I got carpal tunnel once; had to stop playing for 4-5 weeks to have the pain completely go away. After that, I refuse to use any mousepad without a wrist rest. I haven't had problems after that, especially if you just flex/stretch your hand every now and then.

i'm pretty sure that's a symptom of carpal tunnel. does this still happen ever?

I play games very rarely now and spend little time on my computer, plus i do not have to type as much at my new job so the pain hasn't come back yet but I still do not have feeling in the tips of my fingers. I don't mind that so much as long as the pain stays away!

I got quite bad RSI so I can't play more than 30 minutes without taking a break. I've had it for quite a while now (about a year and a half) and to be rid of it completely I'd have to take a serious break (3 months or so). If you're experiencing pain (beyond fatigue after a lot of playing) I'd recommend taking a break for a month or so and like meb said consider starting lifting, that helped me a lot.

Wrist pain. I've got quite a bit of experience on this subject.

I have hyper-mobility syndrome, which means my tendons and ligaments stretch further than they normally should. It's fairly common, as far as genetic inheritances go, affecting 10% of people. My case is pretty bad however, as I can dislocate my wrists just by moving them left and right. My knees also bend backwards to the point where the only thing stopping them from being gazelle-legs is the fact my patella hits my tibia. In high-school, when I was playing baseball, I experienced immense pain right below my knee. This was because my knee-cap was knocking into my shin when I was sprinting.

My wrists, on the other hand (no pun intended), don't need to be doing anything special to dislocate and cause me pain. Shaking someone's hand is enough for them to dislocate. Imagine the sound of someone cracking their knuckles, then double that sound. If I have my elbow on a table and pop my wrists, the table will shake due to it reverberating down my arm. I dropped out of college 3 semesters in because I knew that pursuing a degree in computer science would be pointless if I can only type for about 3 hours a day, and then be hurting for the next few hours. The damage I'm causing to my wrists is permanent, and the only solution is to surgically place a metal spike in my wrists so that they have no left-right motion. We can put a man on the moon but there's nothing for fixing my wrists that isn't some medieval-era solution. Great.

So I said fuck it, I'm gonna do what I enjoy while I've still got my wrists, and that's play video games. My solution for wrist pain is not for everyone, but it works for me. Firstly, I play with (what I've been told is) a very high sensitivity. 1.51515 inches per 360 to be more precise. I pretty much just use my fingers to aim, and limit my wrist usage to turning 180, resetting the mouse, and partially for flicking for rocket jumps. I've been using this same sensitivity for almost 2 years now, so I don't even notice it's that high. Secondly, I got a keyboard that I can adjust freely. This is the one I currently use: Kinesis Freestyle. It allows me to angle the keyboard so my wrists aren't out of socket while I'm typing to limit the amount of discomfort I experience. Lastly, (and this part probably only helps me) I subconsciously make sure that my wrists are not resting out of socket. Whether I'm lying in bed or standing or at work, I try and do things in a way that I won't pull my wrists out of socket.

Oh, and my ring fingers dislocate.

Also, if anyone has any suggestions for careers that don't involve the need for hands, that'd be appreciated.

might want to get that checked out regardless

You don't have to stop playing unless the pain is instant and constant. Check your desk/chair setup (google ergonomics) to make sure you are doing things right, and start taking more regular breaks (10 mins every hour at least, micro breaks help a lot as well though (ie. while you are waiting to respawn, take your hands off your mouse and keyboard). During breaks do stretches (which ones depend on specific source of pain - google/consult a physio. In my experience general practicioners ("doctors") know very little about these sorts of conditions (unless it is one of the more common ones like carpel tunnel) so use their advice at your own risk, they will most likely just prescribe painkillers. Only if the problem worsens after doing these things do you really have to consider stopping playing. It's also worth nothing that in many (not all) cases, stopping playing for a period of months will be completley negligible. The pain came for a reason and will come again if you do not adjust your setup and habits accordingly, and in my experience it was completley ineffective (as well as the pain spanning far beyond games/PCs so stopping was pointless anyway).

Foot model?

wrist curls & rolls. strengthen them bitches and your forearms. never get sore again

get a nice big table you can rest your arm on, or if you're using your wrists alot you might want to try lowering your sens so you can use your arm to aim instead of your wrists. doing both of these has relieved all my wrist pain.

I had been suffering from RSI (repetitive strain injury) for a couple of years. Both my wrists, my arms and elbows hurt. I couldn’t even lift a cup without pain. Not to mention computer related work, that was nearly impossible.

I have published my whole story on my website My RSI history. You’ll also find comprehensive information on what helped me in the end to overcome this pain (22,000+ words, so arrange enough time ;)). So if you are a fellow sufferer, I hope this can be of help.

Didn't know there was a need for publicity for blogs about wrist pain

i do a lot of really terrible things to my hands/wrists because i'm a flute/percussion player on top of playing too many video games

https://31.media.tumblr.com/deb62d5cdc11c5375ed5b172ffc0330b/tumblr_inline_nevnhavPOQ1qb9kag.png

do that every hour no matter if you feel pain or not and keep hydrated

Use your feet

good advice from everyone regarding wrist pains - also keep in mind that if you're experiencing pains from playing videogames you should be careful about other things too like sitting for extended periods of time which is rly dangerous and less obvious

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17sitting-t.html

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/stand-up-while-you-read-this/

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/phys-ed-the-men-who-stare-at-screens/

It's usually based on your sensitivity. If you have a higher sensitivity, which you probably do, just moving your wrist would work, because moving your whole arm would be too quick. Lowering your sensitivity would help.