Soapbox features enable our individual writers to voice their own opinions on hot topics, opinions that may not necessarily be the voice of the site. In this piece, Kate discusses the issue of video game injuries...
It's a little embarrassing to say that I permanently messed up my wrists by playing too many video games, but it's true. Well, partly true. I don't imagine having a job that requires this much typing is particularly good for them, either.
My path to chronic tendinitis is like something that my mum would have said after a Saturday eight-hour marathon of Ocarina of Time: if you play too many games, you'll end up with square eyes, bad posture, and no job. Well, I have a job (even if it is about video games), but the other two came true: I wear glasses, and I look like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. And now, I also have wrists that go on strike if I play games for too long. Sorry, mum. I should have listened.
My tendinitis - a condition where the tendons get inflamed, causing pain and reduced movement - occurs in my wrists, affecting mainly my fourth and fifth fingers. I've never been able to pin down the source exactly, but it tends to happen after long gaming sessions, repeated regularly in a short space of time (which, you know, is my whole job). My usual course of action is to whack on a wrist brace (I own four or five different wrist braces, yay adulthood) and try to take it easy, but it usually takes a few days to be able to move my hand normally again.
But I'm not alone. Recently, a 25-year-old eSports gamer named Thomas 'ZooMaa' Paparatto was forced into early retirement after injuring his thumb and wrist, and needing surgery. The surgery evidently couldn't fix the problem enough for him to fully recover, and so he announced his withdrawal from the scene on Twitter. Paparatto was one of the top Call of Duty players in the scene, starting his career in 2013, but seven years of intense gaming took its toll on his health.
"Playing through the weakness and pain in my hand just isn't possible anymore," he said in a statement on Twitter. "It's not fair to myself or to my team to go through all that again, potentially causing more damage to my hand." It's remarkable to see someone Paparatto's age taking his injury seriously, and not pushing himself to permanent injury by continuing to play, but it seems like a lot of people aren't taking it seriously at all.
It's remarkable to see someone Paparatto's age taking his injury seriously, and not pushing himself to permanent injury by continuing to play, but it seems like a lot of people aren't taking it seriously at all.
That's partly down to the name of the condition: "gamer's thumb" gets about as much sympathy as "texting thumb", another name for it. According to this Healthline article, some people have even taken to calling it "Nintenditis", which is probably the most condescending term of them all. It's clear that even healthcare professionals are rolling their eyes at these conditions, as if the sufferers are just idiots who don't know when to put down their technology, rather than people just living in the modern era and using devices that were never designed to be ergonomic.
In fact, I had to buy a bunch of ergonomic things myself - a Pro Controller for the Switch, because the Joy-Cons are awful for grip; a weirdly-shaped keyboard; and a vertical mouse. To put it another way, being kind to your body while using tech is both expensive and non-standard. This computer-driven world, despite being designed by humans, is decidedly not human-shaped.\
It might sound funny to hurt yourself from playing video games, but it's a very real occupational hazard for many people working in the industry. Although Paparatto presumably got paid enough to retire comfortably, that's not the case for most people working in games, and when many of them are forced to "crunch" - working long hours to finish a game, at the cost of their own health - it becomes a real issue. I have had to take weeks off work because I couldn't move my wrist at all, and I spent a lot of money on seeing a physiotherapist for a while, too. I can't just decide to change jobs, either - I have almost a decade of experience in this field, and besides, I don't want to leave. It's a risk that comes with the job, and while I'm still relatively young, it's a risk I'm willing to take.
Like a lot of injuries, hurting yourself once opens the door to hurting yourself again in exactly the same way, kind of like when you bite your lip by accident, and it swells up, so you bite it even more. I've messed up my wrists by kneading bread, doing push-ups, and whipping cream. I don't know if "whipping cream injury" is more or less embarrassing to tell people than "injury I got from playing that one Mario Party game where you have to mash the buttons", but when people ask, I usually just tell them it was from spending all day typing. We need people to take repetitive strain injuries more seriously, because they're becoming more and more common - and if we don't take them seriously, then we don't take the sufferers seriously, either. Can you imagine trying to take a day off because "Gamer's Thumb" is making it hard to type? Exactly.
