VR sickness has been one of the constants in every conversation I have about VR. Players who have never played in VR bring this up as an excuse to never have to like it or try it, because VR sickness is truly subjective and you can’t say that they are inherently wrong or lying. And while true, many people do experience varying degrees of VR sickness when the body and mind are at conflict in virtual reality, this is not a dogma that can be applied to the platform as a whole, but rather specific titles that misuse the medium.
I’ve only rarely experienced feelings of unease in a few select VR titles — notably those with lack of grounding and full range movement — I found myself getting queasy just watching the trailer for StarBlood Arena with all of its twisting and turning three-dimensional mech combat. If RIGS made me feel a little light headed, of course the first question I had to ask the StarBlood Arena team was “How are you mitigating and eliminating the potential for VR sickness"” Ask the guys at WhiteMoon Dreams about a technical aspect of their game — like preventing players from getting sick — and you’ll see their eyes light up as they answer in extraordinary detail. This is something they take very seriously and they’ve got a large number of mechanics and tricks in place to optimize player comfort, including, but not limited to, high frame rates, high resolutions, and creating focal points in the cent...