Susceptibility to a locomotion technique varies by content type, not only by person

What it is

The same stick-slide, dropped into an architectural walkthrough versus a first-person shooter, sickens different people at different times. Content-dependent discomfort means a locomotion technique’s tolerability moves with task, pacing, scene structure, and camera language. Users cannot be split only into “gets seasick / does not” and handed one comfort profile for every piece of content.

Individual differences are real. They do not explain why the same person can slide for ten minutes in a gallery and has to stop two minutes into a chase.

Why it happens

Content stacks different conflict loads onto the same locomotion. Architectural touring is mostly slow, sparsely turning, and self-paced; shooting also stacks fast turns, hit shake, explosion flow, and passive knockback. Horror uses a rocking camera and unpredictable vehicles to manufacture loss of control — exactly the non-self-initiated motion the vestibular system likes least. Vehicle content puts a visually accelerating cabin around a still-seated body: the cabin may work as a rest frame, but the corners and bumps are still written by the content.

A split made only on the person (novice mode, comfort mode) assumes one switch can serve every level. Comfort actually has to follow the content segment: the same user can use continuous locomotion in a narrative walking beat and must teleport or skip in a forced coaster beat. Hard-wiring “this kind of person may only teleport” throws away path integration in low-load content and is still not enough in high-load content.

Studying it

Compare the same people, the same locomotion technique, different content segments, rather than only high- versus low-susceptibility groups. Slice segments by encodable load: self-initiated versus passive, forced camera or not, turn density, speed peaks, knockback or not. Take FMS per segment and read the between-segment difference, not a trait score. Trait questionnaires such as the MSSQ can be covariates; they cannot replace the content factor.

If trait scores eat the between-segment difference, content layering does not hold. If the difference remains after controlling trait, configuration has to follow the segment. Do not declare a genre effect from one “game” condition against one “lab corridor” — venue and task moved together.

Where it stops holding

A single-task tool (picking warehouse shelves) barely changes content type; one default by person is enough. Treating “shooter” as one load is also wrong: cover shooting and a vehicle chase are not the same segment. A user-chosen difficulty that only changes enemy count, not camera or motion profile, has not changed content load. Susceptibility measured on abstract flow fields in the lab will not predict content that has narrative, rest points, and a task goal — goals make people endure a stretch, and also make them miss early symptoms. Pacing differences between children’s and adults’ content are often larger than constitution differences.

Applying it

• Configure locomotion per segment: walking exploration defaults to continuous; forced vehicles, knockback, and coasters default to teleport or skip. Do not ship one global table.
• Remember comfort choices per content segment, not once for the whole product, and allow a re-pick before a high-load segment.
• In production, tag each segment with load (passive motion, shake, turn density) and choose defaults from load, not from “this is a shooter.”
• How to check: the same people, the same locomotion, a low-load explore then a high-load chase. If between-segment FMS dwarfs between-person FMS, defaults must split by segment. If configuration is issued only from a motion-sickness questionnaire, the high-load segment will still eject the supposedly low-susceptibility users.

Related

• Same group: N4.07.1 Optic flow at the view edge drives vection; the centre contributes less · N4.07.2 Snap turns can replace smooth rotation, trading discrete jumps for less discomfort · N4.07.3 Forced first-person camera shake is more nauseating than the locomotion itself · N4.07.4 Real physical cues such as airflow and vibration can lower discomfort from virtual motion
• Nearby: N4.02 Continuous Locomotion · N1.13 Causes of Cybersickness and Individual Differences
• Search terms: content-dependent cybersickness · locomotion by genre · task-dependent sickness