Playing a game for so long you start to see it IRL... [Archive]

PROTO·DOME

07-30-2009, 10:05 PM

So, seeing as there was a thread on videogame cravings...

I just recently worked myself into a Tetris mood and thought it was time I finally completed marathon mode. After blasting through endless mode for hours and hours I found that once I'd stopped I just couldn't stop making lines in my head. It got to the point that no matter what I did I was playing Tetris in my head. It's not just Tetris, me and my friends played the city mode on Kirby's Air Ride for so long I started to see the car markers out of the corner of my eye.

Just wondering if this has ever happened to you guys and how extreme!

RoeTaKa

07-30-2009, 10:23 PM

Yup used to happen to me alot. A good memory I had was from when I played Grand Theft Auto 3 too much, I wanted to hunt down all the cars for the "get the cars" side mission and one of them was a Securicor van (Yknow, armored vehicles that carry money) and in the game I just couldn't bloody find or get one for ages. So I was walking down the street one day in real life where I saw one of those vans and I got so excited I was about to steal it. I had to sort of slap myself and laugh.

The last game I probably did it with was Assassin's Creed. Oh man that really stuck in my head. I was working in a quiet village once and I couldn't help the notice that it had fantastic rooftops to do parkour on and it made me imagine how I'd rob a bank and totally get away on these fantastic rooftops (they were fantastic I can't emphasise enough). Also the best thing was how the Assassin would gently brush people aside to keep moving, I was in a club once drunk and it just stuck with me so I kept walking back and forward through the crowd brushing people aside, I was suprised how well it worked and the funny thing was I would accidentally just grab a breast every now and then (I know it sounds bad...) and it would totally go unnoticed because of how cool I played it.

Yeah...the end.

Sengin

07-30-2009, 10:23 PM

While this didn't happen to me, it happened to a friend of mine a couple years ago. We were hanging out at his place playing Super Smash Brothers Melee, and at one point he went walking through a door frame. He did kind of a jump forward thing but tried to stay on the ground. He stopped for minute perplexed as to why he did this. Then he said "You know, I just tried to wavedash."

Gario

07-30-2009, 10:29 PM

Yes, this has happened before (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyNvoOAofIM&feature=PlayList&p=B92E12705AAC1595&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=15) (not to me, though).

tweek

07-30-2009, 10:40 PM

Three words: Final Fantasy 11......

DJMetal

07-30-2009, 10:41 PM

I'm not sure what this says about me, but sometimes when I'm stalking about my college campus, I get a VERY "Left 4 Dead" feeling. It's probably a good thing I don't own a firearm, because there are several occasions where I'm all alone and I suddenly, out of nowhere, a horde comes at me in a claustrophobic corridor. I hate it when classes get out right next to tiny hallways...

DrumUltimA

07-30-2009, 10:43 PM

quintin3265

07-30-2009, 10:50 PM

Yeah, back when I played ddr a lot it got to the point where sometimes I would close my eyes and just see arrows. Weird!

Also, sometimes after playing computer games a lot, I'll go back to real world and everything will look grainy and pixelated. weird...

DDR is awesome. After I got good at DDR, I joined a swing dance club around the same time. But at first I had to break myself out of the DDR frame because there were no arrows on the ground to guide the steps. It's harder than you would think. With DDR, you start looking at dance as a set of mathematical steps that are preselected, and it's not like real dance at all.

Rozovian

07-30-2009, 10:57 PM

Not a video game, but after having spent few to many evening playing Blokus (http://www.blokus.com/) (board game) with friends, we all kind'a saw colored blocks and patterns everywhere. Like in wallpapers, drapes, clothes...

Paying a visit to the bright colors and geometric arena of Megazone (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megazone) made things worse. It makes its way into ppl's dreams. At least one of my friends managed to combine the two in a dream. Not sure I did so myself too, or if I just pictured it hearing about his dream... but lemme tell you picturing it wasn't hard then. :D

Also, I've had a moment hearing Israfel's Pacman remix while being in a grocery story, and it just felt wrong to walk around the hallways picking snacks for a bus ride, with that remix too loud in my ears.

