really pursue it was Thief 3, with it's "body awareness" system. When playing in the first-person perspective your 3d avatar is still being rendered, and you see your body in motion as you try to stealth your way through dimly lit alleys and try to get the drop on guards. Assassin's Creed also had a fantastic sense of "realness" to your body motion. It was played in the 3rd-person, but the rock-solid interaction between your very acrobatic character and the environment was the major selling point of the game to me.

A good friend of mine has a very difficult time with first-person games. I remember that he would have to not watch when others were playing them. The feeling of lack of control led to him becoming very nauseous. When he was playing though he had no trouble as long as he disabled the popular "head bobbing camera" features. I personally never had any problem with either situation - but I also can read in a moving vehicle and never get motion-sick, so maybe I'm an aberration.

What blows me away about Mirror's Edge is how effective it is at simulating this sense of self. When I'm running along and leap across a 20-foot void between buildings and tuck into a roll when I land, I see my arms and legs curl up and see the perspective do a slightly off-kilter 360 as I pull my neck in. Amazingly, this is entirely non-disorienting. I know exactly where the terrain lies when I get up and keep running along at top speed. It's exhilarating. Doing a wall run into a jump kicking off vertically to land on the roof a floor up involves two 180-degree snap turns and yet I feel in control of myself the entire way up. Fantastic. Jumping off of a building into a rolling landing and then doing a flying kick to disarm a guard is an absolutely fluid motion. And my arms and legs are all in their proper place. The game developers nailed the sense of place and person in this game.

In real life I'm pretty awkward. Just... ungainly. In role-playing terms I'd have high dexterity but low agility - fine motor coordination comes much more naturally to me. I think that this imbalance is part of why Mirror's Edge appeals to me so much. It allows me to take part in actions that are otherwise unavailable to me. That's part of the allure of video games, and even all fiction. It's the opportunity to step into someone else's split-toed running shoes.

If you get the chance, try playing Mirror's Edge. I know that I will be buying a copy when it comes out on Tuesday.

radley• 18 years ago

The game has several deliberate, well-designed vertigo and fatigue-based visual effects including blurriness, shakiness, whiteouts, blackouts, etc. The game is brilliant and easily on par with Portal.

FWIW: I think the article is a continuation of this joke:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/11/3/

LogicHoleFlaw3• 18 years ago

Do you have a good reference on the design and implementation of these effects? I'm fascinated by this game.

Hexstream• 18 years ago

If an acrobat that does real flips all day long plays this I'm guessing he won't feel sick at all?

cstejerean• 18 years ago

generally motion sickness comes from conflicting messages to the brain from various senses (typically eyes vs inner ear). Just like feeling motion that you don't see (ie. reading while riding in a car) can cause motion sickness, so can the opposite: seeing motion that is not happening. Not sure how doing flips all day would make one less prone to motion sickness from this game.

Victory in Vomit: The Sickening Secret of Mirror's Edge

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