Guild Wars 2

Hello as per the title i’m getting nasty headaches playing HoT, i’ve played nearly 4000 hours in GW2 and never suffered from this and 3 hours in Heart of Thorns and i have a splitting headache..

I had to log out, anyone know why and whats changed?

I really wouldn’t seek medical help on a gaming forum.
If you are spending too long staring at a monitor it could be affecting you visually and mentally. Spending some time away from monitor/game could help.
In case it’s an embolism or something my advice would be to see an actual doctor.

Try going to orr or silverwastes for a similar amount of time, people can get a headache from stress or general annoyance :P

General Health.9678:

I really wouldn’t seek medical help on a gaming forum.
If you are spending too long staring at a monitor it could be affecting you visually and mentally. Spending some time away from monitor/game could help.
In case it’s an embolism or something my advice would be to see an actual doctor.

4000 hours in GW2 original and only 3 hours in HoT with a headache obviously something changed, my headache has subsided now since i left the game but i’ve been playing my revenant all week in original GW2 for hours straight with no headaches..

Only today it effected me and only since i joined hot..

Try going to orr or silverwastes for a similar amount of time, people can get a headache from stress or general annoyance :P

Felt like a motion sickness headache to me, i’m not sure why hot affects me but original doesn’t.

Dante.1508:

Hello as per the title i’m getting nasty headaches playing HoT, i’ve played nearly 4000 hours in GW2 and never suffered from this and 3 hours in Heart of Thorns and i have a splitting headache..

I had to log out, anyone know why and whats changed?

more likely the headache is because you are not enjoying hot and keep dying because you have not played for years. PS, 4000 hours and you quit 2 years ago, the maths is impressive lol

this may help though:

http://kidshealth.org/en/teens/simulator-sickness.html

Hmm, some of the adventures make me physically uneasy. Doesn’t seem to happen anywhere else.

I haven’t had that issue in HoT, but the few days I played of BDO gave me a week of debilitating retinal migraines. Well, ok, it might have been other factors at work, but straining my eyes to see the mobs I was fighting, being unable to zoom out far enough, and having to hover my hand more over the keyboard due to wasd and combo requirements didn’t help.

So if HoT is doing that to you (and you didn’t just happen to get a headache by coincidence for non-game reasons — like the weather got nice and you opened windows and allergies hit, or you ate something your body didn’t like), then think about what is disturbing you in those maps. I’ve seen some call them claustrophobic, though I don’t feel that way as I have a far zoom and vertical offset on my camera, along with as little collision detection as possible so my camera doesn’t bounce a lot.

Are you tensing your neck due to feeling something might attack at any moment? Peering harder at the screen to find mobs? Blinking less often? Is your camera close to your character so you get a lot more motion from the uneven terrain as you run over it? Once you have some likely culprits for the headache — again assuming it is from the game and not a coincidence, as one time getting a headache after 3 hours of play does not prove it was the game — you can work to ease them and see if that helps.

If HoT maps are different for you than Tyria maps, it might be the extra lag from all the dense environment in the jungle. If your eyes track across visuals that blur for you from lag , it can give you a headache. That might be the difference.

Celtic Lady.3729:

If HoT maps are different for you than Tyria maps, it might be the extra lag from all the dense environment in the jungle. If your eyes track across visuals that blur for you from lag , it can give you a headache. That might be the difference.

I see, i’m actually 42 and wear glasses. To give you an idea i guess. i’m not sure i noticed the maps seem different to Tyria ones they are less flat to me.

I haven’t had that issue in HoT, but the few days I played of BDO gave me a week of debilitating retinal migraines. Well, ok, it might have been other factors at work, but straining my eyes to see the mobs I was fighting, being unable to zoom out far enough, and having to hover my hand more over the keyboard due to wasd and combo requirements didn’t help.

So if HoT is doing that to you (and you didn’t just happen to get a headache by coincidence for non-game reasons — like the weather got nice and you opened windows and allergies hit, or you ate something your body didn’t like), then think about what is disturbing you in those maps. I’ve seen some call them claustrophobic, though I don’t feel that way as I have a far zoom and vertical offset on my camera, along with as little collision detection as possible so my camera doesn’t bounce a lot.