But beyond physical injuries, video games can also affect us all mentally, too. I steer well clear of horror games because they spike my anxiety like mad, and can easily ruin my entire day by pumping me full of excess adrenalin that my body doesn't know how to handle. I can't play tricky platformers, because I'm very easily stressed out, and, like many people who should know better, I tend to tie my success to my worth as a person, which I can't really recommend. Games with online components often come packaged with free harassment courtesy of my whole "being a woman" thing, and anyone who's ever been harassed in any capacity can hopefully appreciate that it's not a fantastic experience for your mental wellbeing.
To put it succinctly: video games, and technology in general, can really mess up your health, often while you're too young to really notice it.
To put it more succinctly: video games, and technology in general, can really mess up your health, often while you're too young to really notice it. Although physiotherapists and healthcare professionals are beginning to see the real damage that games can do, it's going to take a long time for regular individuals to realise the long-term effects that phones, controllers, and screens are having on our health. We weren't built for a world where we sit at desks all day, after all.
Of course, it's not all negatives. Video games, especially lately, have been a lifeline for both my physical and mental health, between playing Ring Fit Adventure each morning and winding down with a few runs of Hades. It's easy and a little trite to end this with "everything in moderation", the battle cry of defensive gamers everywhere (I used it myself in my rebuttal of the NYT's piece about how kids are gaming too much), but it's true - we have to figure out our own limits, and be kind to our bodies as well as the dopamine-demanding parts of our brain that want to play games all night.
Trust me, I'd rather be playing games all night, too. But until we all get to put our brains into robot bodies, I guess we'll just have to try to be sensible.
Do any of you have game-related injuries? Did you experience difficulty trying to explain it to others? Tell me about it in the comments.
Comments 63
Great piece, very well written. I worry about my eyes sometimes. I work with computers, so I am staring at a screen for most of the day. When I have a vape break, I read NL on my phone. And when it is time to relax, I grab my Switch or Evercade. My eyes often feel tired and sore. I use eyedrops, which offer some relief for a little while, but not for long. Will go to an optician once this pandemic is over, but I think that I need to reduce my screen time, as it is fairly constant during the day.
Sorry to hear about your injury. I was lucky enough to have a very good chiropractor living next to me who thought me how to correctly stretch my hands (and my back) twice a day every day, and stretch during long gaming sessions. Helped me avoid it for now. Took me an inflammation of both wrists and an incapacity to play games for a week to make me take things seriously. Back pain is no joke either.
I’ve pretty much resigned myself to RSI and glasses, staring at a screen typing all day just isn’t healthy and it’ll come back to haunt me in later life. Video games probably don’t help on that front.
It does suck working at a desk all day, but I’ve also had jobs where you are in a warehouse all day. Truth is no matter what we do, if we do it all the time, it will eventually take its toll. Thus the best way to live life is through variety and moderation. T’would be nice if we never had to worry about injuries. I long for the days that I could play video games all night. Good times. Stay safe out there everyone and don’t forget to go outside every now and then. Great article.
@Averagewriter I agree (and said as much!) but when specifically talking about injuries sustained on the job, I can't afford to take too many breaks or do things in moderation. I type all day, and play games to review a lot!
Just as athletes sustain injuries because they train all day and push themselves to the limits, so too do people who work in careers that require a lot of technology use. Not that I'm comparing myself to an athlete in any way other than injuring myself, mind you 😅
@boxoctosis nooo, you didn't read the title!
@JGruns I'm quite worried about the fact that most jobs don't really allow for moderation. Especially working in a warehouse. Lower-paid jobs tend to be much worse on the body, since the people who need the money can't afford to exercise moderation
Great article , really interesting read. Sometimes my eyes can go bloodshot if I don’t blink while gaming. I should blink more, and I guess recently my wrists have been aching, but didn’t think that it was all the hours of gaming taking the toll on me.. safety first everyone xxx
@Khalic I'm just awful at remembering to stretch. Ring Fit has really helped with that, as it forces me to stretch out my wrists (and it feels good!)
