Ever play a game too much and it carries over into real life?

[Nay-Owe-Me]

A few different things for me...

First of all is sound effects. They kind of make themselves a part of my daily life. One example, whenever I forget to take a medicine I have to take every day, I'll start getting these odd spurts of weakness. To this day I still hear the MGS4 "nanomachine" sound when it happens. I think this kind of thing happens because of how immersed I get.

The second thing that happens is even stranger. If I am focusing a lot on playing one particular game, after a day or two I start to have full on closed-eye visuals built out of and based on the game's graphics. The more "simplified" the graphics, the more likely it is to happen, though I think my mind is starting to learn how to replicate more advanced graphics. It's pretty awesome being able to close my eyes and watch my mind think up brand new characters, settings, techniques, and so on based on a favorite game. Interferes with my sleep sometimes, though.

Then, of course, there are the Metal Gear Solid caution songs. It's usually the MGS3 ones with the twangy guitar. Any time, ANY time I have to be quiet or sneaky, one of them pops right into my head. Occasionally my brain gets retro on me and throws in the MGS1 songs, like the tank hangar or the nuke building. Very rarely I'll get the tanker caution from MGS2.

I often wonder if this kind of stuff happens to people with other hobbies. Like some dude falls asleep seeing a football game in his head, or hears someone shout "GOAL" every time he has an orgasm.

 

[|Ookami]

If I play Persona 3 or 4 too much, I start thinking about people in terms of S Links, and I still have a tendency to hear Zelda sound effects every now and then. Also, sometimes, as an incentive to do something, I'll imagine it builds some kind of stat. I.e. I studied for an hour more than usual??intelligence +5!

There's also often that urge to save before making a major decision, just in case it turns out to make things worse.

...yay dorkiness. -sighs-

 

[Tomster595]

Yea, sometimes I try to Quicksave before doing something risky IRL =P

 

[LadyRhian]

When I was younger, I played Tetris for hours, because I had the game. I used to hear the music in my dreams.

This music:

Or if you prefer, this one:

With lyrics!

::Laughs.:: he might not want to sing that song near the guys who play super-high speed Tetris.

 

[Kiju]

For me, it's usually playing a game for way too long on the computer, any game really, and then going to do something like...get a drink and whatnot, and notice that everything isn't drowning in bloom and special effects, it seems so much real-er. Well....yeah, there ya go.

 

[ffxfriek]

I've had the strong urge to climb buildings Assassin's Creed style.

so im not the only one....thank God....id have to say wanting to climb like AC and look for climable buildings

 

[Zap Rowsdower]

This is called the Tetris Effect.
Look it up.

 

[KiruTheMant]

Lets just say you get very weird stares if you call your Science group a TEAM FULL OF BABIES! in heavys voice.

 

[gamer_parent]

I think it's funny that inspite of these experiences, people still believe that games have no effect on behavior what so ever.

 

[Croix Sinistre]

I don't understand how this can happen to people, as much as I've enjoyed a game I have never had an experience where i attempted or had the urge do do something from it.

However, some of my interests have been affected temporarily be some games, much like someone might discover a new genre from Rock Band, or another may attempt parkour after playing Mirror's Edge. For instance, after played Red Dead Redemption I began looking at replacing my double action revolver with a ruger single action, and have been using my country accent more and more frequently.

 

[oktalist]

After playing Europa Universalis II, seeing any foriegn affairs item on the news and interpreting it in terms of that game's diplomacy mechanics (casus belli, relations level, issue warning...) it actually results in removing the cruft in which these things are usually framed by politicians, and distills things down to the cold, unemotional essence of international relations.

 

[Fappy]

One night many years ago my cousin and I spent all night playing Vice City. The next day, while driving, I had to prevent myself from mowing down motorcyclists. :<

 

[joshuaayt]

Hm. After playing Majora's Mask or Pikmin for a while, occasionally I will 'pause' (Set down whatever I'm doing and ignore people) and plan the rest of the day, setting very strict time limits.
I have been known to have nightmares about that one fight in Dragon Age: Origins (You know, that one zombie boss guy. Before I realised I could just open the gate and have some soldiers help)
Whenever someone tells me to "mind" or "take care of" something, I immediately take out whatever weapon I have on me, fully assuming that a whole stream of dudes are about to try and break it.

After spending a while on several Portal speedplays, I now find myself looking to see where I should place portals on any flat, white surface I see.

Must make showers fun, then. Assuming you have tiles.

 

[gamer_parent]

I don't understand how this can happen to people, as much as I've enjoyed a game I have never had an experience where i attempted or had the urge do do something from it.

However, some of my interests have been affected temporarily be some games, much like someone might discover a new genre from Rock Band, or another may attempt parkour after playing Mirror's Edge. For instance, after played Red Dead Redemption I began looking at replacing my double action revolver with a ruger single action, and have been using my country accent more and more frequently.

to me it actually makes a lot of sense, just not in the way that people think.

when playing certain games, my mind will be conditioned by said game to respond to a certain kind of stimulus in a certain way. If I'm playing a game where a missile attack might be predicated with a whistle sound. If I play this game enough, I will naturally unconsciously associate that particular whistle sound with a missile attack or at least as something I need to act upon. Sort of like some kind of gaming pavlovian response.

So if I go out to the park, and somebody with a whistle makes a sound just like it, my mind will automatically zero in on that. even if I might not actually do anything or act upon this information, my mind already has.

 

[General BrEeZy]

i f*cking talk like a mix of legion and mordin from mass effect 2 half of my waking life. and sometimes in my dreams.....kinda annoying but kinda fun.

 

[xAnarchysAngelx]

Idk I guess not, I mean I want to climb up walls AC2 style.
I like stealth games so after I play them, I will sometimes sneak around my house at like 11:00pm just beacuse.

 

[Drexlor]

Oh, that lovable quicksave reflex.

 

[Nay-Owe-Me]

I think it's funny that inspite of these experiences, people still believe that games have no effect on behavior what so ever.

I dunno, I hear a lot about how games supposedly negatively effect behavior, but all of the effects they've ever had on me have been quite positive in my opinion. Lots of good memories, adding spice to life here and there, helping keep my imagination fresh and sharp, general positive inspiration.

I don't understand how this can happen to people, as much as I've enjoyed a game I have never had an experience where i attempted or had the urge do do something from it.

However, some of my interests have been affected temporarily be some games, much like someone might discover a new genre from Rock Band, or another may attempt parkour after playing Mirror's Edge. For instance, after played Red Dead Redemption I began looking at replacing my double action revolver with a ruger single action, and have been using my country accent more and more frequently.

I do this, too. Resident Evil and Metal Gear have turned me into a total gun geek. Gran Turismo is single-handedly responsible for my love/lust for a Skyline. Capcom fighters with Marvel characters rekindled my interest in Marvel comics in general. Hell, it even gets meta: Dissidia had me playing all the old Final Fantasies again!

 

[Croix Sinistre]

oh I don't doubt that playing a game frequently enough may effect subconcious judgements like your example, but i find i hard to see how someone can be affected to the point where they may find themselves literally wanting to quickload. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but it doesn't happen to me.

Even as much as I've played both Modern Warfares and other FPS's (about two-three weeks time total for both CoD's) I've never had a tendency to do anything in real life that I'd do in the game.

 

[Raziel_Likes_Souls]

I always wanted to suplex things due to No More Heroes. Inanimate things such as a train:And ever since Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, I've tried parkour. On a bunch of things.

On a non-gaming note, I learned Karate because of the Power Rangers:

Fuck Yeah. Too much Power Rangers carries over.