Vibrating Controller Alert 247
mgibbs writes: "According to this article at the BBC, all those game consoles with vibrating controllers can be hazardous to your health. This would have been nice to know before all those hours killing The Flood in HALO; and here I thought all those pins and needles were from the exciting game play."
What next -- warning labels on Playboy? (Score:5, Funny)
Mark my words; I'll bet we see that someday...
Re:What next -- warning labels on Playboy? (Score:1)
Re:What next -- warning labels on Playboy? (Score:2)
When a Florida phone-sex worker developed carpal tunnel syndrome in each of her busy hands, she took the case to court. Now she gets her satisfaction from workers' compensation checks.
...and they say the american legal system doesn't work anymore!
Re:What next -- warning labels on Playboy? (Score:2)
Re:What next -- warning labels on Playboy? (Score:1)
WARNING: Masturbation with vibrating joysticks is not a safe alternate from using one's hand.
I play... (Score:5, Funny)
Note to fuckhead moderators: (Score:2, Troll)
Re:Note to fuckhead moderators: (Score:2, Funny)
Are you trying to say that Jesus is a troll?
7 hours (Score:1)
7 hours / day (Score:1)
Re:7 hours / day (Score:2)
Re:7 hours / day (Score:5, Insightful)
And they come home aching at the end of the day. My girlfriend works in retail, and comes home frequently quite unwilling to stand if at all possible. The fact of the matter is, repeated activity (IE, not sleeping) for prolonged periods of time can have adverse effects.
Heck, even sleeping can be hard on you. Anyone else ever made a transatlantic flight? The 7 hours in a seat (Even 1st class) is murder.
Re:7 hours / day (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, repeated use of IE will cause pain.
Re:7 hours / day (Score:1)
More like 21.
Re:7 hours / day (Score:4, Insightful)
Yup, and I've got a wicked case of CTS to show for the three and a half years that I worked in a factory. I did the same job for more than a year because I was faster at my job than any one else on the line and my supervisor didn't want to rotate me. So, I spent 8 hours a day doing the same job -- not just in the same factory, mind you, doing the same repetitive motion -- for more than 12 months. Eventually I couldn't even sleep for more than a few hours without waking up due to the pain in my wrists and hands.
Happily, I got out of there without having to have surgery or anything -- I know a few people who had surgery and never regained full strength in their hands. I did go through about a month of physical therapy and learned a few exercises to help relieve the strain. I can't use normal keyboards or laptop keyboards for any period of time without causing pain, though. I've stocked up on ergonomic keyboards just in case the models that I like go out of production. (The original M$ "Natural" keyboards rock. The new models suck -- one doesn't have normal arrow keys, the other is too clunky with all the extra function keys. The cordless Logitech ergo keyboards rock too...)
Anyway, factories are required by OSHA to allow workers to rotate jobs or try to make sure that their jobs aren't going to cause RSI. I'm not sure it's 100% possible -- the human body was not designed to do repetitive tasks for 8 hours a day for years on end. But they're supposed to make an effort to prevent it.
And kids, if your hands hurt because you've been playing video games too long then it's time to go read a f&*^%ing book. Pain is the first sign of RSI, and if you heed it you won't have serious problems. If you ignore it, you're in for a lot worse than hand cramps.
Re:7 hours / day (Score:2)
Re:7 hours / day (Score:2)
I ended up straining my eyes. . .
8hr reading sessions == one BIIIIIG ass headache!
Re:7 hours / day (Score:2)
Why didn't you slow down a bit then you stupid cunt?
Yow (Score:1)
"In the event of a dildo, the company always refers to it as "a dildo", never "your dildo"". - fight club
Anyways, I have been playing my beautiful Xbox for two months now and my wrists don't hurt.
7 hours a day? (Score:5, Insightful)
Seven hours isn't much (Score:3, Informative)
I don't think its a sign of bad parenting to let your kids do something they enjoy. Sure videogames are truly a time waster but finishing that RPG on my Master System or whatever was fun and rewarding.
Re:Seven hours isn't much (Score:1)
Re:Seven hours isn't much (Score:1)
Re:Seven hours isn't much (Score:1)
hmm ... as a teenager, I must be constipated, as I'm running dangerously low on free time.
Re:Seven hours isn't much (Score:1)
Re:Seven hours isn't much (Score:1)
Re:Seven hours isn't much (Score:2)
Re:Seven hours isn't much (Score:1)
What time is it when the big hand is between the seven and the eight, and the little hand is on the nine?
It's 7:45 .
See you later, kids!