@boxoctosis The guy was living in constant pain trying to continue competing at the highest level as he truly loved the competition. You just come off as rude tbh
@Ooyah thank you for taking the time to be so kind, Ooyah! I really appreciate it. I hope your trip to the optician isn't a scary one!
It’s a very real occurrence that will be very common within the next generations. Like someone stated above, injury can happen from anything we do too much of and with so many people gaming and on computers, it’s something we should take more seriously for ourselves so we can still stomp some goombas in the retirement homes when we get old. By the way Dr. Mario is having trouble concentrating on the game 😂
@boxoctosis
There are guys who play hockey, basketball, or do MMA who have had ligaments and tendons reattached or metal rods inserted in their legs and have still been able to complete in highly physical sports afterwards. Then there is this dude who plays video games who has a sore thumb and needs to retire. Kind of an embarrassing way to go out.
I have a friend who works on computers all day, he has a bad shoulder and horrible posture...he also has never lifted weights, done yoga, or participated in any form of exercise that would help counteract this. Doing core and back exercises can help a lot with this stuff.
I have a feeling this is the same for a lot of people with these issues. If people who are in shape can do a lot more strenuous activities than sitting at a desk, and are not in constant pain, maybe take the time to do some resistance training 3-4hrs a week.
I find nowadays I just can't play games as long as I use to. As a kid I could easily go on 8 to 12 hour marathons. Now after maybe an hour or two my eyes start bothering me and my back kills me. I know alot of people probably think oh it's just getting old lol but I am sure a life time of game playing didn't help.
As an older gamer myself (47), I can relate to this. Gaming is very hard on my wrists in particular, but also my shoulders and back. I can only game for so long nowadays before my wrists start hurting, especially my left wrist.
It’s bad enough that I need to step away from gaming for weeks at a time to give my wrists and body a break. If I get bored of a game at all I use it as an excuse to take a break from all gaming. It ends up being healthier for me overall to take these breaks, and allows me to still come back to gaming instead of quitting altogether.
@KateGray So good right? I try to focus on that too cause it can be soooo boring. (The stretching, not ring fit)
I have carpal tunnel in both wrists which I attribute to gaming for 30 years. I had the right hand operated on and it feels great now. When I pick up a controller my left hand goes completely numb in about 5 minutes. I am looking forward to getting my left hand operated on now.
Very well written article. It's not often I sit down to read one all the way through. I deal with pain sometimes from my piano playing. The Tetris theme is pure death for my wrists. I agree that ergonomics are vital for long term health. You see a phone that we all spend about a third of our modern life on, and it's just a flat brick. Maybe someday it'll change. Anyway, props for the article. Sorry to hear about your pain.
@NESlover85 A friend of mine had a similar surgery - he's an artist, so it was necessary. I'm tempted myself, but in Canada it's a bit trickier to get the kind of healthcare you can get on the NHS!
@KateGray
Thanks, Kate. I think that I just need to rest my eyes a bit more, before I completely overstrain them... I'm sure that it is nothing serious. Whereas tendinitis can be the absolute devil, so I hope that you can find some help or relief for that, although that sounds far from easy. So difficult when it's in the hands and wrists, as they are in motion so very often.
@Galaxy I attribute a lot of my terrible health to playing Tetris during long car drives as a kid! But I did get a lot of high scores, so it was worth it, right?
Thank you for your kind comments, and I'm glad you enjoyed the article
@Ooyah the tendinitis has definitely improved since I started taking my exercise habits more seriously! Usually, my exercise would be walking, and that doesn't involve my poor wrists at all.
Also, I delete apps from my phone regularly if I notice I'm using them too much - although the increasing size of phones is part of the reason we've all got such awful thumbs. They can't stretch that far!
