This really hit close to home for me. I was diagnosed with “hyper-mobility” when I was a teenager, but my doctor told me it was kinda a catch-all diagnosis. He told me it is degenerative and the only “treatment” is exercise to have tone muscle support my joints. Other provides have echoed this over the years.
I haven’t had a day free of pain since 2nd grade. It affects all my joints and I have frequent dislocations. I’ve been able to manage it with exercise for years and it’s provided me with an insane pain tolerance. But covid + RSV + pneumonia and secondary infections + long covid had me on my ass for so long, I neglected my joints and I’ve been in the worst flare up of my life.
I have to rehab slowly, but every time I exercise, it causes such bad systemic inflammation and cervicogenic migraines. It’s a vicious cycle that’s hard to break. Dry herb (Volcano) vaping medical marijuana and then gaming is literally the only time I feel an escape right now.
It helps me to disassociate from my pain and focus my attention on something so engrossing that my brain can’t spare attention to the ‘dulled’ perception of pain. It’s not like the pain is gone, but it’s changed and it’s a momentary relief. But even if only momentarily, finding some sort of respite is essential for your sanity.
I would still be here without gaming, but my quality of life would be a hell of a lot worse.
Yeah, I’ve got EDS, and gaming is one of the few things I can do and not risk being too much in pain (I do have to watch out for my fingers spraining and dislocating, though). Days when I can’t walk very well, I can still sit down and play a game.
EDS is what my last provider mentioned might be a better diagnosis. The joint symptoms fit, but I definitely don’t have the skin or blood cell issues that can present in EDS. Which I’m definitely grateful of.
Well, there are thirteen different types of EDS (most of them are REALLY rare, though), based on which connective tissue they impact the most. The most common are hypermobile, classical, and vascular. I have the hypermobile type, which mostly impacts joints. Classical EDS can have skin issues, and vascular is the type where it can cause your blood vessels to rip open inside of you. hEDS is the least likely to kill you, but most likely to negative impact your quality of life.
I never thought about it like that, but that explains why I played through Borderlands 2 over and over again while doing chemo. Everything hurt but I could still mow down some baddies.
As someone who became mostly very suddenly disabled, and an avid gamer who has been forced to give up most games, including some of my favorites, I have to say that this is the best article I've read on the topic so far. Thank you for sharing. Hopefully people will actually read it and think about it.
And giving all of that up, or I guess we should say losing all of that, has dramatically deteriorated my ability to socialize. It's just lose lose lose if you are a gamer who can no longer use your hands properly.
Thanks for posting this OP, it actually means a lot to see someone talking about this.
I’ve been very lucky in that my pain has responded really well to medication, but I’ll never forget how absolutely awful it felt to be physically unable to play the games I love. I hope we continue to push for accessible features in games more and more, this is a great hobby and when you’re trapped at home it can have an enormous impact on your quality of life. Even just the social aspect of gaming is a huge benefit.
It has also secured an age 18 rating, with mention of violence and in-game purchases.
Hopefully they don’t get too greedy.
Capcom has been slowing morphing in to becoming yet another EA, Ubisoft or Activision with the monetization in their recent games (e.g Street Fighter VI, Exoprimal). Battle passes, Fomo-traps, social pressure, skinners boxes, Denuvo etc. At least most of their games are still good if you can ingore all the bullshit.
At least in this you can probably just throw all the pawns with paid costemtics to the nearest ditch for being walking advertisements.
The first Dragon’s Dogma had a ton of small DLC too, so this isn’t exactly new. They even sold rift crystals. I guess a lot of players don’t realize how much DLC it was because the later editions and the ports came with most of it included.
It wouldn’t have changed much. It’s great that they are polishing the game and fixing its performance issues, but the main problem with the game is that it’s just not fun, and no amount of polishing can change that.
A few people can find enjoyment in this game and it’s good for them, but the majority will simply keep ignoring it and play one among the dozens of better received games that released just this year alone.
Yeah definitely no one asked for it, but in concept, it sounds really cool. L4D but with vampires. I was excited when this game was announced, but the more I saw of it, the more my excitement faded.
Oh boy! The game we should have had at launch? I can’t wait to get in my space ship, take off from a planet, fly to a new one, and land without being forced to fast travel.
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