Can We Discuss The Headaches Caused By This Game? Poll «1234567...Next Go

Cinebar

There have been several people here who early on stated things like this game gave them headaches. I was one of those people. I tried this game the first 24 hours and found the game to cause me some minor headaches. This was back in Sept.

I bought the game a few days after they patched in pools and ghosts. On good faith other content and gameplay interactions would be patched into the game, maybe, hopefully.

I played this game to get a feel of what is I did like and I didn't. I gave it a real long look. From the time of the Pool Patch until early Nov. I did everything it had to offer, from building a sharing on the Gallery to Creating Sims, sharing, and playing several households in one save to new games with other Sims and many times over rotation play.

During this time I can tell you I had nothing but cluster headaches, even when stopping play days later I would continue to have these headaches. They were so bad, yes, this is all true, to touch my head hurt and actually felt like parts of my head were swollen.

Why didn't I go to the doctor? Because I am aware I suffer with migranes and cluster headaches. These happen on one side of the head. Unlike sinus pressure which can be all over. I have med. for sinus and cluster headaches. But these headaches were more severe. I know some in PM know I said I couldn't get my headaches to stop.

For a long time I didn't relate these severe headaches with the game, but with the bright, white assault of the loading screens between lots to my eyes. Because of eye strain, I thought.

I don't play RPGs that allow you to rotate the camera really fast in a 360 angle in order to survive something like another character blasting you out of the water. Those can make me dizzy, so though I used to enjoy fight games when I was younger, I don't try them anymore.

However, The Sims shouldn't be giving so many these headaches. I blamed it on the bright white light of the load as it starts up, and the white light between lots, and the overly bright outdoors compared to the indoors.

Others have said it had to be the UI, maybe I don't know but I want to know how many here have had any headaches (for real) when playing this game?

I know a few of us reported this over in the bug section, but it seems no one is taking this seriously.


Poll: Yes, or No to any headaches while playing and long after playing?

@Anavastia I went ahead to make this thread since I see you mentioned in yours you have very bad headaches/migranes now with this game, and I want this to be taken seriously since you, me and a few others who posted in the tech threads expressed these horrible headaches after playing the game. (I mean after turning it off, the headache doesn't go away)


ETA: I am photosensitive, not to the point of epilepsy but suffer eye pain, and severe headaches sometimes depending on what triggers these headaches. My skin is also photo sensitive, so I am aware most of the time what has triggered a severe headache which may last for weeks on end up to months. It's no fun wearing long sleeves either, most of the time, but you do what you gotta do to avoid pain.

Wildley Curious

I don't know if I'm photosensitive per se, and I don't normally get headaches, but I am very sensitive to bright, garish colors and lighting. The first time I loaded 4 and saw the colors I thought "uh oh" and I was right. The longest I've lasted on 4 was 90 minutes before my eyes hurt so bad I was becoming nauseous. That pretty much ended this game for me.

sparkfairy1

Yes and not just playing but using the forums on my pc. I think it's the overly white and toxic green look everywhere-it's jarring and not at all pleasant. The forums I've had to turn my screen brightness right, right down to the lowest which makes it tolerable. But how could you enjoy a game that requires you to do so?!

ScripticJustice

I have had constant migraines in the past (even meds for it) and I can play Sims 4 for hours without getting a headache during or after, but everybody's different.
So, for me, it's a No

Anavastia

Yeah i suffered from a stream of headaches and migranes while playing. I had to strain quite a lot and the flashing of the notifications and changing from color to white actually seemed to make the game function like a strobe light.

So at that point I ended just crying because my head hurt so badly. On top of that continued to hurt into the 3rd day.

I think it could be solved if the ui adjusted for the monitor resolution and was placed in a manner that flowed and wasn't all over the screen when im concentrating. Equally hand some color so that the white flashing and trying to read the small print to actually cause me so many problems

I should be able to be comfortable gaming from high resolutions we live in 2014 the ui should be able to adjust.

I will say the bloom effect in game did not make seeing those icons Easier.

i was going to wait for the ask dev thread today to let dev's know what happened.

altad1

@Cinebar, I really feel for you, I get cluster headaches and they are the worst. I also get aura migraine, I don't have photo-sensitivity though. Like you I tend not to play for an extended period of time or I begin to feel nauseous and that's usually the precursor to my headaches. I used to be able to sit in a dark room quite happily on the computer but now I have to have the lights on it seems to help a bit. But you're right if this is affecting a lot of people this way it should be raised.

Cinderellimouse

Yes. I think the issue is the lighting. For me, it is still quite bright outside during daytime, which is fine, except the inside of houses are still so dark. It's the contrast that causes the issue for me, I think.

