We all love games, that much is for certain. But sometimes, we love games so much that things start to spill over into our daily lives. Allow me to explain.
First, a confession: For much of my life, I've been a minor kleptomaniac. It was never anything particularly valuable, and I never resorted to pickpocketing. In almost every case, I would see something small laying unattended: A pencil, a hand mirror, an old key or a piece of crystal... And I would get an irresistible compulsion to tuck it away in my pocket. Why did I do this, I wondered? Why do I pick up old pocketknives and discarded pens? What connects them in my mind? Each of the objects I'd pilfered were common, everyday items that can be easily purchased or replaced. But there was something different about them. Perhaps if I tried to combine them in some sort of strange contraption....
Then it hit me. I wasn't a kleptomaniac, I was mimicking point-and-click adventure game logic. My mind was telling me to take these objects because they were laying around in natural but obvious positions that stood out from the rest of the room, because random bits of junk that stand out are inevitably used to solve a problem. Of course, real life doesn't work like that and I have a small cupboard of stolen odds and ends as a result. But nonetheless, I came to the realization that video games had actually encroached upon my own instincts, something further proved by the realization that I have a series of movements I do when I stand in one place for too long: I look around, tap my feet on the floor, stretch a little, check my watch, and look around again. Every time the same thing, much like a character in an adventure game or RPG does when waiting for something to happen.
So am I alone in my madness, or are there others out there that do things in real life that they normally wouldn't because the countless levels have drilled it into your minds? How have the pixels twisted your psyche?
First, a confession: For much of my life, I've been a minor kleptomaniac. It was never anything particularly valuable, and I never resorted to pickpocketing. In almost every case, I would see something small laying unattended: A pencil, a hand mirror, an old key or a piece of crystal... And I would get an irresistible compulsion to tuck it away in my pocket. Why did I do this, I wondered? Why do I pick up old pocketknives and discarded pens? What connects them in my mind? Each of the objects I'd pilfered were common, everyday items that can be easily purchased or replaced. But there was something different about them. Perhaps if I tried to combine them in some sort of strange contraption....
Then it hit me. I wasn't a kleptomaniac, I was mimicking point-and-click adventure game logic. My mind was telling me to take these objects because they were laying around in natural but obvious positions that stood out from the rest of the room, because random bits of junk that stand out are inevitably used to solve a problem. Of course, real life doesn't work like that and I have a small cupboard of stolen odds and ends as a result. But nonetheless, I came to the realization that video games had actually encroached upon my own instincts, something further proved by the realization that I have a series of movements I do when I stand in one place for too long: I look around, tap my feet on the floor, stretch a little, check my watch, and look around again. Every time the same thing, much like a character in an adventure game or RPG does when waiting for something to happen.
So am I alone in my madness, or are there others out there that do things in real life that they normally wouldn't because the countless levels have drilled it into your minds? How have the pixels twisted your psyche?
