Do I just not have the skill to play 3D games?

I dunno, maybe there is a reason why I don't like 3D FPS games in general. I get lost easily. I'm one of those people if you spin me around a few times in a 3D first person view, I wouldn't know which direction is which. I'm one of those people who have to check the map every 10 seconds to know where I'm going in a 3D game.

Does anyone else have this problem? Maybe it just takes a certain sort of 3D-spatial-orientation skill or something to be able to play FPS games? Maybe it's a skill that needs to be developed, just like any other gaming skill?

I don't think our natural senses of direction help us navigate virtual worlds, so I think everyone has this problem, to some degree. I'm always getting turned around and checking the map - generally, however, I'm pretty patient about it. I don't play frantic/competitive FPSs very much, though, because I don't have time to get my bearings.

What games are you playing?

I can get lost in AvP, but I know every inch of some Q3 maps. Some first-person games just don't have enough variation in maps, and it can be hard to navigate.

It's a skill, for sure. I started ages ago with Doom, and Descent made me violently nauseous. Now I could fly through those tunnels in Descent spinning the whole way without any problems, and I pick up and destroy basically any fps that I'm interested in, from years of playing them.

That said, some people just have a hard time with fps games period (motion sickness, etc).

I think they're worth it personally. There's a lot of great games in that little niche (System Shock 2, Undying, Deus Ex, Halo, Metroid Prime, and many others). Heck, even first person rpgs, Arx Fatalis, Morrowind, etc. More PC games than console in general I'd say...

Well if the area you're playing in is overly confusing, like a maze or something, then of course. Otherwise, no, you just need to familiarize yourself with the area, and if you can't figure out which way goes where after that, then you sir are an ignoramus.

Well right now I'm having problems with Metrodi Prime, I keep going down the wrong way and keep getting stuck, because I keep losing my sense of direction. I have this same problem with most FPS games I play like Quake/Doom etc, unless the stages/levels are really simple and flat. But when you have multi-level complex stages like the one in Prime, I just become hopelessly disoriented. I even get headaches. In fact I think Prime is giving me a headache right now. I might have to stop playing it.

Just get used to using maps and on-screen radar (Prime has both) to reorient yourself quickly if you get lost. If that doesn't help, then uh, that sucks.

Rotate the map to a top view, pan around it to figure out where you can get to next that you haven't gone.

But if you're getting headaches, that's a physical thing, not much you can do about that...

The only problems I have in 3D games involve judging the depth of things for jumps and such. This is probably due to my real-life depth perception problems.

Well, are you talking about any 3D game or just First Person games? If it's the latter the subject is deceiving. I don't have any problems with 3D games. It really depends on the specific game and the quality of the programming and camera. In a well made game I don't have troubles. :)

I do have a friend who can't manage to play any 3D games well though.. and I never could understand it. He says he can't get the hang of it, and it's been quite a few years since 3D games began. Very strange...

As for First Person games.. I really cannot say. I simply don't like those games very much. It feels like what life would be like if you walked around looking through the cardboard at the end of a toilet paper roll.