PoE hurts. Literally hurt my hand.

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k1rage wrote:

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satanttin wrote:

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Elua wrote:

After last 12h non-stop beta session I can't play PoE any more. Game is great, I love new content and I'm very excited but my hand is full of pain. It feels like burning inside, I can't make any fast repetitive movement. This is not new problem to me, it's so called "Carpal tunnel syndrome"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpal_tunnel_syndrome

I play too much and too often, my hand can't endure this and pain starts. Nothing new, but PoE it's only game making this problems back. In other games "mouse click fest" is way more intensive and problematic. I can play 16h/7 of 24h/7 days World of Warcraft or World of Tanks and feel comfortable and painless. But after just 2 days in PoE pain will be back. This is sad, because I like PoE and want play much more.

What can be done to prevent this pain:

- allow players use WASD for movement ( I know it's unusual in H&S genre, but definitely will put less pressure for mouse usage frequency. )
- make currency pick-up automatic based on proximity ( that will be huge help greatly lowering total click numbers )
- auto sorting and auto transferring pre-defined items to stash will help too
- stop playing PoE or making short session only ( this is very hard from mental perspective, only strong pain make me choose this option and go play WoT for example )

Tell me what do you think.

get a special mouse?... or take some morfine while u play poe might even enchance the gameplay even further? xd

once had some wrist issues during my wow days

used to play on a mix of hydocodone and booze

Did i have a drug problem, wrist problem, or gaming problem?

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cipher_nemo wrote:

Ah, a thread I can relate to, and have been dealing with pretty much all my life. Computer gaming, motorcycles, and my past IT work all contributed to wrist issues.

My solution: I wear this whenever I'm at the computer so that I don't have to wear it anywhere else...


(a quick photo while at work, not my gaming system)

I use wrist stabilizers (also call immobilizer by some brands) to minimize the movement of my wrist during computer use. This has made the difference between no pain (or very little pain, very infrequently) and carpal tunnel/massive pain. I don't have carpel tunnel, but if I didn't protect my wrist during gaming and computing I'd probably have that by now.

The stabilizer lets me relax my wrist while my arm and fingers do all the work of controlling a mouse. I also have one for my left hand, but I only use that when gaming, not for general computing (ie: writing this, typing code, graphics, etc.)

There are other alternatives, such as a simple wrist brace or wrist support, but the stabilizer is the mother of them all with one or two pieces of metal inside to limit the movement of your wrist. How much you want to limit depends upon how much you tighten it.

Alternatively, these other techniques have helped me...

1.) Change you position frequently. How often? It's probably never enough, but whenever you think to do so, do it. If you get any pain, change your entire body's position in relation to your keyboard and mouse. Move you arm out away from you more, move it closer, slightly change your grip, whatever works. The old school thinking on ergonomics was to have the "perfect position", but humanity has learned that's the worst advice. The *real* ergonomics is to change positions frequently. That's why those Versadesks/Varidesks/Voyadesks/and knock-offs have been all the rage in offices lately.

2.) Take breaks. Set a timer if tend to lose track of time while gaming. Because of my age, I have no problem with this, as I often want a break anyways after about 2 hours of gaming. But when I was younger, I could game for 8 or 10 hours straight, and that's not such a good idea. Take it from someone who's been there over and over again, for many years. Reward yourself for taking a break and sooner or later you'll be able to make a habit out of it.

3.) Try a wrist support, brace, or stabilizer like me and the other person posting here. I buy all of my for around $20-30 each, but that was probably years ago. I have separate ones for work and home, so that I don't need to carry them around. And I wash them every few months. When they eventually wear out, and they will wear out, you can stitch them back up to repair or just pitch and get a new one. I've gone through probably 4 pairs over the last two decades, because I keep them clean and repair them with a sewing machine (I suck at sewing, and my wife is no better, but I can still manage to sew a straight line, lol). A caveat: if you do go full wrist stabilizer, there is a learning curve. And you might even end up switching to a different mouse, because the metal plate makes your effective grip range smaller. Personally I use a Logitech G9x mouse at work and home because it fits my hand perfectly when I'm wearing a wrist stabilizer. You can't buy that model from Logitech anymore, but you can get similar sized mice. A close relative in size is the Corsair Gaming M65 PRO model, which you can buy for around $49.

4.) Change your keyboard/mouse. Some gaming mice are just... ug... awful. The whole line by Mad Catz that's supposed to be adjustable is probably one of the worst, at least for me. Everyone has their own preference here, so if your current mouse isn't working for you, try another. $50 to $100 is nothing to save your wrist from carpel tunnel. Order one from Amazon and try it out, if you don't like it, just return and try another.

5.) Reduce the friction of your mouse. For most popular mouse models you can order nylon or teflon skids to attach the bottom. These skids are usually small enough not to mess with optical or laser sensitivity. Less friction = less wrist strain to move the mouse.

6.) Reduce the weight of you mouse. If you have a mouse with adjustable weights, and you're using them, take them all out. Every single one. Less weight = less wrist strain to move the mouse.

I hope some of that helps. Keep us updated.

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k1rage wrote:

People forget how big WoW was and how groundbreaking it was

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Wraeclastian wrote:

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k1rage wrote:

People forget how big WoW was and how groundbreaking it was

People forget how it was only a clone of EverQuest with cartoon graphics instead of a more realistic approach.

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k1rage wrote:

hey this dude has one of those too!

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cipher_nemo wrote:

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k1rage wrote:

hey this dude has one of those too!

Yup.

I love that episode... laughed so hard when they showed Make Love Not Warcraft episode for the first time. Especially the part where he's brushing off Doritos crumbs.

My wrist stabilizer goes back to the early Diablo days... so South Park was just copying me. ;-)

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ZerotuL wrote:

Just warm up your hand every half an hour.Make 30 pushups every two maps, 30 burpees every 4 maps.

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Being physically active can decrease the risk of developing CTS.