When I mention “Nintendo Thumb”, all of the old school gamers know what I am talking about. The symptoms are the blistering, paraesthesia and swelling of the thumbs, mainly through use of the use o the directional pad.
As much as I love the classic Nintendo controller, it was actually pretty dangerous for gamers. It was not ergonomic, and its boxy, hard edges put a lot of strain on your hands. The D-pad and buttons were not the easiest repeatedly push, especially when playing button mashing games such as Track & Field. But we wore our blisters like trophies.
Today’s controllers are built for performance and comfort. Sure you can still strain a thumb or finger by gaming hard, but I believe it is less likely today that yesterday. I remember a local Video Rental store that used to sell rubber thumb protectors to save your thumbs from harm. They came in Purple, Red, and Blue and slipped over your thumb. I actually wore through at least three of them before giving up on them all together.
As controllers got better, the term nintendo thumb seemed to fade away only to be reincarnated as “texting thumb. Now that most phones are going touch screen I would expect that are thumbs are living in a safer place. Have you ever hurt yourself while gaming? What happened and how did you do it?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS-CgEaAYLk[/youtube]