"Wii Shoulder" is the injury I have had to deal with. Bowling too much was usually the cause, but sometimes I would move my arm wrong and really hurt my shoulder.
Q : Do any of you have game-related injuries?
My answer : Yes, i have ever experienced with injury when i played very hard DDR song on DDR SuperNOVA Arcade back on year 2007. I played DDR SuperNOVA with barefoot and when i played Fascination MAXX on Expert, i accidentally stepped on the bolt on the DDR panel and my sole of the foot got bleeding. Fortunately it was not really serious bleeding.
The worst I really have to deal with is eyestrain, but even then I only get it when I stay up late. (which isn't very often) That and d pad placement can make my hands cramp sometimes. And I also need to save up for an ergonomic chair too.
One way I do my best to prevent other issues is to just walk around a bit. If I'm playing Hyrule Warriors every few rounds I'll go let my dog out, go to the bathroom, fill up my water ect. It's not the best way of preventing things, but its easy and only takes ~10 minutes per brake.
Also now I'm gonna look up hand stretches, after I take a brake that is.
@KateGray As an avid tetris 99 and Punch Out player, I understand fully.
@JMR_Alden ugh, that sucks I have found that the Joy-Cons aren't great for grip, but they are great for not having to hold them a particular way, like you do with controllers. Now I can play games lying down, with my hands about as far apart as they can go
My friend discloated their knee playing tennis on Wii Sports may years ago... and then had to spend 3 months in a cast. Wii Sports sure was iconic.
I pulled a muscle in my abdomen sitting on my couch playing Horace the other night 😂
@KateGray Sorry to hear your Healthcare is tricky in that regard. Just wondering what is NHS?
@NESlover85 the National Health Service! It's the service that is responsible for the UK's free healthcare
@KateGray Ah gotcha. Forgive an ignorant Yankee.
Sorry to hear about your injury - I can certainly sympathize. I seem to have permanently damaged my left thumb about a decade ago (I was 27 at the time), trying too hard to get all the "shiny gold medals" in the time attack mode of Donkey Kong Country Returns. There were two control options for that - just the Wiimote turned on its side, or the Wiimote and nunchuk. Using just the Wiimote and its d-pad would've been a lot better for my thumb, I now see, but I found that shaking the remote to roll when playing that way was a lot less reliable at being recognized by the game than drumming the remote and nunchuk. But using the latter setup meant having to pin the joystick to the right most of the time - and there was a lot of travel in it, which over time hurt my thumb. (Could've been avoided if there was simply a button that would make you roll, like in the later Tropical Freeze; or, you know, if I had realized the damage it was doing at the time, and stopped being obsessed with clearing the challenge in the first place. Not remotely worth it.)
I tried getting the thumb checked out at various points and did some physical therapy - even took a break from gaming as a whole for a long period of time - but it just never seemed to heal. To this day, I use my index and middle fingers in place of my thumb when possible - primarily when playing 2D games that use the d-pad. (I've gotten fairly proficient at it - I recently finished 249th worldwide in the Mario Maker 2 ninji speedrun challenge. Which would've been good enough to win one of those medals if I lived in the U.K. or Japan, which each awarded 100 of them, but not here where there were only 35.) And for 3D games that require a joystick, I actually find the joy-cons to be better for me than the pro controller. There's far less travel in the joy-con's joystick, which is much better for my thumb.
Certainly wish I could go back and undo it, but such is life.
@NESlover85 never feel bad for asking questions! Ignorance is only bad if you don't care about learning
@KateGray As every ninja knows, small, repetitive movements are the most damaging to the body. Most people would look at tendinitis from gaming or typing as silly, but it's a very serious condition that needs proper care and recovery. I'm hoping you get better soon. Have you tried incorporating anything like weight training? I'm not a dr, just putting that out there (I'm a ninja) but some people I have known with chronic tendinitis have seen improvements if they strengthen muscles involving grip in the forearms. Stuff like farmer walking, where you grip a relatively heavy dumbbell in each hand and walk a predisposed amount of distance, can help. If you have access to it, stuff like lat pulldowns with the palms facing you help, too.
