A collection of quotes on SCREEN SHAKE

Dear Eq2-Community,

it was a very short adventure for me and I regret having to leave because of this issue, but before I do I wanted to raise some awareness on the subject. The people I know would just uninstall the game and move on, never having voiced their opinion on a forum, so this attempt is to help developers see a bigger picture they might have been unaware of until now. I cannot even imagine how many people quit the game right away over the years just because disabling this one option was missing - as it can cause extreme physical discomfort. As you already have guessed I am talking about the "screen shake" effect. No matter whether it is from our own spells, a mob dying, or just some big heavy boss moving around. When you become sick looking at the screen, you cannot play the game.

Now let me share a collection of quotes on the matter here. (The highlights are mine.)

These are specific to Eq2:

"I am new to EQ2 and the screen shakes from our spell effects are driving me insane. Can anyone tell me a way to turn them off ? The earthquake effect is too much for me. Thank you for your time and considerations" (Pew)
"Would like to know how to turn off camera shake. Starting to drive me crazy." (Ship-Wreck)
"I can't even play my conj anymore due to the screen shaking making me sick. EQ2 has sooo many options but not this one. Devs never considered this as a priority." (Sharann)
"It's zonewide, and it's very annoying to the point of making me stop playing after a while if it keeps happening. There's no reason why this game can't add a "disable screen shake" when every other game out there has that option" (Avithax)
"What is up with the huge screen-shake? Its been doing it for a couple days now and its really annoying." (Wurm)
"It's happening every few minutes in Outer Maldura, and it is annoying. I have no issue with people who like that kind of thing, but I'd love an option to switch off the screen shake effect, because yes it is bloody annoying. " (flameweaver)
"I was more referring to other screen shakes during normal combat. it's happening every 3-5 seconds and is very distracting, sometimes painful to the eyes." (Amaitae)
"Hello! Im a new player to Everqeust 2. I rolled a Conjurer, but whenever i cast that spell, whatever it is you start with at level 1, my screen shakes, or moves a little bit. Like the camera view jumps. It hurts my eyes and makes me feel a little ill." (Jomkiro)
"This screen shake is a deal breaker. i dont want eye pain and an upset stomach whenever i play this game." (Jomkiro)
"Screen shaking has been a complaint for years. I too wish there were some option to disable the screen shaking. This is different from spell filtering - I want to still see the particle effects, but disable screen shaking. It should be an option that we can change" (azcn2503)
"Hi, I've just specced for Aftershock, it procs almost all the time and constant screen shake makes me sick (naturally). I can stand the screen shake once every 3 minutes when I cast the 65 spell (and used to love it), but with Aftershock screen shakes all the time. Is there any way to turn it off?" (Elephanton)
"I would really love to know if there is a way to do this as well. My wife has motion issues similar to what you describe and I'm sure many others do as well. There really should be some way to eliminate this kind of effect in the client." (Skywarrior)
"Been thinking about playing EQ2 again. I have a 50s Templar and one thing about this game that always drove me INSANE is how when I land a nuke, the whole screen shakes to simulate the damage effect. Is there any way to disable this? makes me nausious" (vodka)
"I'm not sure where to post this but is there a way to disable screen shake? On certain spells, giants stomping on my head, ect. makes the screen shake and I'd like to disable it if i can. i looked but I can't find it anywhere. Thanks." (akell)
"Did not SOE learn from Frontiers release?

I cannot find any way to turn off the blasted spell screen shake animations. My Conjuror has only one AoE and it shakes the screen violently. Makes me sick after just a couple of uses (have to close my eyes and wait for it to end). So I decided to try another class rather than put up with it (and constantly shake everyone's screens). Load up an Inquisitor and the first spell I get? BOOM screen shake every - single - cast! Next spell a nice debuff and yep more screen shake.

Gah.

Is there no class I can play that does not constantly shake the screen? Other than SK (don't see this with their abilities).

Looked on the web and all I found were other sick people asking how to turn this off... Hey SOE maybe if you did not make people SICK playing the game you might have more people playing it!

/rant" (VCNews)

Here is a video for those who need to get an extreme version, to maybe understand what it's like for people sensitive to it: https://www.twitch.tv/neiloch/v/10542819


Sources:
http://archive.eq2wire.com/showthread.php?t=164089
https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq2/index.php?threads/how-to-disable-camera-shake.540816/
https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq2/index.php?threads/screen-shake-in-thalumbra.567888/
https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq2/index.php?threads/what-is-up-with-the-huge-screen-shake.567218/
https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq2/index.php?threads/spell-screen-shaking.559415/
http://archive.eq2wire.com/showthread.php?t=443626
http://archive.eq2wire.com/showthread.php?t=441275
http://archive.eq2wire.com/showthread.php?t=419447
http://sknights.guildlaunch.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10042626

I'll look at adding an option to disable this.

Well, this would be a successful resurrection of the original post if this actually gets implemented.

This option will be on Test server today after it updates ( under "Camera" in advanced options ).

Very nice!

You rock, sir. Thanks!

Thank you very much! <3

Wow we been asking (well a lot of us) for this for years and then one day it finally arrives out of thin air.

I salute thee.

THANK YOU! I recently also made a post about this and figured it was yelling into a void. I truly, truly appreciate this.

A big Thank You!
I will finally enjoy my conjuror again as well as the rest of the game This is great news indeed!

