fps AND RSI

badcompany · 8 Feb 2011 at 23:16

I have been playing FPS on pc since 98 and just recently I have started getting pains in my left hand particularly in my finger tips and my index and middle finger on right hand. Basically my gaming fingers!

anyone else suffer from this? Is there a cure or am I doomed to console gaming?

Skillmister · 8 Feb 2011 at 23:17

I started getting this a while back when i was going through my fps phase and found giving my hand/fingers a good stretch every half an hour or so stopped me getting any pain at all.

JTrickle · 8 Feb 2011 at 23:39

Start investing in wrist rests or making those that you have work in better ways. Look at your elbow and arm level and the angle you hands are to the keyboard and how far into the desk they are.

You _do_ have something wrong at the moment. Thats why you have RSI symptoms, unless you really are on 24/7.

I swapped the mouse over to my left hand for home computer use some years back. Kept my (at the time) pain ridden right hand for mouse control at work. IIRC I managed to stop using the computer for a couple of weeks from both work and home on holiday. Quit FPS gaming for about 1/2 a year. Was forced too.

Took up other hobbies for a bit, but changed to my left hand for browsing etc. Just managed to keep my right hand going at work with wrist rests and it started to get better over time. They say proper carpel tunnel never truly repairs itself, and my right hand will always start to hurt a little bit again if I spend a day at work without the wrist rest typing [or a full day at home fpsing wrist wrest or not].

So I went left handed for home computer use. It was like watching your mum use a computer to begin with. But didnt take long before I could use turn based games. Couldnt play FPS or RPS for >6 months, though as I said I turned to other hobbies. Gradually over time my left hand has become equally skilled as my right and I can manage RSI symptoms down to almost nothing with correct seating/hand and arm/elbow rest positioning (your right hand still has to work the asdw etc).

bhavv · 9 Feb 2011 at 03:40

I have my right hand knackered with RSI in the ulnar nerve at the wrist, but it wasnt from playing games, it was from playing too much Piano.

It doesnt hurt much now, just a little sore and I can use the PC fine, I just had to stop playing the Piano though

Sometimes my little finger and half of the ring finger get sore, and the tube in that side of the wrist gets swollen + painful. Its completely remedied with a wrist glove though and I can use the PC all day long, just no more piano.

Tefal · 9 Feb 2011 at 04:02

This is the first sign of The Gay.

Man up before it spreads.

Rroff · 9 Feb 2011 at 04:06

Something I've mercifully been spared of so far - which I'm a bit suprised by - 10+ years of fps gaming and a lot of time spent programming and so far no sign of it, some of my friends haven't been as lucky.