Guild Wars 2

Ever wonder why playing GW2 can cause negative effects like headache, motion sickness, vertigo etc?
Watch this informative two part series here.

GW2 displays at 75º FoV.
What is your comfort zone?

1. 70
2. 75
3. 80
4. 85
5. 90
6. 95+

I have never had issues caused by computer games.

Another one which some people complain about ( in general, not in GW2) is when the camera bobs along with the head as the character walks.

But none of these kind of things effect me.

I dont get those headaches and stuff but I do know that the game looks way better with a higher fov, I tried the window mode thing and it looks really good. I know some people are having real issues with it though and I hope they can get a slider to choose there own option. Of course I would benefit from this too.
It would suck if players left the game because of this fov issue because I am one of those type of people that would quit a game if I don’t see many people running around and stuff. A lonely world takes all the fun out of it for me no matter how good the game is.
My real issue is the camera smoothing, I don’t like the feel of the camera when I’m moving. It’s playable but I’m sure I am not getting the best experience out of the game, it could be much better. Its been addressed and we should see this fix in the next build. When is the next build by the way does anyone have a clue? hope its this month.

I have a 24" monitor at 1920×1080, and I play at 90-100 fov whenever possible.

Also, if an issue does not affect you, that doesn’t mean it’s not important.

It would also suck if people left the game because half the players in PvP can see around corners by positioning themselves near a corner and abusing their enhanced FoV.

Liberis.9573:

I have a 24" monitor at 1920×1080, and I play at 90-100 fov whenever possible.

Also, if an issue does not affect you, that doesn’t mean it’s not important.

I’m on a 25 inch monitor… how do you know what fov your playing at?

94 degrees would be perfect from how I am sitting and my screen, I now always set my games to that except consoll-like games that are capped to 65 or 75.

Jestunhi.7429:

It would also suck if people left the game because half the players in PvP can see around corners by positioning themselves near a corner and abusing their enhanced FoV.

^This. And that’s basically what’s going to happen.

ANet has already acknowledged there are camera issues which can affect players, and they are working on them. They’ve also explicitly stated the reason for the FOV the game uses, and it will not change. So what’s the point of this thread? What’s the reason to continually bring this up. Asked and answered by ANet.

I think some of you want this game to fail. You are looking for any reason to yell “game-breaking”. This FOV complaint is a new one. ANet shouldn’t even acknowledge it, because its ridiculous. The funny thing is, one person starts a thread on this, and then a bunch of you jump on the bandwagon saying “oh yeah, I feel claustrophobic from the narrow FOV. I’m throwing up when I play.”

You’re credibility is lost. You’re finding things to complain about, and its becoming laughable. Go run home to your kitten. It needs a hug.

You can’t see around corners by changing the FoV

That explained why I was getting dizzy. heh. I didn’t know why that was.

I ended up moving the monitor further back, added a new desk lamp and turned off the FXAA and I wasn’t as dizzy feeling. But, seems some of that may have been un-needed.

But, I know that Anet already addressed that they would not change the FOV, so I think info like this is helpful to players in finding ways to address it IF they are getting dizzy. The video does talk about placement and distance; so that might be a good place to start on the user end.

And of course, standing up away from the keyboard/monitor every 30 minutes. Stretch and look out a window WILL go a long ways in helping health too.

The same tired old arguments get trotted out every time anyone raises the issue of FOV. It’s either “I don’t suffer from this so what’s the problem”, “this isnt a real problem, you can’t really get sick from playing a computer game” or the seeing around corners thing.

Firstly, if you don’t suffer then good for you, really. But why should it bother or concern you that those who do suffer want to ask games developers to take some steps to help? Do you also stand around in doctors waiting rooms telling patients “I don’t suffer from that so what’s the problem?”. You wouldn’t be adding anything to the discussion there, so why do it here?

For those who say it’s not a real problem, do you perhaps hang around on boats telling people there’s no such thing as seasickness? It’s a proven medical issue and something which wholly avoidable if games developers are willing to be flexible with FOV settings, as many thankfully are, but sadly not Anet.

Regarding gameplay balance issues, a FOV of 90 is not extreme, it is closer to how the human eye expects to see things in peripheral vision. It will not allow you to see around corners in most normal circumstances. No-one is asking for unlimited FOV adjustment, just a setting that is closer to natural vision and therefore less likely to cause nausea. That’s all. And besides the ‘competitive advantage’ argument is already totally nullified by the fact that anyone with 3 monitors can gain a FOV advantage without breaking the TOS anyway.

I’m sure people will say, Anet aren’t budging so why keep flogging this, either find a workaround (if you can) or move on to another game. Well, sorry, but the only way to get companies to make improvements to their products when they are causing genuine issues is to keep campaigning and point out why it doesn’t make sense for them to be so stubborn. So let’s put it in financial terms, which is all most companies care about.The bottom line is Anet will lose customers over this. Enough to hurt them? Almost certainly not, they’ve sold a huge number of boxes anyway. But why cut off any revenue stream if you don’t have to? People aren’t making unreasonable requests, people aren’t being entitled whiners, they are just asking a games company to be a bit flexible and find a solution to some genuine problems their game is causing.