I've heard people that train martial arts such as karate or other things like yoga also see improvements. Punching things can aggravate it, though. I hope this old ninja advice is helpful to you in your recovery, do seek assistance if you are brand new to resistance training to learn the basics, unless you already know in which case I will silence myself, as is common in my clan.
NINJA HELP-DESK APPROVED
Very true. I've been playing for years and I hafta take joint supplements for CTS.
@KateGray too true 👍
When it comes to video game injuries, only 1 comes to mind. It was Mario Party but it sure as heck wasn’t button mashing. Oh no no no no...it was that darn mini game with the exercycle. You had to spin the control stick in a circular motion as fast as possible to shine a light on a ghost.
Well we’re all laying our palms flat on the n64 controllers to spin instead of our thumbs for that extra speed. Next thing you know, we’re all sporting huge purple welts on the palms of our hands! Mine seriously looked like Joe Pesci’s after he grabbed the scolding hot door handle from Home Alone. I couldn’t grab anything properly for a week!
Good article. And that’s why I limit myself to 1-2 hours everyday in terms of gaming. No need to push it and I can game more in the long run. I’m almost 40 years old, and it seems I have no gaming related injuries.
But this reminds me of when I used to play street basketball in the 90s. So many slaps on the wrists, people trying to steal or block the basketball, stuff like that, I still have a right thumb injury that doesn’t really bother me....however if I clutch my hand, it will make a clicking sound. It’s the same with every hobby if you do it long enough....prepare to feel some side effects.
I messed up my pinky one time playing a mobile game it made my hand feel really light if I moved my thunb in a way, but its gone (For now)
One time my Link fell off his horse and i was certain he must have hurt his back.
But he was fine, got straight back up like it was nothing.
Reading this made me think I might be starting with tendonitis. I get this dull ache occasionally in my pinky and ring finger, sometimes the pain gets kinda sharp, and it can bother me when even when I'm just laying in bed. I game a lot on the PC, and my work is computer based too, but I noticed it a whole lot after playing Xenoblade 1 and 2 back-to-back on the Switch using my joy-cons. And these were long, twelve-hour or so sessions over the Christmas period - I wouldn't usually put that amount of time in but I kinda had nothing better to do in lockdown. I'm in my thirties and my mum and her mum both suffered from arthritis starting pretty young, so I thought it could be that, but it sounds more like what you described here!
@BloodNinja Ninja, you are very wise. I haven't started weight training but maybe I will, if it helps! Thank you for the advice, even if you are a ninja and not a doctor!
@Elynor it's the same for me! Take care of yourself, take breaks, do wrist stretches, and see a doctor or a physio if it doesn't get better!
I'm in high school and I sit on my bed against a wall and my back has started to die after doing it since spring of 2020. The screen time has also murdered my sleep schedule and I struggle even more than usual to get things done. Really kinda sucks.
@Averagewriter well yes but the point is why do things have to cost triple to be actually healthy for a human to use. A lot of others things seem to me to be a bit more optimized, while a lot of technology stuff from keyboards to controllers are just bad for people to use for a long amount of time. Tennis racket and stuff are not the rackets design flaw it's the work it takes to play a game which is the point. I see what you're trying to say though
I have played every console excluding the gameboy micro from nintendo and all I have to say is that the nintendo ds is like murder for bones. I play a game on my dsi xl which is the most comfortable one for me and I still can't play for a long time. The worst part is the tiny d pad it feels so bad on the fingers... What are you're least favorite consoles for your hands to die because of
Sorry to hear about your injury. I work a lot with mouse and keyboard for my job and definitely after a few hours each day I need to stretch my hands and wrists to keep them from completely giving up on me. It's not easy. I only get to game for maybe an hour each day so I feel my work day is probably doing more damage than my gaming time.
@Ghostchip the original Xbox controller (the Duke) was a dose to play with. Turns out my olden days of playing with a joystick were probably the most ergonomical.
