Hey gang, Just spent the day playing Trials. On taking a break after a particularly lengthy session, I looked at the curtains to notice they were moving, growing and coming closer as I sat in my seat. I've experienced similar effects after a significant amount of time playing Rock Band, but the scrolling note charts in that game make the illusion more understandable. So is this a thing or do I have a brain tumour?

Yes. This is a thing.

This is a thing, but you also have a brain tumor.

And yes, it's a thing.

IT'S NOT A TUMAHH!

Ack I couldn't resist. Yeah that happens. I played Trials for a long time the other day and when I got up to get a coke I noticed that the cans in the fridge were moving sideways. Happened when I first started playing guitar games too. Hell it happened to me in college when I first played Dynasty Warriors. We played it for hours and hours and when we went to the caff for dinner I was seeing little red bars over peoples heads.

EDIT: @SpaceInsomniac beat me to the punch by less than a minute. With a video no less!

This also happens from dehydration. Hydrate yo' cells, dawg.

Don't drop acid before you play Trials

Uh, it doesn't happen to me, and i played it for like 3 hours straight the day it came out.

But, that happens to me every time i play Guitar Hero.

Well this all puts my mind to rest. I also now know that I should probably check out Kindergarten Cop.

Yep, as others said, it's completely normal. It happens to pretty much everybody when you have been looking at something that is moving in specific direction for X amount of time (as the time spent can be very different from person to person) - and then looking at something that is still. At that point your brain will be confused and tell you that the still object is moving.

If you hadn't felt like that after playing Trials then you're simply not playing enough of it.

This happens to me when I play Rockband for extended periods of time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris_effect

I had an allergy flair up the other day that set in during the course of an extended Trials session. :p

Probably not the game's fault but I intend to place the blame squarely on it anyway,. 'cause Way of the Ninja is an unhealthy thing to put in a game.

Hell, this happens to me if I scroll through too many movies on the Netflix watch instantly page.

I thought this thread was going to be about seeing hallucinations of trials bikes driving over any kind of geometric shapes in the real world.

For a while there, I was seeing tiny trials bikes everywhere, scaling whatever objects seemed like good obstacles for a trials track.

I know this as puzzle quest/guitar hero vision. Man fuck puzzle quest/guitar hero vision.

@MaxxS said:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris_effect

I think the Tetris effect is a little different. That's more about the game mechanics dominating your thoughts than it is about your brain's tendency to compensate for tracking moving objects. I had bad Tetris syndrom after I played a bunch of Mario Picross on my 3DS.

@slowbird said:

I thought this thread was going to be about seeing hallucinations of trials bikes driving over any kind of geometric shapes in the real world.

For a while there, I was seeing tiny trials bikes everywhere, scaling whatever objects seemed like good obstacles for a trials track.

Now that is an example of the Tetris effect.

In either case, it's nothing to worry about.

Luckily, I've never had anything like this, I can sit staring at a screen for hours without getting sore eyes, whereas friends and family usually complain.