Gaming with amblyopia

So I've suffered from amblyopia from a very early age after sustaining trauma to the head. Since then I've gone through all the usual channels to help improve the condition but now in my 30's it's all a little too late to 100% correct it.

I'm a life long gamer and have never allowed my amblyopia to rule over me. I went through school being made fun of for it but made up for this in certain ways when gaming. I could take on any of my friends online and whip them good in any fps game, my good eye trained to the max to the point where accuracy wise I could more often than not come out on top.

Sure it knocks my confidence some in public but behind closed doors, playing games over the net I'm just a gamer with skills to test like anyone else. I attended a gaming expo last year and as per usual I got the odd strange look from people I'd never met, it's something you get used to I guess. But once inside I managed to get on Crysis 2 and got nothing but compliments on my play style from folk who watched on. Attending such events makes me feel like I belong to something, when outside of gaming I tend to feel like a social outcast much of the time.

I know I can't be alone being a gamer who suffers from (or should that be affected by?) amblyopia and I'm keen to find out how others who have it cope with it as both sufferers and gamers in a hobby where a trained eye is king above all else.

So yeah. It feels good to admit I have the condition and quite happily game along with the best of them. Online it's all about letting my skills doing the talking and for once how my vision looks matters not. Just thought I would share with you guys anyway.

 

shout from this site R E SPE C T

think that should say enough

 

eh?

I've had friends at school with vision problems, one had like only 20% vision. I think he only could se like... dots. He said its like a spider when we see it on cartoons.

I think he never felt bad with us, it was fine and we almost never noticed his problem. I mean, i dont think vision problems are something people makes fun or even notice :S. At least in my country. Maybe if you wear glasses sometimes ur called 4-eyes, but not like that hurts any1 i think since its kinda common.

I think its more about gaming being a community who likes your same things (games) and didnt made fun on you when you were young. But i think that at 30's people of your age wont make fun of vision problems unless they are idiot.

 

If you are somehow different from the norm people tend to stare no matter what age you are. At least they do here in the UK. I'm used to it as I said.

 

amblyopia = lazy eye? just wiki'd it... Good stuff that you found something to fit into tho. I know very well that people can be awful if someone differs even a bit from the "norm".

I notice even i stare at times i just can't help it and try not to. i feel akward when im staring at people :<

i found my place in gaming during my junior high school years tbh, wasn't a good time for me eh for different reasons tho

 

I'd say I found a place since I discovered gaming forums. Which means I feel I owe a debt to all of you as before I found communities such as this I didn't feel like I belonged anywhere. Gaming communities are the best communities by far. :banana:

 

I wiki'd it too, and do not get me wrong, but i re-read your post when I actually knew that amblyopia is a lazy eye, and was surpriced.

My little bro has a lazy eye, and most probally he will get it worse when he gets older, but its nothing to feel really bad about...(only that he sometimes can't see stuff)

Funny thing is, he can do the craziest acrobatic stuff( My theory is because he can't actually see how far he is jumping )

I am glad you found your place under us gamers Though I really am surpriced to see that you had such a hard time with this, that people made it hard for you, while in my eyes its nothing really special.

 

You're eyes must be really bad as you seem to have ordered and put an ATI card in your rig...........

I've had a Lazy eye from when I was younger, but I think i'm lucky as my eyesight is just below Par. But i had to wear the dreaded eye-patch as a kid, and back then, the huge colour rimmed NHS glasses....that sucked ass, i had Big 80's hair, huge Jam Jar translucent blue rimmed NHS specs and a freakin' eye patch on my one good eye, so really I looked a bit of a tw4t and couldn't see, not good at the age of about 6 but funny looking back on it

 

Eventhough I do not make fun of people, you have to realise a couple of things:

Whenever people talk to eachother, they usually do it while looking at people's eyes. Atleast thats what I do unless its a girl with big breasts.

Talking to someone with vision problems is going to automaticaly make the whole thing awkward for the simple reason you do not want it to be awkward, resulting in an awkward situation.

Also, humans are attracted to uncommon things and its only natural something "unnatural" is going to attrack your eyes, just like a girl with big breasts.

I think you shouldn't feel bad for any of this, I know its easy to talk but its another story to be behind the problem, but, most of the people looking aren't doing it with bad intentions.

Obviously, there are retards everywhere and to those I usually give them the pitty look.

 

Then I shall get huge breast implants to give them somewhere else to look.

 

I had this too as a kid, but after wearing an improvised ''pirate eye patch'' for some years it went away. I still don't see as good with that eye but I do not need glasses. I don't think it matters much in gaming really and as for the people staring at it just say something arround the line ''yes I have a lazy eye, problem officer?'' if they are pushing it.

 

lol now that would solve everything

 

lol,ive this too, didnt know the name so had to wiki it.

I was born with it, hasnt really affected me at all in life other than being crap at sports as without stereoscopic vision you cant judge distance properly( didnt realise that until later in life lol ). Other than that its just gonna save me a fortune on 3D tvs and what not

 

lol lol :roll:

 

I have a friend id known for years who had it, never ever bothered him tho, just carried on as normal, he did get alot of looks when we were out and about but he just ignored them asif he never had it and carried on as normal, best thing to do in my opinion.

He played a few games(consoles tho) and was every bit as good as nearly everyone else we played with.

 

Wow, it seems you've located a few more people with this vision impairment. My father's a Dr. of Optometry so I know quite a bit about it. I think it's great you've found ways of positively dealing with it through gaming and an example of your self-acceptance is this very thread. Kudos, man, and wishing you good health.

 

Thanks shimyns, and to the rest of you for replying.

I think it's just one of those conditions you think you are the only one on earth to be dealing with on a daily basis. But then sometimes you can be out and about and see someone else who has it also and you get to think 'do I look like that?'. It's a very personal and often socially crippling affliction (if you let it become one) but it's great to see others with it coping so well. That actually helps me a great deal.

 

I've got friends with vision problems. I just look at them like normal. I think it's the different things about people which makes them so interesting. Everyone experiences the same feelings so I try and treat everyone with respect and not offend them.

I have an anxiety disorder that causes me to worry about all kinds of stuff sometimes. I have to work really hard at getting out of my house and being in public. I try and just put on a brave face and tell myself everything is OK and that seems to help. If I can't relax I'll ring up a friend or do something I enjoy so I stop the cycle of worrying. It helps I'm taking medication now. I tried to avoid taking pills but I couldn't live a normal life. I've still got plenty of work to do but I'm getting there slowly.

Some people just don't know what to do when they meet people. They are nervous themselves but it's easy to forget that when you're out in public. We've all got problems on Earth. The world is a strange place and so is the universe. If you feel a bit different at times then you are part of the universe and fit in perfectly. The universe is weird and that is why it so cool.

Thanks for sharing that with us, it helps me too. It's pretty tough admitting how you feel but it helps so much

 

i had an operation on my eye, but they turned it too far and my lazy eye switched lol, crap doctors

 

Hmm, don't know if this counts, but I am extremely left eye dominant. Docs said that wearing a patch would not help right eye to be any stronger because my brain has decided it favors one eye over the other. So, I look at everything through my left eye mostly. Doesn't seem to help in games though cause I still suck.