JH Sounds

07-30-2009, 11:21 PM

One time I stared at a park playground structure, figuring out methods to platform my way to the top.

SoulinEther

07-30-2009, 11:24 PM

A little ironic that you experienced it with tetris - that's the game that lent its name to the tetris effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris_effect).

I used to play diablo 2 on hardcore (meaning once your character dies you lose your character). I played so much that I could close my eyes and see the game, and imagine activity. I could even cause my heart to race by "seeing" my character's health bar reach empty.

Level 99

07-31-2009, 12:14 AM

Ok, that tetris effect article scared the crap outa me. Not lying. I'm already OCD about shit, now I'm terrified to play tetris ever again!

But for serious, I had a friend who played F.E.A.R. constantly after I gave it to him. He wouldn't stop, he loved it, but the scary parts drove him nuts. He was staying up late doing engineering homework and playing the game so much that he lost track of time and didn't sleep. He went to class that day in a big lecture hall and started freaking out cause he kept seeing Alma crawling towards him over the seats out of the corner of his eye. He has not played any F.E.A.R. games since.

Tables

07-31-2009, 01:01 AM

Usually this doesn't happen to me.

But after lots of Dead Rising, every time I see a big crowd I want to climb on top of them and Zombie Walk to the other side

Oh and L4D leads me to believe I hear a witch crying IRL every once in a while.

Bahamut

07-31-2009, 01:10 AM

If I play too much Tetris Attack/Planet Puzzle League/any of its variants, I think of various scenarios mentally & think on how to handle them. The image is so intense in my mind it tends to stop me from thinking about anything else :-( .

PROTO·DOME

07-31-2009, 01:18 AM

Ah so it's not just me! That Tetris thingy was scary, but yeah, as Bahamut said, it's really vivid sometimes. I can actually play it and remember where I've put blocks previously. Oddly enough though it never tends to automatically clear the lines unless I think about it...

That F.E.A.R thing is just crazy though...

Lint

07-31-2009, 01:34 AM

I did the "Tetris Effect" visions with Lumines and DDR most recently. And I know several people that act like they're playing on a Guitar Hero controller whenever they air guitar. There was also like a week where all I did was see DoTA Allstars whenever I closed my eyes.

There was a span of about three months where all I did was play fighting games, I would find myself repeating combo/super inputs to myself at work (and performing the appropriate motions). It was a lot like meditation, and it really made the day speed by.

Isn't it possible to have that sort of meditative response to any regular action though? Dishwashing, cleaning, roofing, reading, and writing all relax me and haunt my dreams if I do them too much. Except I'm sore after roofing.

Dj Mokram

07-31-2009, 01:55 AM

He has not played any F.E.A.R. games since.
Ahah awesome ...I mean, I should probably stop playing them too.

There's worst than seeing game in real-life: there's seeing them at night while trying to sleep.
I remember the first day I got F-zero on the SNES, I played so long, that when I went to sleep, the friggn road was still unveiling in my head.
The effect lasted for 2 or 3 days. I tell ya, that mode 7 was a nasty piece of work. :mrgreen:

Sinewav

07-31-2009, 01:56 AM

This happens to me from time to time, usually with the usual games like Tetris, DDR, and Guitar Hero. My psych prof back at my old college was talking about it happening to him once back with Mario Kart for the SNES. Said he couldn't get to sleep for a while because every time he closed his eyes he would be driving along in his head and slip on a banana peel. lol.

Red Shadow

07-31-2009, 02:14 AM

so, who else has ever been to a lan party

McVaffe

07-31-2009, 02:49 AM

Gollgagh

07-31-2009, 02:51 AM

DDR (well, Stepmania) and Lumines

Level 99

07-31-2009, 04:09 AM

after playing burnout paradise for a few weeks I was driving on the parkway and had this inexplicable urge to veer across two empty lanes and smash a brightly colored car into the guardrail. True story! Didn't happen though...