Are you tensing your neck due to feeling something might attack at any moment? Peering harder at the screen to find mobs? Blinking less often? Is your camera close to your character so you get a lot more motion from the uneven terrain as you run over it? Once you have some likely culprits for the headache — again assuming it is from the game and not a coincidence, as one time getting a headache after 3 hours of play does not prove it was the game — you can work to ease them and see if that helps.

It could be as you say i guess, i am trying to survive 24/7 which to me isn’t fun at all honestly.. But i do get nasty motion sickness in FPS games and flight simulators like Decent.

Never had an issue in an mmorpg before till this expac.

When’s he last time you checked your blood pressure? If you’re undiagnosed high BP or borderline, the higher stress from more difficult mobs may be causing it to elevate. That can cause headaches.

IndigoSundown.5419:

When’s he last time you checked your blood pressure? If you’re undiagnosed high BP or borderline, the higher stress from more difficult mobs may be causing it to elevate. That can cause headaches.

I must see a doc i guess i know i was checked a few months ago and everything was fine, could be stress i guess. I’ll book a date when i can afford it.

Could be framerate. Low framerate can sometimes cause headaches in action games.

Sometimes, personal experience can be worth a thousand Phds.

A guy walks into the doctors office and says “Doctor it hurts when I do this.” Doctor says “Stop doing that.”

Dante.1508:

Hello as per the title i’m getting nasty headaches playing HoT, i’ve played nearly 4000 hours in GW2 and never suffered from this and 3 hours in Heart of Thorns and i have a splitting headache..

I had to log out, anyone know why and whats changed?

Not enough information to figure the cause.

1) are you prone to headaches, or are they unusual for you
2) if you are prone to headaches, do you know the triggers for them

I’m going to take a guess that emotions are the trigger here. If you’re finding those maps more frustrating than enjoyable then that might be it. 3 hours of frustration can certainly trigger headaches. More generally, maybe you need to be taking more breaks. Getting up and walking around for a couple of minutes every hour to relieve physical stress. Eating a bit of food or drinking water might help. Stopping when you feel a headache trigger and thinking about how you are feeling right then or what sort of things are going on would be your best bet to figure out the causes of the headaches.

Celtic Lady.3729:

Sometimes, personal experience can be worth a thousand Phds.

I’m assuming you’re the type of person who thinks a google search is soooo much better then legitimate medical expertise.

sevenDEADLY.5281:

Celtic Lady.3729:

Sometimes, personal experience can be worth a thousand Phds.

I’m assuming you’re the type of person who thinks a google search is soooo much better then legitimate medical expertise.

No, I’m not and that isn’t what I’m referring to. Nice try, though.

Yargesh.4965:

A guy walks into the doctors office and says “Doctor it hurts when I do this.” Doctor says “Stop doing that.”

I actually had a doctor tell me this once.

3 months later, my family received a notice in the mail that this doctor had been fired.

Apparently, the clinic he worked for didn’t think this was an acceptable process for diagnosis and/or treatment.

Well, if I had to suffer this piece of kitten they call HoT (“hot kitten” ^^), probably I myself would facepalm pretty hard. xD Get it, see? Facepalm. Headache. Anyone? …
No? :/

sevenDEADLY.5281:

Celtic Lady.3729:

Sometimes, personal experience can be worth a thousand Phds.

I’m assuming you’re the type of person who thinks a google search is soooo much better then legitimate medical expertise.

If he goes to a MD (hopefully he doesn’t go to a PhD) the doc will just tell him video games often give people headaches. Since we know what GW2 is, we can offer suggestions about how HoT is different from core Tyria.

My guess would be framerates. Is BDO stressful on the comp and has low framerates as well?

And for what it’s worth, there are a lot of people with doctorates that play GW2.

sevenDEADLY.5281:

Celtic Lady.3729:

No, I’m not and that isn’t what I’m referring to. Nice try, though.

