I don’t mean the kind of sick you feel from watching the Hour of Victory trailer.

When I was about 11 years old I played Ultima 4 for 29 straight hours. By the time it was over, I was running a fever along with severe nausea. I had dreams about roaming the black and white universe of Ultima and trying to solve some riddle. It was an endless loop. I was slipping into madness.

Flash forward to around 1996 or so. I played Quake online for nearly 48 hours. The same symptoms put an end to the fragging for almost a week. I dreamt of headshots and trying to capture a flag that I could never quite touch. In my dreams my modem kept disconnecting.

Rainbow Six:Vegas. While the challenges of raising 3 kids prevent me from pulling any more 12+ hour gaming sessions, I have been startled by the sunrise on more than one occasion while playing Vegas. At the end of these sessions, I feel traces of “the sickness”. I feel hot, and ever-so-nauseated. I keep thinking I hear motion sensors going off.

My questions for you are:

1. Have you ever gamed so much that you became physically ill? I believe that’s what happened to me on several occasions. I have heard other gamers talk about similar experiences.
2. If this is a real ailment, what should we call it?
3. Do you have a secret for shaking it?

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