Has a cold or flu affected your gaming abilities?

[Parasondox]

Screw you winter!! and evening Escapist,

How I dislike the winter and the illnesses it brings. Whats worse is lately it's effecting my gaming. I've been playing Gran Turismo 6 over the weekend, having fun, hitting the apexes, getting the right amount of slipstream to over take and getting gold trophies and stars along the way. I felt great and confident. Then a cough started to come, then sore throat, sneezing, then monday had something removed so left side of face was numb and eye was sore. So I thought while i recover I do a few races and boy was I just having a day. Missing apexes, over steering, extreme under steering, bad breaking point, and crashed more times so many times and flipped the car way too many times. So I thought I needed a break. Later that evening I stupidly burnt my right hand where my thumb and index finger were damaged the most and I was in the middle of GTA V. Was I out of luck cause now I can't use R1 or R2 to shoot and R3 to do anything. So i took a long few days away from gaming and it sucks!!

So what are moments where an illness has affected your gaming abilities? Maybe it doesn't effect you at all cause you can easily adapt. Plus you can also mention injuries too like a broken hand that leaves you playing a game one handed.

Caring is sharing. I am a winter baby but dislike winter at times.

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

The only one I can think of was when I got a lung inflammation [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleurisy] a month and a half ago. I could barely breathe, let alone do anything more than move very slowly if absolutely necessary, and gaming was out of the question. I did miss a few good sessions with the lads, but hey, we got into it right away after I got better.

 

[Roxas1359]

Definitely, although in my case I'm also a Let's Player so it has caused me to miss out on recordings at times, or to sound weird on the mic.
Worst of all was when I had an ear infection and couldn't hear that well, and I had to do an audio puzzle in the game I was currently LPing. T^T

 

[The Wykydtron]

Not much recently unless you count my insomnia making me crash horribly during late night League sessions.

I do remember scraping my hand against a brick wall when I was a kid though, it took all the skin off the front of my hand. I then tried to play Croc on PS1 through a huge bandage. Quite successfully I might add.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

Yup!

I remember I had a really bad head cold, and I was trying to play Dead Space and I was screwing up all over the place. I was dying like a champ in areas I had no business dying it, so good times were had by all.

Which is why I tend to stay with old school Pokemon when I feel like death since it doesn't require much of my brain.

 

[TehCookie]

Whenever I get sick it affects my reaction time, so I don't play and games that need it. Turn based games on the other hand are great for times like that.

 

[Qvar]

I notice a lot how I play League of Legends much worse when I'm sick. Or not even sick, just angry. It makes you react slower, or reckless.

 

[Rose and Thorn]

I haven't played online games for awhile and I assume if I notice a drop in my ability to play games well I'd notice in fast paced multiplayer games. Back when I played Halo 3/Reach online like all the time, there were times I would stay home from school sick and play them all day. I don't remember being any worse at the game. Actually I might have been better, because if I play multiplayer games all day I feel guilty that I could be doing something more productive, but if I am sick no one can blame me for being a bum, so I can relax and play better.

I don't get sick very often though. Most of the times I stayed home from school sick, I wasn't actually sick.

 

[LetalisK]

Whenever I get sick it affects my reaction time, so I don't play and games that need it. Turn based games on the other hand are great for times like that.

Civilization V makes being sick fly by like nothing. It's my self-medication of choice.

 

[Hero of Lime]

Cold? No. A Flu? Abso-freaking-lutely!

When I get a flu, which is rare, I am unable to do anything. Just last Summer I had a real bad one. A full body ache, no energy from not eating anything, it was dreadful. I rarely get sick anymore, but when I do, it hits really hard. Video games do not distract a strong flu.

However, just about any other normal illness can be ignored thanks to some gaming, which is nice.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

When I get sick my reflexes go completely to hell. Last time I had the flu I tried playing Metal Gear Solid Revengeance and would get my ass kicked over and over again by a single gekko because my reflexes were completely shot and I couldn't block or parry. Fast forward a week and a half or so and I could completely and utterly destroy anything in my path and would only take damage from bosses because my flu was gone and my reflexes had kicked back in.

 

[Creator002]

Only once has sickness really affected my ability to game, and that was when I threw up on a keyboard. It was OK because I was using a laptop plugged into the TV (the keyboard was a spare), so no harm done there.
Otherwise, I'm able to play as I do normally.

 

[Saltyk]

If I'm sick enough, I'm sure my ability to play suffers. Just plain being miserable in your own skin is not very conducive to my gaming experience. If I just have a stuffy nose, probably not so much.

I'll still play, though. If I'm so sick that it makes my gaming suffer, I shouldn't be doing anything at all. Better to suck at a game than suck at work or somewhere else.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Not really...if anything gaming helps me forget about my symptoms when I'm feeling crummy and help me get through sickness. The only exceptions come when I have a really bad headache along with the other potential symptoms. I can't think of a time when being sick stopped me from gaming...

 

[Caiphus]

Uh. It certainly affects my mental fortitude. I couldn't play a game like Super Meat Boy or Dark Souls while sick. Things feel about five times more frustrating if I have a headache. So there's that.

And there's probably some negative effect on reaction times, ability to concentrate, spatial awareness, dexterity etc etc. Not hugely noticeable. I would still raid during my WoW days when I was sick. It'd just be a lot less fun.

Edit: Also, it's summer here. Lolololololol

 

[Mrkillhappy]

Yes both decrease my ability to react quickly not to mention since I am probably feeling miserable I would miss a few obvious tells with how to approach a situation in a game so it also effects my problem solving skills. When I was a kid it hardly effected my skills but as I got older my symptoms would become worse so that has played a part in things.

 

[FPLOON]

Screw you winter!!

...And already I love this thread... (and yet I have never been in snow before due to coastal warmth year-round mostly...)

OT: Having a cold while playing a video game, to me, is like texting while drunk at a party... (I don't know where I'm going with this...)

Bad metaphor aside, I usually don't remember how those gaming sessions go, to be honest... One minute, I'm going into the next temple... The next, I'm at the dungeon boss and forgetting to use the specific weapon needed to beat it... Then again, I rarely get sick, but I have played a Tales game while passed out asleep from trying to game for the first 24 hours...

Ah, early gaming childhood... in high school... (I'm still at a bigger risk of passing out due to lack of proper sleep than getting sick with a cold...)

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well if my fever picks up you will usually find me in an igloo of blankets with nothing but a controller, that is mostly when I get through the ever growing backlog of platformers.

Also pro tip, it's mostly not the cold that gets you sick and far more the incubators of disease around you -> other people.

 

[OneCatch]

Whenever I get sick it affects my reaction time, so I don't play and games that need it. Turn based games on the other hand are great for times like that.

See, I'm the opposite. I tend to go to shit on strategy games when ill. I'll have a perfectly managed empire, and then if I play for a while when sick (properly sick, not a cold) it'll devolve into a complete shambles due to cumulatively bad decisions and lack of concentration.
Whereas on shooters I only lose a little bit of ability (and I find shooters more distracting anyway which is a positive when sick).

 

[Parasondox]

I remember when I first got and played Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005) on the Gamecube, I had a really bad virus after coming back from holiday. So I tried playing the game to cheer me up and that made everything worse because the colour texture of the game, especially with the Blacklist cut scenes, made be dizzy and everything was just out of place. I recovered a few days later and then went back to playing it and everything was fine and enjoyed the game a lot.