The purpose of this thread grew out of seeing the FoV side debate in the 30 FPS topic, and how bothered I am by the general ignorance, or at the very worst, lack of empathy on display.
It seems to me that since FoV is still a relatively obscure setting you see in options for 3D games, which all too often is only configurable via more arcane console commands or .ini editing (or not at all in some cases), there's this general attitude that this is some ultimately inconsequential aesthetic feature only the most tech-savy snobs care about. That's the impression I get anyway, since over and over again you see people belittling complaints about lack of FoV options.
The fact is simply that FoV is a massively important element which can be detrimental to the point of making certain games unplayable for more than short spurts of time for a lot of people if the FoV is not properly calibrated for the individual. The human senses are delicate and mysterious things. A lot of people experience motion sickness or get seasick. And the same applies to 3D video games.
I am not really so cynical as to believe that people ridicule FoV complaints out of deliberate malicious intent though. I think the core problem is just a general lack of awareness resulting in very aloof attitudes which others with these problems end up taking offense from. There really ough to be some kind of information campaign to help spread awareness about FoV and motion sickness to make developers and players alike take the issue seriously as it deserves to be. It's not like it's even a problem at all to implement in most cases. Since it's often already configurable via aforementioned .ini edits or console commands, but merely lacks a pre-defined interface setting to make it more tangible for the layman.
It's not like this is some binary thing where you either end up vomiting or not either. I'd probably hazard a guess that there are plenty of people out there who also end up feeling vague or dull discomfort/dizziness from playing games, but because FoV is such an unfamiliar concept their problems are very difficult for them to quantify. People feeling sick from Half-Life was a very common complaint I heard from casual players over the years, and that's often how they were introduced by others to the whole concept of FoV and how they can modify it to alleviate their issue.
It seems to me that since FoV is still a relatively obscure setting you see in options for 3D games, which all too often is only configurable via more arcane console commands or .ini editing (or not at all in some cases), there's this general attitude that this is some ultimately inconsequential aesthetic feature only the most tech-savy snobs care about. That's the impression I get anyway, since over and over again you see people belittling complaints about lack of FoV options.
The fact is simply that FoV is a massively important element which can be detrimental to the point of making certain games unplayable for more than short spurts of time for a lot of people if the FoV is not properly calibrated for the individual. The human senses are delicate and mysterious things. A lot of people experience motion sickness or get seasick. And the same applies to 3D video games.
I am not really so cynical as to believe that people ridicule FoV complaints out of deliberate malicious intent though. I think the core problem is just a general lack of awareness resulting in very aloof attitudes which others with these problems end up taking offense from. There really ough to be some kind of information campaign to help spread awareness about FoV and motion sickness to make developers and players alike take the issue seriously as it deserves to be. It's not like it's even a problem at all to implement in most cases. Since it's often already configurable via aforementioned .ini edits or console commands, but merely lacks a pre-defined interface setting to make it more tangible for the layman.
It's not like this is some binary thing where you either end up vomiting or not either. I'd probably hazard a guess that there are plenty of people out there who also end up feeling vague or dull discomfort/dizziness from playing games, but because FoV is such an unfamiliar concept their problems are very difficult for them to quantify. People feeling sick from Half-Life was a very common complaint I heard from casual players over the years, and that's often how they were introduced by others to the whole concept of FoV and how they can modify it to alleviate their issue.