I find this funny, because in my TS3 worlds I would purposefully make the lighting very dark at night, because... well night time is dark, and I like having the welcoming brightness of lights that distinguish remote areas from built-up areas. I never had the issue before.

So, I'm wondering if it's because I can pan the camera around faster in TS4. So the colours and brightness is changing faster than when I would pan around slowly in TS3.

MsPhy

No, but I do not have a history of headaches of photosensitivity. I did read of someone with a history who pinned the problem down to the white loading screens.

dizzydee_k

I still find the game, especially the loading screens, to be too bright. I have to limit my game time to avoid headaches and sore eyes.

lyra

I do not suffer from headaches or migraines, but I have a lot of difficulty seeing the interior of rooms, even lit ones. I have to zoom in very close and sometimes I cannot see the floors or wallpapers. I think part of it is that the exterior (the natural world) is so bright while the inside is dulled.

Badmagic

Just stumbled into this topic, I have no idea if this could be related, my health is abysmal but I've been fortunate to never really suffer from some of the things people are describing here, at least nothing to do with headaches or visually stimulation possibly being a cause for issues but, I actually started a thread about an experience I had yesterday, with respect for Cine I wont link it but I'll quote it and people experiencing these issues can take a look, see if it could be a related or potentially some form of connected issue.

Badmagic wrote: »

You know on long summer days the world can seem too bright, too vivid? Almost like an oncoming stroke?

Just experienced that in the game, now, I've not played that extensively, tried it for a couple of weeks on and off shortly after launch, trying it again the last couple since its been patched a bit, to cut a long story short I started a 'fresh' world this morning with a fresh single sim, not sure what I'm doing with it so have ageing off, I usually play with ageing on, anyway, a couple of days in and the world seemed significantly... idk... brighter for the want of a better term suddenly, I don't mean the entire play but literally one sim morning to the point instead of putting the gardening off till after work I sent my current single author sim out to tend the garden first thing instead of the 'work' prerequisites.

Like in the height of summer when clouds obscure the sun, still very bright but then where the clouds dissipate suddenly its kinda like the volume gets turned to 11 if you follow what I'm describing at all.

Anyway, am I loosing my mind, (wouldn't be the first time) or... just what happened there?

I'm not using any mods that touch lighting or anything, just clothes, a couple of hairs etc, that kind of thing so...

After a couple of amused replies I had simply dismissed it as an aberration but on seeing this thread it made me wonder.

Zolt65

I find the garish color and the contrast total agony. I cannot play this nightmare without getting headaches.

Scobre

I've gotten a headache from the game and forums before. I'm prone to them because of my history of having epilepsy as a kid. There are some gifs I just can't handle, so I turned signatures off which helped a lot. In game it's like I have to put on my glasses for distance because the icons and text are so small in the game. So it's like the UI is bothering me. If I turn on the post processing, my game looks so blurry and it's so hard to see and can cause a headache too.

SpradaciSproj

Yes! There is far too much white - it hurts my eyes & gives me a bad headache. I've taken to wearing sunglasses while here on the forums, & only load up TS4 after patches to try to help people/replicate bugs.

Cinebar

Badmagic wrote: »

Just stumbled into this topic, I have no idea if this could be related, my health is abysmal but I've been fortunate to never really suffer from some of the things people are describing here, at least nothing to do with headaches or visually stimulation possibly being a cause for issues but, I actually started a thread about an experience I had yesterday, with respect for Cine I wont link it but I'll quote it and people experiencing these issues can take a look, see if it could be a related or potentially some form of connected issue.

Badmagic wrote: »

You know on long summer days the world can seem too bright, too vivid? Almost like an oncoming stroke?

Just experienced that in the game, now, I've not played that extensively, tried it for a couple of weeks on and off shortly after launch, trying it again the last couple since its been patched a bit, to cut a long story short I started a 'fresh' world this morning with a fresh single sim, not sure what I'm doing with it so have ageing off, I usually play with ageing on, anyway, a couple of days in and the world seemed significantly... idk... brighter for the want of a better term suddenly, I don't mean the entire play but literally one sim morning to the point instead of putting the gardening off till after work I sent my current single author sim out to tend the garden first thing instead of the 'work' prerequisites.

Like in the height of summer when clouds obscure the sun, still very bright but then where the clouds dissipate suddenly its kinda like the volume gets turned to 11 if you follow what I'm describing at all.

Anyway, am I loosing my mind, (wouldn't be the first time) or... just what happened there?

I'm not using any mods that touch lighting or anything, just clothes, a couple of hairs etc, that kind of thing so...

After a couple of amused replies I had simply dismissed it as an aberration but on seeing this thread it made me wonder.

