When immersed in the flow of an enthralling game, you wouldn’t actually stop to consider whether gaining those virtual points is worth it, while your eyesight is being permanently ruined in the process. For the past few decades we’ve seen an epidemic of worsening eyesight. While this is great for the revenue of various companies, I believe it’s time we do things more responsibly. It’s time to make it a standard practice for every game to have an algorithm which pauses the game and allows players to close their eyes to rest periodically.
If you aren’t already familiar with The Real Cure for Eye Strain, I suggest reading it first.
Possible for multiplayer games too
With single player games it’s simple enough for the algorithm to start assessing whether to pause the game or not as the timer approaches 20 minutes. For example, the game shouldn’t pause just when the character is jumping over a pool of lava. However, for multiplayer games, synchronizing the pause is difficult due to latency. With good engineering, even this can be accomplished. For example, in a shooting game, as the timer approaches 20 minutes, an audio cue and a visual cue (like a slightly dimmed screen) could inform players that it’s almost time for a rest break, and during the last two seconds before the break, the game can be slowed down so that timers can be synchronized among all players. When it’s time for the break, a shield can be created around all players, to prevent anything from affecting them, and all players and game elements can be frozen. When players join a game server, they could collectively agree to what duration of gaming and rest intervals they are comfortable with.
I’m sure you could come up with more creative ways of integrating a rest timer into games and incentivizing players to take rest. Toilet breaks are an obvious incentive. In strategy games, when keeping the eyes closed during the rest breaks, it gives time to think of alternate strategies of defeating the opponent, which it’d be difficult to think of, during the heat of the battle.
An alternative…
…is to design games with levels or missions that can be completed in less than 20 minutes, and the player can be offered a break during the next level/mission’s loading screen. I know not all games can be designed like this. I’m merely brainstorming.
Of course players will be annoyed by mandatory breaks. In the same way that kids will be annoyed at not being allowed to eat too many chocolates. In time, they will realize why it’s necessary for their own good, to force themselves to take those breaks. This topic needs to be brought up in gaming conferences/expo’s/magazines. I’m sure no gamer enjoys becoming a slave to having to wear spectacles/contact-lenses lifelong. When eye strain gets chronic, the pain around the eyes remains all day long, even when not using the computer, and can persist for an entire decade (as it happened to me).
Misconceptions about eye strain
People still live with the illusion that the 20–20–20 rule and blue light filters or new spectacles will help them prevent eye issues. When I tell them about The Real Cure For Eye Strain, I get replies about misconceptions that the problem is genetic (which it couldn’t be, since genes cannot change in such a rapid way), or that eye drops and sufficient blinking would suffice, or that exercising would help, or that some special monitor or keyboard and mouse would help. *sigh* I realize it’s going to take some time to get people to understand which muscles are getting fatigued, and how periodic breaks where they close their eyes to rest, proper nutrition and good sleep can help prevent problems before they even need a cure.
Help people heal. Prioritize health; not wealth.
It’s easy to put the onus on people to take rest. Similar to how you could say that it’s upto people to drive vehicles safely. Still, it helps to have seat belts and air bags. In the same way, game engines need tools and features built in to make it easier for programmers to incorporate rest breaks. Kids and even adults often don’t understand the consequences of long hours of gaming, and end up permanently ruining their vision. I know game studios would not want to give players a chance to get distracted from the game, but we really need to create a better world where health is valued more than wealth and entertainment. There are already many research papers which speak of the negative consequences of long hours of gaming.
We’ve been taking our eye health too casually. Myopia is not normal. Doctors need to understand that with sleep loss and excess computer use, the extraocular muscles end up severely strained. The only way to cure that is to get proper sleep and rest. Nothing else works. I’ve been through it and had to discard a lot of misinformation to recover. The need to wear spectacles is a massive danger sign that the eyes are severely affected and that one needs to immediately start a regimen of getting proper sleep and rest. The progression of myopia is an even bigger danger signal that our eyes aren’t able to cope with the torture we are putting them through. Our eyes are not evolved to keep staring in one direction for too long.
Parents can actually do a lot to save their children from poor vision. Whether it’s office work or school or gaming, let us start taking concrete steps to build healthy practices and standard procedures to prevent people from having to even need spectacles. Normal vision is too precious a gift to ruin.