Re:Seven hours isn't much (Score:2)
Jim
Re:7 hours a day? (Score:2)
RE: "staring blankly at a screen" (Score:1)
Only one case? (Score:3, Insightful)
Doctors are calling for vibrating computer game controllers to carry health warnings after a teenager developed a painful condition known as hand-arm vibration syndrome.
They are basing this freaking out on one single case??? Perhaps a study is in order, anyone want to get paid to play games all day?
Re:Only one case? (Score:1)
Re:Only one case? (Score:2)
Only in America.. (Score:2)
If you ask me, a gene pool is improved by allowing people to do the things only they are stupid enough to do. We definitely need to jack up the definition of "common sense" in our legal system to something a bit more common sense.
Well.... (Score:2, Funny)
1) He spent SEVEN hours per day playing games. Apparently for upwards of two years. This seems to indicate psychological issues in addition to physical ones. This should have been a warning sign, and someone (his parents, maybe?) should have gotten him to go do something else occasionally.
2) He waited TWO FULL YEARS before seeking medical help. If you've got a problem like that, I could see waiting a month; after all, it could just be a fluke. But two years?
Sorry folks, the kid's an idiot, and his parents aren't paying enough attention to keep him from hurting himself, possibly permanently. Keep this in mind: stupidity can be harmful to your health.
-Carik
So what's new? (Score:1)
Does anyone else remember how the old Atari joystick's base would cause a blister in the left hand? In my case caused by too many hours playing their crappy Pacman clone.
Same ol' story IE RSI (Score:1)
Another thing to think about is all those people who use tools that vibrate all day (Jackhammers etc.) I think they should be far more worried than a little vibration from a joypad.
Moderation (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Moderation (Score:2, Insightful)
or those crazy teenagers who sleep for seven hours in a day?
Re:Moderation (Score:2)
Re:Moderation (Score:2)
Re:Moderation (Score:1)
Re:Moderation (Score:2)
Re:Moderation (Score:1)
so.. how dose that help me when im 'whacking off'?
that means each session only really lasts for 45 minutes.. hardly enuff for it to be worthwhile
Re:Moderation (Score:2)
I seriously doubt that the vibration function has anything to do with it; it is more mild than what is experienced in those vibrating chairs, and they're safe. This BBC article is lazy, slipshod, sensationalist journalism reporting the ramblings of a lazy, incompetent, statistically ignorant medical doctor. They're proposing requiring warning labels (which I support generally, but they become meaningless if they're on everything) based on a single anecdote, a study with N = 1! It gives careful doctors with legimiate concerns and solid data a bad reputation when jerks like him are handed a soap box by the media.
Re:Moderation (Score:2)
Hazardous! (Score:2, Funny)
I guess I shouldn't jack off with the controller anymore.
Re:Hazardous! (Score:1)
(oh I can feel the karma draining away on this one...)
Re:Hazardous! (Score:2, Funny)
Think I paused?
I use slashdot 7 hours a day (Score:1)
Problems (Score:1)
Dr John Sallis, who treated the boy at Liverpool's Alder Hey Hospital, said: "It was quite clear this boy had major problems.
After reading this:
The 15-year-old boy spent seven hours a day playing computer games (emphasis mine)
I'd say, yes, but the problem with his hands is only the beginning.
The lawyers already smell blood... (Score:1, Troll)
Some of my former co-workers with whom I have kept in touch have been consulting lawyers in the area in the hopes of "demonstrating" that the vibrating controllers and other ergonomic no-nos committed in our workplace are grounds for getting some quick cash through the legal system. Because of the very nature of this sort of damage - that it is very difficult to prove whether or not somebody is feeling pain in their arm - they believe that it will be an open-and-shut case and that most companies will want to settle quickly to avoid further damage to stock prices and profits.
I don't wholehartedly condone this sort of behavior, but some companies [vasoftware.com] have such an atrocious employee relations record that they almost deserve the misery...
will
In all seriousness, (Score:1)
Recently, there was a post on penny-arcade [penny-arcade.com] that addressed a certain story: a kid accidentally shot his brother while re-enacting a scene from time crisis 2. Not the games fault, more like "stupid parents raise stupid kids."
What kind of moron would keep his gun accessable to his kid?
Crap (Score:2, Insightful)
I think that it's the whole concept of keeping his hands wrapped in the same position all day, using only the same muscles that caused it. Think of the stress on his eyes, staring at a TV all day. It's nothing but a wakeup notice that he should get a life.
