Just a quick update everybody.
It seems that I get this motion sickness mostly when I have a bout of migraines. They went away a few days ago and this sicky feeling went away with it. I can even have my monitor's backlight set to strobed the whole time on the desktop as well as when playing a game and I'm still ok.
If I sit too close to the monitor so that it fills my vision and it's displaying certain kinds of motion, I can still feel it a bit though, but I suspect that would affect most people that way.
I advise getting some kind of blue UV light blocking glasses as suggested. Artificial blue light is high intensity and can cause eye fatigue, insomnia, headaches, and even nausea. The combination of that = motion sickness. It can also make your eyes blink less, causing dryness and actual physical damage.
Anyone that sits in front of a digital display for long periods is susceptible to it. The closer you are to the screen, the more your eyes see the screen vs surroundings. This is why it's worse for you when you sit close.
There are many brands of gaming eyewear now, but any yellow, amber or orange tinted lenses will block out blue light. Thus there are many, many options from sports glasses, to shooting range glasses to night driving glasses.
I'm considering getting a pair of Gunnar MLG Phantoms that I found for $62, but for now I'm getting by with some orange tinted Ryders I bought for mt biking a long time ago. My Ryders are a bit too dark for gaming though.
My Ryders do increase contrast and clarity, and I can tell when I lift them up and down to see with and without them that they very slightly magnify for better focusing like a lot of gaming and other glasses do.
Gunnars are a bit pricey, but they're designed by a former employee of Oakley, and Oakley always uses high quality materials, very durable coatings, and optically aligned lenses (which IS a thing believe it or not). I've had Oakleys before and they were very good.
Gunnars have been called overpriced, flimsy, etc, but the ones that have a lot of flex to them are made that way to accommodate a wide range of head sizes comfortably, and they use materials like stainless steel and alu-mag alloy. They also have silicone adjustable nose pads for comfort and fit.
Gunnars also have length adjustable straight temple pieces that fit comfortably under headsets and headphones. They will also guarantee comfort and fit for 30 days, offering no stocking fee refunds. They have 2.5x magnification, and are NeoScopic (made for close viewing).
I'm looking to go pale yellow, but any amount of tint WILL slightly change the effective saturation levels of the colors of your display. That however can be easily compensated for by toning down the color saturation of your display a bit, which can even make it last longer.
With something like glasses that you wear for long periods to protect your eyes, you get what you pay for. These are good for lots of things though. Extended gaming or general computer use, any stores or events with lots of displays or fluorescent lighting, night driving, shooting range, etc.
Just a disclaimer, don't forget that eyewear alone can't do it all. A lot of gamers forget to drink and eat, which can cause problems itself. And although you can game 3 to 8 hrs or more, doing it consistently gets your eyes used to focusing at one fixed distance, which is not good for them.
And as mentioned, FOV matters a lot too, many are very negatively affected by narrow FOVs. Check with WSGF.org if you cannot find FOV hacks for the games you're playing. Last resort would be moving back a bit from the screen as you noted.
I think not having the strobing on the whole time on the desktop will help to reduce the effect, though. Fiddling with FOV might help, too.
