EA Taps Ballerinas to Solve Game-Induced Motion Sickness

The video game industry has produced games that make us smarter, scare us to death and even help us burn excess calories. Now games can make players physically ill as well.

Electronic Arts‘ new title Mirror’s Edge is a first-person adventure game set in a futuristic police state where the protagonist is constantly on the run. Players can see their limbs wave wildly as they leap from building to building to dodge enemy attacks, while the ground sails dangerously below their virtual feet. When EA demoed the title, the mixture of sudden motion and height, combined with hyper-realistic graphics, left more than a few players nauseous (see a clip of the game play to judge for yourself).

To solve this problem, EA interviewed ballerinas to ask how they avoid sickness while performing spins. The answer? They keep their eyes locked on a small patch of floor. That inspired the development team to add a small reticule to the screen to give players a mental point of reference amongst all of the motion.  The small change seems to have worked as there are fewer reports of motion sickness and Mirror’s Edge is creeping toward the top of the sales chart — not bad for an experimental and barely established video-game franchise.

While a new genre of “sick games” is unlikely to take the world by storm, Mirror’s Edge is just the latest example companies applying “real life” solutions to virtual ones.  Some serious Rock Band drummers have taken to learning actual drum exercises to improve their game, and when developing the hardware for Wii Fitness, Nintendo was inspired by sumo wrestlers.  If the sales of these titles are any indication, we may see more gaming companies step up their research efforts by applying more real life solutions to their virtual problems. Just don’t expect your local plumber to help out with the new Mario.