Vibrating controllers...oooooooohhhh (Score:1)
No, wait, no it doesn't. Not unless the game involves riding a bicycle over railroad ties, or jamming a vibrator in somewhere.
They were a dumb idea from the start.
From the article... (Score:2, Redundant)
Joystick digit? Mouse elbow? This stuff is hilarious! How about CTRL-ALT-DEL-overextended-finger?
Only if you use M$ products... (Score:1)
same feeling as orbital buffer? (Score:1)
Re:same feeling as orbital buffer? (Score:1)
This kid must be an extra sensitive case.
Some links (Score:3, Interesting)
Weird phrasing...yet another example (Score:1)
"Sony, which manufactures the top-selling Playstation games, said it had never received any feedback or complaints about hand-arm vibration syndrome after 61 million sales world-wide of Playstations I and II.
It stressed that there was occasional, but no constant vibration during either game."
Either game? Either british usage is a little different in this respect, or whoever was summarizing Sony's position doesn't own either one.
One datapoint isn't valid statistical inference. (Score:2)
What you need is random sampling of many game players to see whether there is a statistical correlation between use of a vibrating controller and the health symptoms related to vibration. And of course, even given a correlation, you have not determined cause-and-effect; when two findings are correlated, they could have some hidden common cause.
Where did he find 7 hours a day to play?! (Score:1)
It seems to me that parental boundaries could have solved this before it got to this point.
and women? (Score:1)
Does this mean (Score:1)
"Major Problems" (Score:3, Insightful)
Major problems include: PLAYING VIDEO GAMES SEVEN HOURS PER DAY!
Re:"Major Problems" (Score:2)
(I love the smell of satire in the morning)
Poor Gameplay? (Score:1)
Seems to me that if you didn't suck at the game, the vibration injuries would not be a problem. One the other hand, you could look at the injury being better than being in a real car crash or being shot!
Evolution (Score:1)
Playing video games for 7 hours/day caused a problem. I say the problem was there before that. What's next? A label on coffee saying that drinking more than 8 liters will probably kill you? If you're interested, it's about 18 liters for WATER.
I think that we can proove the existence of evolution now (It is still technically a theory). We can see what happens to human race right now. We no longer need to fight for food, survival. We, as a species, live a sheltered life. More than that - we are now forced to protect people from THEMSELVES!
Right now I am ashamed to be human.
N64 (Score:1)
Re:N64 (Score:2)
wait... (Score:1)
Vibrating Controller Alert (Score:2, Funny)
Found my playstation controller in my girlfriends dresser.
What should I do?
fuck (Score:1, Offtopic)
I posted a fucking, God-damn comment the other day, and for some reason, it doesn't appear on my page, nor does it appear in the fucking damn article. I'm so fucking mad now. I must have spent an hour writing that fucking comment, and it was so good. FUCK! RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
.....Oooooooooooh well.
This just in. (Score:1)
Thank you.
Serious medical condition (Score:2)
I think we've passed the point where product liability ends individual responsibility takes over. Perhaps they should have a warning label because little Johnny spends so much time on his PS2 that he doesn't eat properly, and that's bad for his health as well.
Some controllers worse than others (Score:2)
Re:Some controllers worse than others (Score:2)
I always suspected that this was one of the reasons Sega's Dreamcast Jump Pack was so much weaker than the third-party vibrators. That, plus the fact that overly-strong vibrations can be too much of a distraction. You have to HOLD these things, after all.
< tofuhead >
Wait a minute... (Score:1)
Re:Wait a minute... (Score:1)
More seriously, I guess it isn't surprising that when you have multiple editors all with the same domain of responsibility, this is bound to happen fairly often. It is annoying though.
A Short Story.. (Score:1)
One day, as the boy was playing his favorite game, the Ghost of Christmas Future paid him a visit. "Ugh", the ghost said as he pointed to a newspaper. The headline read, "YOUNG BOY GROWS OLDER, HANDS ARE GOOFY BECAUSE OF VIBRATION CONTROLLERS, PANIC SWEEPS CITY". This struck fear into the boy's heart. The ghost then gave the boy a new controller.
The new controller used drugs and electro-shock to simulate real-life encounters in video games. Before his eyes, the young boy saw the newspaper headline change to read, "YOUNG BOY GROWS OLDER, HANDS ARE LOOKIN' GOOD, PANIC SWEEPS CITY".
FUD for thought... (Score:1)
What's next?
Studies have shown live organisms are statistically more prone to dying than other organisms
Jack sez: "on a long enough time frame, the survival rate drops to zero."