I have a 24" 1920×1080 monitor and sit a little over 2 feet from my screen. I’m not experiencing any problems, so I guess a 75 degree FOV is within my comfort zone. The only time I ever got motion sickness from playing a game was back in the ’90s when I played Doom for the first time. I could only play for about 20 – 30 minutes in one sitting. I thought it had more to do with the frame rate, but when the speaker in those videos you linked made a brief mention of people playing Quake on a 19" CRT (which is what I had), that made me wonder.

So, something I’m not clear on — do the dimensions of your monitor affect the field of view angle? If I were to play on monitor with a 4:3 aspect ratio, I’m assuming that would have a more narrow FOV than a 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratio monitor, correct? If so, is the dizziness/nausia problem more of an issue for people playing on more “square” aspect ratios (even something as subtle as 16:10 vs. 16:9)?

Also, for those suffering from dizziness or nausia, would moving your monitor further back and/or zooming the in-game camera further out help?

I’m not trying to brush off or belittle the issue with any of my questions — just trying to understand.

Another nice resource to educate yourself with here.

This whole topic makes me feel like I play too many games or something…

because the ones who are affected by this most are the ones who have been playing games the shortest amount of time. You naturally adjust to everything in life, it’s called adaptation… if you’re unwilling to give yourself time to adjust to these things then you’re probably too impatient for an MMO to begin with.

My suggestion to those who get headaches or whatever but still wanna play the game – do so in shorter sessions. Nothing’s keeping you glued to the monitor for over 3 hours straight, get some fresh air for 15 minutes and grab a bite to eat… go back to the game and you’ll be fine.

Bvhjdbvkjf.1987:

This whole topic makes me feel like I play too many games or something…

because the ones who are affected by this most are the ones who have been playing games the shortest amount of time. You naturally adjust to everything in life, it’s called adaptation… if you’re unwilling to give yourself time to adjust to these things then you’re probably too impatient for an MMO to begin with.

My suggestion to those who get headaches or whatever but still wanna play the game – do so in shorter sessions. Nothing’s keeping you glued to the monitor for over 3 hours straight, get some fresh air for 15 minutes and grab a bite to eat… go back to the game and you’ll be fine.

Don’t think that has much to do with it to be honest. I owned one of the Home Pong game systems. Video games have been a hobby as far back as I can remember.

The FOV issue makes sense, however adjusting the gaming area in the mean time is probably going to be what is needed.

slazzy.7309:

^This. And that’s basically what’s going to happen.

ANet has already acknowledged there are camera issues which can affect players, and they are working on them. They’ve also explicitly stated the reason for the FOV the game uses, and it will not change. So what’s the point of this thread? What’s the reason to continually bring this up. Asked and answered by ANet.

I think some of you want this game to fail. You are looking for any reason to yell “game-breaking”. This FOV complaint is a new one. ANet shouldn’t even acknowledge it, because its ridiculous. The funny thing is, one person starts a thread on this, and then a bunch of you jump on the bandwagon saying “oh yeah, I feel claustrophobic from the narrow FOV. I’m throwing up when I play.”

You’re credibility is lost. You’re finding things to complain about, and its becoming laughable. Go run home to your kitten. It needs a hug.

FYI I got “infracted” for daring to question the validity of some of the ridiculous claims which were made about the effects of the current FoV.

It was in a thread where it was implied that increasing FoV fixes brightness / contrast, fixes the colour balance, makes the UI clearer and does all kinds of remarkable things.

Cerise.9045:

You can’t see around corners by changing the FoV

Of course you can. Do you know what FoV is?

Cernow.3974:

I’m sure people will say, Anet aren’t budging so why keep flogging this, either find a workaround (if you can) or move on to another game. Well, sorry, but the only way to get companies to make improvements to their products when they are causing genuine issues is to keep campaigning and point out why it doesn’t make sense for them to be so stubborn. So let’s put it in financial terms, which is all most companies care about.The bottom line is Anet will lose customers over this. Enough to hurt them? Almost certainly not, they’ve sold a huge number of boxes anyway. But why cut off any revenue stream if you don’t have to? People aren’t making unreasonable requests, people aren’t being entitled whiners, they are just asking a games company to be a bit flexible and find a solution to some genuine problems their game is causing.

Yeah… And I’m sure people allergic to lemons would insist that removing lemons from lemon tarts is an “improvement”. They can complain that the lemon is causing genuine issues.

Doesn’t mean that it’s actually an improvement to remove them.

WasAGuest.4973:

Bvhjdbvkjf.1987:

This whole topic makes me feel like I play too many games or something…

because the ones who are affected by this most are the ones who have been playing games the shortest amount of time. You naturally adjust to everything in life, it’s called adaptation… if you’re unwilling to give yourself time to adjust to these things then you’re probably too impatient for an MMO to begin with.