It was handled well here though as an option. You can opt in or out of the shake.

That's nice. So go to the Options -> Camera menu and make sure it is turned on for yourself, then go ahead and shake your booty all you like.

Which I get and that's fine. No complaints on it. it just grate my nerves on occassion to see pretty much anything that adds any kind of life to teh game world gets requested to either be gotten rid of, or make an option, because someone has motion sickness, or the lights bother their eyes, or the bouncing on a horse makes them seasick, to the wave on the ocean in boat instances makes them seasick, etc.

like it the game world ain't kept to a mario level of interactions, it has to be either gotten rid of or new code made to 'option it'.

It's supposed to be an immersive world. If I'm fighting something the size of a damn house, and it falls over, damn right the world should shake some. if I'm ripping up the earth in what amounts to basically a controlled earthquake, yeah it should rumble and shake. you SHOULD bounce a bit when you ride a horse. the waves SHOULD be present and move a ship up and down some. if a creature the size of a Cheldrak or Kerafyrm comes marching at me, it should make the ground shudder.

It's great the they will make it an option for you. but that's still time taken away from doing something probably a bit more productive.

So, people who have a mental or physical negative reaction to a fluff feature of the game ask for the ability to opt out of that feature because it causes them actual problems in the real world should be quiet lest they bother you and your completely subjective personal enjoyment of the game? Because you may or may not have to toggle something on or off at some point in the future or maybe never and don't ever even have to worry about them enjoying the game differently from you anyways?

That is the message your posts are coming across with whether you intended it that way or not. Maybe work on your phrasing in the future.

...and perhaps your empathy.

While I do not personally suffer the negative effects that have been mentioned here, a friend that I play with quite frequently does. Not enough to drive her to quit the game, but enough that she dreads zones and spells that cause these movements. Sure, adding an option to disable these movements might take some dev time that could be spent elsewhere, but loosing customers means that DBG is loosing money. They loose too much money and there will be no game left to need more development. Dev time developing new content or dev time spent fixing issues like this. In a perfect world both could happen, but in reality choices have to be made and a balance has to be struck. It can be a difficult juggling act.

Consider the source. Seems to be the way he approaches a lot of things on these forms.

While I love immersion in a game, certain features make me motion sick. I absolutely CANNOT play FPS games, for instance, because they make me motion sick. Absolutely cannot. Any first person game will make me motion sick. Any game that locks me behind the character and the character bounces around, makes me motion sick. I CANNOT PLAY THEM!

If they kept the shake in the game, you can bet there would be numerous people quitting, because this makes the game completely unplayable for some of us.

Your lack of compassion and empathy astounds me. I hope that someday YOU get to experience the same lack of empathy and compassion for some sort of disability, so you can see it from the other side. That may be the only way you will ever learn compassion or understanding.

I don't lack empathy or compassion. But I also don't expect things to change because I have some discomfort. if riding on the boats in game makes you sea sick, or if the act of motion makes you motion sick, well I'm sorry for it. and it's great that they made it an option.

the problem I have is people complaining about it and then it getting flat removed or wanting it removed. there's another person on these forums that every other damn week, complains things are too hard, the effects bother their eyes, her reaction speeds aren't fast enough, and that everything should be changed, often citing that the 'playerbase' is aging and that such things should be looked at and changed. then we have the people that any effect in the game that isn't Mario level, causes them to get sick, or makes them queasy.

Just because I can empathize with you, and just because I can feel compassion for the situation, does not mean I bend over for your circumstances. I want a living world. I want a world that has things like a boat that rides the waves, or horses that simulate how it actually is to ride a horse, or take into account the size of some of these creatures and the kinds of spells your doing. and if that means the playerbase shrinks by 5% because of it, that's a loss I'm willing suck up.

Don't mistake me for lacking empathy and compassion just because I don't want to risk losing immersion because a small part of the playerbase can't handle something. like I said I was glad they took the time to make a toggle for it, rather then completely get rid of it, but this game has had that in it since day 1. if your still here 15 years later, it obviously ain't bothering you that damn much.

sounds like you need a day off.

And yes, I admit, I'm an old school gamer. I'm from a time before leveling baubles, and Marketplaces, and wiki pages, and custom uis, and when damn near everything is a togglable option. So yes, my bar for compassion is pretty low when people complain about things like spell effects, or travel times, or leveling grinds, or gating mechanics or having to play catch-up after taking off for several years, or people fussing about having to do older content that has a link to the new stuff.

if you didn't pay, you didn't play. if you didn't like the spell effects, well too damn bad. didn't like the motion effects? tough. took a few months off? don't expect to be playing with the same folks you were playing with when you left, unless they are going to help you catch up first. didn't like an hour long boat ride? then you better make good friends with a wizard or druid. cross country was a hour run. want your epic? then you better be willing to put in whatever it takes to get it, and you might as well not complain cause nobody is going to listen, cause they all had to do it too.

People didn't complain content was too hard unless it was the absolute highest tier of raiders, and even then, they would only call it too hard after they had exhausted every single possible method of beating it. single raid mobs took hours to kill, and no one fussed about it taking too long. So I admit I'm a bit of an old codger in that manner. I don't have much in the way of sympathy for people wanting to be catered to.

I admit I got that bias. So while I empathize and am compassionate to your situation, that doesn't mean I agree that it needs to be changed, or 'fixed'