The Switch's HD Rumble is pretty impressive - but as Australian programmer Chris discovered, it has added benefits.
Posting on Reddit, Chris explained that as a huge Nintendo fan, he bought a Switch early on. During one of his many heated Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sessions, he noticed a pain in his right hand:
As soon as I played Mario Kart I started getting a shooting pain from my right palm to the first joint in my index finger when the controller vibrated, especially when collecting coins.
He shrugged it off initially. Speaking to Kotaku, Chris said:
I’m a programmer, and it was a pretty busy time at work, so I just put it down to [a repetitive stress injury] or something similar. I thought maybe it’d go after a few quieter days. I would’ve definitely used it as an excuse if I had been losing races against friends, but I’m currently unbeaten, so no one really knew about it.
However, his wife - who played Mario Kart with him - picked up on his complaints of pain. What was strange was that when using other controllers with rumble, such as the Xbox One pad, Chris didn't experience any discomfort. It was only when playing Mario Kart 8 - which uses a short, sharp rumble effect when picking up coins - that he felt the issue.
Eventually, Chris sought medical help:
After a few weeks with the pain still there, and a small bruise-like mark showing on my palm. I definitely knew something was wrong, but the doctors told me to just keep an eye on it, especially when they found out that I use my hands a lot at work.
Six months later, and Chris had a small lump on his hand. He returned to the doctor and was told it was a tumour which had around a 5 percent chance of being cancerous:
According to the UltraSound and a MRI they’re thinking it might either be a vascular malformation or a giant cell tumour. They won’t know until they take it out.
He's due to have it removed next week, and credits Nintendo's console with detecting the issue:
I definitely believe that if it hadn’t been for the Switch I wouldn’t have gone to the doctors until the mark started to raise from my palm months later.
Another selling point for Switch!
Thanks to SLIGEACH_EIRE for the tip!
[source kotaku.com, via reddit.com]
Comments 38
Wowsa, that's insane. Didn't Nintendo want to get into the health accessory industry?
Looks like Nintendo's QoL stuff has already been released in secret. Hopefully the guy ends up being okay.
Will we now see doctors with Joy-Con's using the HD Rumble to examine patients for tumours?
Dr. Mario Switch confirmed.
Dr. Mario to the rescue.
Let him be a lesson to all of you: stop playing with yourself or you will get hairy palm and tumour.
I wouldn’t tag this as ‘weirdness’. I find that a bit disrespectful.
Wow !
Joy Cons are the Life Safer for that man.
My goodness, his tumor...
Btw, Doomed Xbox one controller.
Money kills. Even if you're collecting Mario Kart coins. Be careful kids
I would’ve definitely used it as an excuse if I had been losing races against friends, but I’m currently unbeaten, so no one really knew about it.
Love how he's still so confident even though he's in pain
I suspect something else would have made the pain appear, but hey, the Switch helped! Good thing it has been diagnosed and the tumor can get removed.
@Nincompoop
Yeah, he totally got that tumor by "playing" with himself. Idiot...
Thanks to the Virtual Boy I realized I had unusually thick eyebrows.
Wot?
So what's next?
"The Switch saved my relationship. HD Rumble is just so intense."
@RadioShadow Maybe he got the tumour from the joycons. It radiates high level of radio waves like the cellphone. Hand cancer is going to be a new disease.
Nintendo Switch, saving palms and potentially lives since 2017! 😉
@Yasaal That's just good old Aussie humour at it's finest.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE I saw that image on Twitter, now I know what it means lol. Very good
I am so glad that Kokatu and Reddit gave mileage to this story.
Glad to hear he caught it early. He probably would've found out some other way, even without the Switch. Maybe a little latter, though.
@Saego that'll have to wait until Labo unlocks hd rumble for everyone.
@Nincompoop
Hi.
I used my smartphone all the time, DIDN'T get Hand Cancer.
I used my Joy Cons to play Switch and i DIDN'T get that Cancer.
Maybe you, yourself has a Cancer in your brain, keep being so Ironic for those situation.
“I would’ve definitely used it as an excuse if I had been losing races against friends, but I’m currently unbeaten, so no one really knew about it.”
gotta sneak in that brag xD
Interesting how the little things can expose potentially dangerous issues. Hopefully that guy gets his situation resolved, and that the tumor isn't cancerous.