British Reporting? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:British Reporting? (Score:3, Interesting)
When Do The Lawsuits Come In? (Score:2)
Sony: safety you can count on. (Score:3, Funny)
It stressed that there was occasional, but no constant vibration during either game."
Thanks, Sony, I'm glad knowing that your two games, the Playstation 1 and Playstation 2, are the safest games I can own. Where is my Dreamcast copy of Playstation 2? I see the kids in the picture enjoying it!
The research in this article (one extreme case among millions leading to warnings) is astounding. Then again, they do have "WARNING: HOT" on coffee nowadays. Have to protect the public from themselves
Re:Sony: safety you can count on. (Score:2)
Re:Sony: safety you can count on. (Score:2)
McDonald's probably has the best litigation strategy of any company I've ever seen. Even though McDonald's was clearly wrong in the coffee cases in the early 90's, and had to settle out of court for a undisclosed sum, they successfully spun that the litigants were idiots that need "WARNING: HOT" labelled on the side of their cups, destracting everyone from the facts of the case.
If you want to know the real story of the McDonald's coffee case, here's a web site that has the details [lectlaw.com]. I have to admit, it changed my mind about the case.
Re:Sony: safety you can count on. (Score:2)
The people I know all assumed they settled to keep the people involved in the situations quiet (so as not to scare off other potiential customers). I never considered that they'd make them seen like less trustworthy knowledge providers too (*)
*: people tend to be neutral about information they learn from other people, unless they respect them (more likely to trust information) or don't respect (less likely to trust). Trust metrics are neat things
Acid Test (Score:2)
I think the acid test in this case is to ask the question "If a warning label were placed on the product, would it have prevented the injury?" In this case, I believe it is a resounding NO. The kid had a serious gaming addiction. A warning in the Playstation documentation, assuming he read it, would not have prevented this kid from sitting in front of the tube and playing for hours on end.
The remedy... (Score:2)
And get a christless life.
Two years of pain from an ELECTIVE activity?
I suggest a sublethal category for the Darwin awards. Oxymoronic, but necessary.
Only saving grace is that this slob will likely never be given the occasion to reproduce.
Damn those BBC censors (Score:2)
The BBC editors seemed to have left this tidbit out:
'The boy, known only to the media as 'Cowpoke Neal', is said to be the younger sibling of a well-known online personality. It is unknown whether or not the family member suffers from the same condition.'
One wonders (Score:2)
I wonder what the parents were doing every day not noticing maybe he should spend some time doing something else.
N64 (Score:2)
Seven hours (Score:2)
Vibrations can be REAL bad... (Score:2)
In October 2000, I helped set up a demo of a pulsejet engine given by Mark Pauline and Co (of SRL) - the demo was to show off the pulsejet, which was of a valveless design, and could thus run for a long period of time, and didn't have parts that would wear out (unlike typical pulsejet engines, which use a spring metal valve system).
Anyhow, this engine was loud - actually, that doesn't do justice to how loud the engine was - it was bone-shaking loud. When it was running, it was like your entire body - bones and tissue, all - was buzzing with its energy - which, it was!!!
Mark only ran the engine for a few minutes each time, when he was tuning it, or demoing it. He told us (the crew who was helping set up for the demo, which was meant to presage the Ultraviolence show in Phoenix, which never happened because the SFFD contacted the PFD, and...) a story about pulsejets, and why you never want to let one run for a long time, and be around it...
He said he worked on one engine a while back, and ran it for a long time, all the time making adjustments, etc - tuning the engine, basically. He said he ran it for 30 minutes to an hour, and then when he shut it down, he felt numb all over - something like having your entire body being "asleep" (imagine the prickly pins all over your body). He layed down to rest, thinking it was all temporary - eventually the prickly sensation went away - but what came afterward was much, MUCH worse - his nerves were hypersensitised.
Simply moving, or small noises, or puffs of air on his skin, would cause intense waves of pain. He said the condition lasted for a couple of days, then went away. Needless to say, he doesn't run his engines for long times any more.
I thought it was an interesting story. Could a vibrating game controller cause the same reaction? I doubt it, but they can't be good for you if left vibrating for long periods (and unless the motor was stuck on, why would that occur?)...
Re:vibrating controllers (Score:1)
Re:vibrating controllers (Score:1)
Re:your brain (Score:1)
Whereas doing arithmetic stimulated the parts of the brain involved in math. Gosh, what a surprise! And what does this stunning result show about the effect of games on antisocial behavior? Nothing.
The best part of the article is when he recommends that children play outside instead. Gee, I wonder what part of the brain that will stimulate? Vision and movement, perhaps?