Last year I got some injuries from playing bass. It started with this tingling feeling in my hand when playing parts where I have to really stretch my fingers. Later it started to hurt, even when I wasn't playing.
Luckily I didn't try to play through the pain and identified it was RSI before it got really bad.
I took a break for 4-6 months and fixed my technique so I don't play with a bend wrist anymore.
@KateGray You are welcome! If you have questions, let me know. I have 20 years of athletic coaching experience behind me, and I had my own tendinitis issues that slowly became history. Have a great day!
I understand this piece completley. When I play aoc or hades I sometimes need to stop because my hand really hurts
It's definitely not funny. I didn't like how somebody aka my sister laughed at me when l got hit with a wii remote. And my eyes will sting pretty fast when playing Nintendo games because their games have so many bright colors. I will actually wear sunglasses at some point when playing a Nintendo game because on the darkest screen brightness setting it's still not enough.
I called in sick today and told my boss it was from playing too many video games.
@Mr_Persona That's hilarious.
@Razer Too funny. Now you'll be flamed by the masses.
@tseliot what the sunglasses part or whole thing
Many gamers today have never experienced the carpal tunnel one experiences from repeated marathons at arcade machines in a standing position as your hands are are at a continuous 90 degree angle. This ancient practice along with years of programming have left me with periods of numbness and lack of blood flow in my hands due to a thickening of the wrist in the Ulnar tunnel. Weight training does indeed help relieve some of the pain and numbness but adjusting the length of time and the position of your arms obviously does as well.
Injuries, in video gaming or any other activity, are part of the danger of participating. Unfortunately, that is just part and parcel of it as we force our bodies to physically manipulate the outside world in a way we never did in generations past. The human body, in its present evolution, is still very much adapted to an agricultural or hunter/gatherer form.
If we continue to use the same input devices it is possible in several thousand years our arms will very much resemble our legs with thicker and larger wrists and sinewy forearms much like a cartoon Gaming Popeye.
I know this too well from playing musical instruments. Listen to your body before you listen to your high score! Take breaks!
I've had to take a whole day off once after grinding for Golden Strawberries in Celeste for a week, the pandemic allowing me lots of gaming hours at once. It's easy to get in the zone and turn your attention away from pain in your fingers/wrists.
If it hurts to play, even a little, stop doing it!
@Ooyah You vape? Start worrying about your lungs instead...
For anyone stuck at a desk job but also plays a lot of games, here's one of my best life hacks to keep the wrists and trigger fingers healthy:
Rotate the hand you use for the computer mouse. At work I use my left hand, when I'm off the clock I switch to the right hand. I have a pile of one specific model of mouse with programmable keys that nicely accommodates both left and right-handed use so the switch doesn't feel awkward (Logitech G300).
There's also the ergonomic keyboards and posture and wrist support mouse pads and such, which are also worth investing in, but switching hands for the mouse seems to be something that isn't often considered.
Gaming since the GBC and no injuries as of yet, except when I sprained my ankle playing ring fit because I'm such a couch potato...let's say that thing got traded in pretty fast after that...
my 3DS control stick fell off before my hands so much as cramped and the switch, nearly every free moment is playing that thing and I wouldn't have it any other way.
But seriously if i hurt or live less time because of Nintendo its the price I would pay for living my life happy and exactly the way I want to.
When I use technology, I don't really get any pain. I just deal with my hands sweating constantly. I dislike it because my hands sweat constantly, even when I don't do anything. Other than that, though, I do not handle a lot of video game-related injuries. My eyes can handle staring at screens all day, considering I look at screens every day, working on my homework and playing video games.
If my eyes ever hurt, which is uncommon, I just put on some glasses that prevent my eyes from straining. While I personally don't feel anything when I'm playing video games, it's kind of sad that our bodies can't handle sitting behind screens for days, weeks, or months afterward. Great article, btw. It is so well-written and I really enjoyed reading it.
Tap here to load 63 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...