My suggestion to those who get headaches or whatever but still wanna play the game – do so in shorter sessions. Nothing’s keeping you glued to the monitor for over 3 hours straight, get some fresh air for 15 minutes and grab a bite to eat… go back to the game and you’ll be fine.

Don’t think that has much to do with it to be honest. I owned one of the Home Pong game systems. Video games have been a hobby as far back as I can remember.

The FOV issue makes sense, however adjusting the gaming area in the mean time is probably going to be what is needed.

Yeah a tetris champ might still have headaches from the FoV simply because that game doesn’t have one, much like your Pong example. I’d love to hear complaints from people getting headaches that have played through the entire series of Doom, Unreal, Unreal Tounament, Quake, Half-life, Counterstrike, etc etc

You play games with limited FoV, adjust to it, become unaffected. People using the medical excuses as to why it needs to change simply need to give it time was my point – and the fact that people aren’t all playing with the same FoV makes things unfair so whether or not it should be increased isn’t the first problem that needs attention. Anet’s on the right path with this one far as I can tell.

Bvhjdbvkjf.1987:

WasAGuest.4973:

Bvhjdbvkjf.1987:

This whole topic makes me feel like I play too many games or something…

because the ones who are affected by this most are the ones who have been playing games the shortest amount of time. You naturally adjust to everything in life, it’s called adaptation… if you’re unwilling to give yourself time to adjust to these things then you’re probably too impatient for an MMO to begin with.

My suggestion to those who get headaches or whatever but still wanna play the game – do so in shorter sessions. Nothing’s keeping you glued to the monitor for over 3 hours straight, get some fresh air for 15 minutes and grab a bite to eat… go back to the game and you’ll be fine.

Don’t think that has much to do with it to be honest. I owned one of the Home Pong game systems. Video games have been a hobby as far back as I can remember.

The FOV issue makes sense, however adjusting the gaming area in the mean time is probably going to be what is needed.

Yeah a tetris champ might still have headaches from the FoV simply because that game doesn’t have one, much like your Pong example. I’d love to hear complaints from people getting headaches that have played through the entire series of Doom, Unreal, Unreal Tounament, Quake, Half-life, Counterstrike, etc etc

You play games with limited FoV, adjust to it, become unaffected. People using the medical excuses as to why it needs to change simply need to give it time was my point – and the fact that people aren’t all playing with the same FoV makes things unfair so whether or not it should be increased isn’t the first problem that needs attention. Anet’s on the right path with this one far as I can tell.

Ahh. I follow you now. Sorry, I completely misunderstood your first post. My bad.

Arena Net posted in another thread about this and said:

“I’ve seen a lot of topics on this both here and externally so let me try and address it. The current FOV is going to stay because increasing it, while having some benefits for some players, has too many drawbacks.

1) performance suffers greatly because of how things are built and view distances

2) art suffers because of texture tiling, LOD problems and just general stretching from the fisheye effect.

3) gameplay suffers because positional awareness becomes less necessary in a game where combat is greatly designed around positioning.

There is a a serious camera problem, however, which is making some players nauseous. We believe a large number of these cases are not FOV related but rather due to bugs in camera smoothing. Because of this we are expediting a quick fix to this issue that is currently in testing and should see the light of day in the next build we do.

Jon"

taken from thread “Camera and FOV (field of view)”

I’d love to have an option added in the graphics section to change the FoV to something like 80-90 maybe 95. The FoV really bothers me at its current setting it just doesn’t feel right to me.

Striata.6739:

Arena Net posted in another thread about this and said:

“I’ve seen a lot of topics on this both here and externally so let me try and address it. The current FOV is going to stay because increasing it, while having some benefits for some players, has too many drawbacks.

1) performance suffers greatly because of how things are built and view distances

2) art suffers because of texture tiling, LOD problems and just general stretching from the fisheye effect.

3) gameplay suffers because positional awareness becomes less necessary in a game where combat is greatly designed around positioning.

There is a a serious camera problem, however, which is making some players nauseous. We believe a large number of these cases are not FOV related but rather due to bugs in camera smoothing. Because of this we are expediting a quick fix to this issue that is currently in testing and should see the light of day in the next build we do.

Jon"

taken from thread “Camera and FOV (field of view)”

I’d love to have an option added in the graphics section to change the FoV to something like 80-90 maybe 95. The FoV really bothers me at its current setting it just doesn’t feel right to me.

Well, as long as they stand by their word I’ll be happy.

But if they cave to the vocal minority I won’t be.

For anyone that is feeling nauseous while play since Arena Net is not going to fix this for you the only thing I can think of for you to do that isn’t going to cost you money like a 3 monitor display with eyefinity is what I do (I know this is not going to be possible for some but some maybe able to so here it goes).

I use a 50" HDTV for my monitor at 1920×1080 and I sit about 6-7 feet away which helps with the nauseous feeling but does not totally eliminate it. (I think it would eliminate the issue if I was able to sit 9-10 feet away). Now I know everyone is different and others may be more sensitive then I am to this issue. I do find the farther away I sit from the screen the less nauseous I feel.

Hopefully this will be able to help some, I know it wont help all.