Alright Nintendo market this lol “Nintendo Switch prevents cancer”
@Nincompoop
What usually causes problems with cellphones is the built-in cellular radio, especially when it's always on and up against your skin. Bluetooth on the other hand, which is what the Joy-Cons use, is MUCH less harmful. So is Wi-Fi, which is always preferable to Cellular Services, because it's faster and safer.
This is why I'm going to base all my communicative services upon landlines and Ethernet tangles, when I get my own house. Much faster, much more reliable, and, last I checked, people don't get cancer from cables.
@Nincompoop Bluetooth signals aren't strong enough to generate a hand tumor growth like that. Same with traditional cell phone signals. Prolonged use of 4G might over the course of many years, but it would be rare. Now 5G on the other hand, that is unproven and can potentially accelerate cancerous growths more quickly than any other consumer grade wireless spectrum by far. The research is certainly out there against it. The Olympics participants and spectators are being used as guinea pigs for potential detrimental effects of 5G right now.
I'm not a doctor, but I'm guessing this is more likely a metastatic growth, given his profession. Ergonomic implementations are usually nonexistent or very sparse by most employers, and they often won't even bother accommodating RSI until it's serious.
Also, making jokes about cancer is bad karma. Don't do it.
So how did the joycon help? He went to the dr and they said to keep an eye on it. He was only diagnosed after a lump formed on his hand.
Sounds like he found it early but nothing came of it till the bump was found
@Nincompoop Not sure if joke, troll or plain stupid. If the later... Please get out of the church and go back to school.
@Nincompoop Considering the timeline (at least six months from when first doctor visit to diagnosis, meaning there's no way he could have been using Joy-Con for more than a few months when he first felt the pains) there is next to no chance that the Joy-Con caused the tumor. Now, could it possibly have accelerated the growth? That's a possibility. But RSI from computer work can do that, too.
Not really sure this has anything to do with rumble. Likely to be the smaller size of the joystick putting more pressure on the tumor as the way he clamped his hand around it.
@cleveland124 @Joekun it likely just made it painful. Tumors aren't really painful in their early stages, when they're little, so that makes them hard to detect unless someone is actively looking for them.
The controller acting as a pressure point and rumbling in the right area likely irritated the tissue surrounding the tumor, which made it more obvious that it was there.
It's kinda like having a little metallic ball under a sheet of paper. You won't really see it there at first, but if you press down on the paper then the ball will deform and damage the paper.
@PlywoodStick As someone in the middle of chemo atm, I can assure you cancer jokes are ok. You don't loose your sense of humour.
Jokes take away the taboo about talking about it.
Completely agree with the science aspect of your post though.
@Savvykas I hope you're able to defeat whichever cancer you have! Chemo is pretty damn nasty, many would even say worse than the cancer itself... not that there's a whole lot of other options, since the pharmaceutical corps are fighting tooth and nail to keep medical MJ illegal. Some have professed that cannabidiol (CBD) extract with the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) removed from hemp can also work wonders, but that's most effective from the flowers and leaves, while the government and big pharma restricts that... hempseed and stalks aren't nearly as effective. People really need to fight harder for holistic alternatives, the big guys will never cave otherwise.
@Nincompoop It's already here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30u2tdjVDkw
That is so great that the Switch helped him find out he had a risk of cancer. May all go well with the results.
This story makes my case seem normal by comparison:
I was bullied a lot as a kid during elementary and middle school, and as such, suffered from severe depression to the point that my grades suffered, and I even contemplated suicide at one point.
But whenever I played a Nintendo game, I felt happy. Truly happy. I felt like I was a hero, that I mattered, that I could make a difference. In many ways, Nintendo was my only reason to live, so I could play their newest games.
When I went into a psychiatric hospital during 6th Grade for a weeklong stay, I brought Issue 189 of Nintendo Power with me (the issue with Star Fox: Assault on the cover). I read that issue so many times over the course of that week, it became one of my favorites.
So as much as they annoy me with their draconian copyright policies and supply shortages (and that's being tame), I am eternally grateful for Nintendo for helping me through the darkest period of my life.
I can only hope that Chris in the article above feels the same way.
Good for him! I hope he recovers soon.
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