Skyrim Makes Me Sick

Those of you who either talk a lot with me, watch my videos, or interact with me a lot on the forums may know that I have not completely enjoyed Skyrim. I guess it was a combination of many things, one of which is that I did have high expectations and didn't really feel like they were entirely met. I don't have a phenomenal gaming computer (in fact, I have a MacBook Pro running Windows Vista on a partition) so the graphics settings aren't exactly great (but I can still run it at moderate settings fairly well) so maybe that's why, but I felt like the game felt... lifeless. It tried to copy real life so much that it lacked vibrance. Also factor in the fact that it takes place in the Nordic regions where there naturally is just a lot of white and brown and you get a rather... colourless game. The combat feels way too boring though some people have recommended playing a melee or bow character instead of my customary mage. As a mage, so far it's just pressing L&R mouse buttons together and just pointing it. I don't really feel engaged at all with the story and I just feel a bit lost as to who my character is. Usually I can just invent something and I get attached to my characters easily... but not so with Skyrim.

There. You have the bulk of my complaints with Skyrim. However, the biggest one is that Skyrim just makes me sick. Literally. When I play Skyrim I feel nauseous and the hollow between my eyes and brow bone start hurting. The first time I ever encountered a game I felt physically ill with was an LP I was watching on YouTube. I could not watch although I liked the game and commentator due to the fact that I felt so nauseous watching it. Since then I haven't had the problem. But alas, Skyrim enters my life and here I meet once again: another game that makes me physically ill. At first I didn't pair the game and the symptoms together but soon it became clear that playing Skyrim caused me to have motion sickness.

I felt a bit stupid. I mean really. It's a game... and I'm sitting here feeling motion sick because of it?! Of course the immediate thought in my head was "am I the only one who's sensitive enough to get sick like this?" A quick google search shows... no, of course not. In fact, there's a lot more people who suffer from video game motion sickness than I thought. It's not just the first-person-view of the game. If it was, I'd feel sick playing Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas too... but I do not. So what is it? A little article on About.com takes some guesses about the head-bobbing, weapon-bobbing, and lack of focal points but they freely admit their speculations are purely from their own experiences. I don't know what it is for me. I walk around without my weapons drawn in both FNV and Skyrim so it's not weapon bob. Do either of those games have head-bobbing? I never noticed it but perhaps Skyrim has it...? Google time.

Yep. In fact, the top results are people asking how to turn it off and one guy says his wife has motion sickness. It looks like FNV does not have head-bobbing, only weapon bobbing. So it's probably the head-bobbing. So after this revelation I have decided that I will no longer voice my opinions on Skyrim. It wouldn't be fair to the game; I would obviously be biased by the fact that whenever I play it I am in a state of physical illness. Obviously, I would not enjoy the experience and obviously that would taint my view of the game.

I just hope I can somehow overcome it or get around it so I can play what may be a quality game. I also feel very bad since someone gifted it to me =/.