Avoiding Common VR Accidents: My Guide on Safety Measures

Key Takeaways

• Poorly drawn guardian perimeters can lead to physical injuries while using VR gear.
• Repetitive arm motions in games like Beat Saber can cause tennis elbow and require physical therapy.
• Vigorous movements during combat VR games can result in muscle strains, emphasizing the importance of stretching before playing.

I can’t believe I’ve been involved in modern VR for almost ten years now, but in that time I’ve had my ups and downs with what remains a relatively niche and exciting technology. While I’ve mostly had nothing but fun with my VR headsets, there have been a few times I’ve felt the pain of the real world making itself known.

1 Busted Knuckles Against the Wall

Not long after I got my first Meta Quest headset, I bought the Vader Immortaltrilogy of episodic games. There are some pretty great VR games that let you use a lightsaber or something like it, but nothing can top the prospect of going up against old scuba-breath himself. I even cleared out a whole room in our little apartment at that time to make sure I got the full experience.

Thul / Shutterstock.com

Except, even with all that space, when you start swinging your lightsaber around, unexpected things can happen, such as banging your hand and skinning your knuckles against the wall. Luckily, my Quest Touch controller somehow came away with no more than a scuff, but I definitely needed a time-out from fighting Sith lords for a while.

My main mistake here was drawing my guardian perimeter right up against the wall. These days I leave a decent buffer zone, depending on the type of game I’m playing.

2 Tennis Elbow

Image Point Fr / Shutterstock.com

Despite the name, you can get “tennis” elbow from all sorts of repetitive arm motions, and I haven’t played tennis since third grade, so it definitely wasn’t that! Instead, i played way too much Beat Saber . This is the second time some sort of lightsaber has featured on this list, and I’m starting to think it’s no coincidence.

Beat Games

I developed tennis elbow in both arms, and since, in my case, for medical reasons, I could not take the shot that would usually take care of the issue, I had to undergo a few weeks of physical therapy to relieve the agony. I still play Beat Saber, but I try to keep track of how long my sessions are and I try not to play for more than 15 minutes at a time.

3 Pulled My Back

Just Dance / Shutterstock.com

As I’m just shy of 40 years old, pulling a muscle in my back is just another thing that just sort of happens these days, but since I like melee combat VR games so much, more than a few of those incidents involved playing VR games, rather than grownup stuff like doing garden chores.

In particular, I love playing the arena mode in Blade and Sorcery Nomad , and in the heat of battle swinging both my arms and twisting my torso to deal with multiple enemies. I know that little twinge in my back all too well now, which means I’m in for a lot of pain later.

The only way to avoid this is to stretch before I play, just like any other physical activity. It felt a little silly at first, but not nearly as silly as fighting invisible people in my lounge…

4 I Fell Over My Cat

I’m an animal lover in general and a cat-person in particular, which means there’s always a dog or cat within arm’s reach inside our house. However, that does prove to be a unique challenge for VR fans. My dogs and cats don’t know what I’m doing, and have no idea that they should stay clear of me. Thankfully, it hasn’t happened too often, but I’ve stepped on a few tails, lightly punted our smaller dog, and once actually stumbled and fell to avoid hurting my cat.

Ultimately, the only solution is to close the door and pick a room where you can control access to your VR space, but at least the technology is getting better at warning you when an animal has entered your space. Such as the Quest’s Space Sense feature.

5 I Hit Myself in the Face

Krakenimages.com / Shutterstock.com

This is one of the reasons I’m not too keen on true horror experiences in VR. It’s too easy to forget you have a honking-big pair of goggles on your face and when you bring your hands up the sensor rings on the controller make very unpleasant contact with your head. Apart from potentially breaking several expensive things in your gear, it does feel like taking a light punch to the cheekbones.

The only advice I can give here is to not be a scaredy-cat, but I’m working on that myself, so any advice would be welcome!