“I had a headache one time. Therefore I know more than 1000 PhDs.”

If you had actually bothered to read what people were saying to the OP instead of just reading the OP and commenting to it and then to people kittenponded to you, you would have seen that none of them claimed to be medical experts.

That all were giving their personal opinions on what may be causing or contributing to the OP’s headaches when playing HoT maps but not on core Tyria maps.

Something that a medical doctor wouldn’t necessarily know the specific details of unless they happened to play Guild Wars 2 and own HoT.

Like the player saying that the uneven terrain combined with a camera that’s zoomed in too close may be causing too many visual changes too quickly and that may be contributing. A doctor wouldn’t know that unless they played HoT.

Or that it could be due to squinting and focusing too hard on the map while trying to make sure you aren’t about to be attacked by a one shot attack or aggro too many enemies.

And PhD’s aren’t medical doctors. That’s MD’s.

I’d try HoT a couple more times just to confirm that it is linked. There are many reasons for a headache, and the fact one began while playing HoT may of been entirely coincidental. Correlation does not equal causation.

It could be a coincidence, but here are a few suggestions.

1. The colour palette in some of the zones is dark, you maybe straining your eyes.
2. Poor posture can cause cramps in your neck muscles, causing headaches. If you sit up straight and massage your neck, and the pain goes away or subsides briefly, this could be it.
3. As mentioned, dodgy framerates can cause headache. Even more oddly, for me, I have to play with vsync off in all games. When it is on, the smoothness of motion actually causes my eyes to hurt. I also turn off all motion blur effects and keep post processing to a minimum.
4. Coincidence – like I said, maybe it is just fluke and thousands of hours of gaming has finally caught up with you, it is entirely possible depending on your age. Im 32, and I’ve started keeping the lights on when I play because I have found myself getting headaches and neck pain from low light / squinting.

Hope you figure it out OP!

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Dante.1508:

Hello as per the title i’m getting nasty headaches playing HoT, i’ve played nearly 4000 hours in GW2 and never suffered from this and 3 hours in Heart of Thorns and i have a splitting headache..

I had to log out, anyone know why and whats changed?

Not enough information to figure the cause.

1) are you prone to headaches, or are they unusual for you
2) if you are prone to headaches, do you know the triggers for them

I’m going to take a guess that emotions are the trigger here. If you’re finding those maps more frustrating than enjoyable then that might be it. 3 hours of frustration can certainly trigger headaches. More generally, maybe you need to be taking more breaks. Getting up and walking around for a couple of minutes every hour to relieve physical stress. Eating a bit of food or drinking water might help. Stopping when you feel a headache trigger and thinking about how you are feeling right then or what sort of things are going on would be your best bet to figure out the causes of the headaches.

1) no i am not. yes its unusual.
2) Some games give me bad motion sickness, not usually Mmorpgs though..

To the above about Frames per second thats funny because i’ve noticed my Hot maps can give me as little as 12fps at times yet the original GW2 never dips below 60..

I also have been having many crashes in the forbidden city part of Hot. (mostly where the 12fps started too)

Core i5 2500 3.3ghz
GTX770 2gb
16gb DDR 3
Latest Nvidia drivers.

In case anyone asks.

I only have this issue with shooter-style games where you have to rotate the camera a lot. That was a big issue for me in Black Desert Online as well as Elder Scroll Online.

Are you rotating the screen a lot more? I know I had to do this to navigate those tunnels in Tangled Depths and land or glide to reach some key areas.

That might be the issue, but I’m no doctor.

I find, if a game has the FOV (field of view) set too low for my vision and viewing distance I get awful headaches that feel a lot like motion sickness. I play on a laptop so the screen is far closer to my eyes than if I were playing on a desktop system, so I almost always have to adjust it. There’s a setting under General settings. You can try and raise it and see if that helps?

If you haven’t already, try turning off post processing effects in the visual settings. This helped me with similar issues.

If migraines/headaches aren’t a usual thing for you and you keep having them- don’t ignore them. Have a good one.