I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get rid of a headache for weeks. I did play the game everyday for awhile because it honestly takes way to much time to get through the careers and aspirations, I probably quit all the jobs and then tried to see what else there was to do in the game. I hated the scripted play, however, I tried other things which were just as annoying and overly time consuming. This took me a long time so yes, I had headaches everyday, all day/all night and for several weeks after. They have just lately eased up because I no longer play it since mid Nov. other than to check the patches and see what had changed. But since I haven't played in a month or longer I no longer have that type. Now, it's just my miserable allergies. lol

Anavastia

For me it's a combination effect happening.

I have problems with colors and my eyes. So white with white icons for me are so very difficult to see. That i have to strain my eyes to see them. Than if the print is too small or light colored equally im struggling to find what is what.

When your eyes are flashing over a white background or too bright a bloom because the ai is all over the screen than you have to strain to see than that creates a strobe light effect which again triggers migranes for me along with the eyestrain.

The ui was not comfortable for me. I think the simplest and temporary answer is to give it some color for now. The next thing i would do is see if you can add the feature of allowing the ui to be moved around.

It's easy to solve the load screens, just take some of the wonderful concept aret you made and turn them into the background for the load screens. That is much better than the white background.

It's double my trouble when im having combination effects for my eyes.

06Bon06

The game, much like the forums is way too bright, Maybe they've toned the forum down a bit but the game is like having lights shone into your eyes. Who's idea was that in the first place?

blueasbutterfly

I'm very photosensitive and have both my computer screen and my cell phone extremely dim. I don't play games where a lot of flashy lights happen (relative to how dim I can get my screen, anyway,) and take frequent breaks. TS4 is irritating to my eyes in more ways than one. I'm not sure if it's the color saturation or the sort of blurry appearance/lighting style, but even without the loading screens, I got migraines.

About those loading screens though... ugh... I very rarely took my Sims anywhere because of them - even with my eyes closed, and my computer screen as dim as I could make it while still being able to see, the white screen glared through my eyelids. It was incredible. So when I was trying to reproduce glitches, I would actually semi-close my laptop and physically turn it away when a loading screen was about to happen. First time I've ever had to do that with any game. And the migraines were brutal... I take medication daily to keep them in check, but the power of the sims 4 was too great, apparently. So yeah, that's yet another reason I don't play. never even got to finish my bug testing.

luthienrising

I had a few times in the fall when the loading-screen white caused migraine twinging. I was having eyestrain at the same time on these forums, after the font changed. I haven't tried since fall to play Sims when I have the edge of a migraine (though I also haven't had one since the new year, touch wood!), as it seems to trigger the migraine worse. I can definitely pin what I was getting on the loading screens. I'd really like to see them changed to something like a scene from in-game, just as background. Not a scene cut-out and put on a white background - a whole scene. That would remove the sudden-change problem.

Sk8rblaze

I don't get headaches from it, but I think they should really change the color scheme for those who do.

Here's the logo of The Sims 4. I know they got the idea to make the logo blue from Olympus' blue plumbob, but it makes no sense to leave it blue now, as the blue plumbob is gone. It just seems out of place for TS4 as we know it today. They should reincorporate blue into the interface.



During Gamescom, this is how the interface looked. They should take this color scheme and apply it to the newer interface layout. It looks so much better, IMHO.





As for the loading screens, they should bring an overhaul to those too. I would like something similar to TS2's loading screens, and not a boring, oversized plumbob with a white background -- again, making this blue as well.

blueasbutterfly

I feel really conflicted about clicking the thumbs up on these posts.

Anavastia

blueasbutterfly wrote: »

I feel really conflicted about clicking the thumbs up on these posts.

why?

I would like the blue background as an option myself it's just easier on the eyes for me and i can see the icons better.

blueasbutterfly

Anavastia wrote: »

blueasbutterfly wrote: »

I feel really conflicted about clicking the thumbs up on these posts.

why?

I would like the blue background as an option myself it's just easier on the eyes for me and i can see the icons better.

Haha only because people are saying the game gave them headaches, I feel funny saying I like that. The ideas are good ofc would love the blue loading screen as long as they avoid anything flashy on it. I wish they would re-adjust the color balance or light or something in the game, too. I have my phone brightness on minumum and then artificially dimmed to 13% and the colors are still way too bright in the screen shots. Something is wrong with that.

luthienrising

I'd be playing right now if I could. I had to stop working because of a growing migraine. I'd like to be able to do something. I used to be able to play Sims with how I feel right now -- it was pretty much the only thing I could do, other than surf parts of the internet that don't have GIFs -- but I can't do that with Sims 4. (I know, I could close my eyes during loading screens, but the migraine itself actually makes it hard to remember to do that.)

CK213

No headaches here, but the combination of dark interiors, bright and over saturated exteriors, and that forced depth of field is probably messing with simmer brains.

Sigzy05

That's weird I don't get headaches when playing the game