I would say the exact same thing. Though it had happened before as well when I got R4 for the PS1. I was just learning to drive then, and I had the OST in my car stereo. All I needed was a place tracker and a time limit somewhere in vision and I couldn't have told the difference. Glad you didn't wreck the car.

atmuh

07-31-2009, 04:16 AM

DDR (well, Stepmania) and Lumines
minus everything after the first 3 letters

Ajax

07-31-2009, 04:22 AM

DDR (well, Stepmania) and Lumines

minus everything after the first 3 letters

Plus Tetris and Doctor Mario

friendlyHunter

07-31-2009, 05:01 AM

Smash Bros. Except it's not so much merged with reality as it is an entire Smash Bros. match in my head (with me controlling 1 of the characters). I'm pretty sure it was only when I closed my eyes though.

There was also like a week where all I did was see DoTA Allstars whenever I closed my eyes.
Wow, I'd rather have the F.E.A.R. thing than DoTA stuck in my head =/

But I do get the tetris effect with RTS games occasionally.

ZealPath

07-31-2009, 05:08 AM

A few years ago after long days of EverQuest I would sometimes continue to have visions of it after going to sleep. Mostly after bad things, like failing a raid boss a few times, it would be like I was still playing, and it usually wasn't just the game aspect, sometimes my mind would go as far to imagine what was being said in chat and that kind of thing. Other times I would dream of getting long-wanted items, only to wake up and realize that I didn't actually get them (damn :lol: ).

cremdogz

07-31-2009, 07:44 AM

After playing a lot of Metal Gear Solid, walking down the streets at night in one of the safest areas in Australia no longer feels safe... I had the Rex's Lair music going constantly in my head, it has scared me more than once, even though I walk at night regularly and there's nothing there.

Rexy

07-31-2009, 07:52 AM

Yep, it happened to me too if I play any one of my games for longer than I should do. The most notable ones that do that to me though are Elite Beat Agents (where I keep seeing circles closing in on me when I close my eyes) and Guitar Hero (where I keep seeing the highway and the note markers moving inside my head almost consistently and I end up suddenly air-playing just to get rid of it). :lol:

halc

07-31-2009, 08:04 AM

Yeah, back when I played ddr a lot it got to the point where sometimes I would close my eyes and just see arrows. Weird!

THIS

i would see them all the time when i first started playing, eventually they went away though.

Calpis

07-31-2009, 08:13 AM

The most annoying time this happened to me was when Tetris attack first came out. I played it so much I would hear and see the tiles popping when I closed my eyes or daydreamed.

I don't know if this counts but ever since I played Super Mario Bros. for the first time, when I'm a passenger in a car/train, I look out and imagine Mario running on and jumping over telephone poles, scenery and the horizon line.

Actually now that I think of it, that hasn't happened in a while now, but I used to do it all the time up until my late teen years.

Cerrax

07-31-2009, 09:04 AM

PROTO·DOME

07-31-2009, 10:39 AM

I don't know if this counts but ever since I played Super Mario Bros. for the first time, when I'm a passenger in a car/train, I look out and imagine Mario running on and jumping over telephone poles, scenery and the horizon line.

Hey! I used to do that alot actually, only it was Sonic.

FuriousFure

07-31-2009, 11:25 AM

That "tetris effect" only has happened to me by one game and that was Minesweeper.

God damn, every time i'd close my eyes i would see scenarios and would figure out how to solve them. it was ridiculous.

Tricklozen

07-31-2009, 12:17 PM

Mirror's Edge. (...) I stopped myself and realized maybe I was getting a little too into the game..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTrf5anN4k8

Malaki-LEGEND.sys

07-31-2009, 12:23 PM

I think Burnout Paradise is having a negative effect on my driving...

Anyway, a recent(as in a week ago) episode of this is me playing through Romancing SaGa so much that whenever I wasn't really paying attention to my surroundings, I'd start to see battle menus everywhere. 8-O

Level 99

07-31-2009, 02:11 PM

So I guess the moral of the story is a) we're too imaginative b) we get too into our games or c) many of us have random bouts of hallucinations and insantiy....or d) all of the above.

That Mirror's Edge thing sounds awesome, I may have to force myself to try imagining that sometime.

Oh, and here we are: I've logged probably more than 800 hours into the Katamari games over the years. At one point, I was looking at random objects and calculating how big my katamari would have to be in order to pick it up, and planning my route to get to the biggest size the fastest. The worst time was going to Sam's Club...

Flare4War

07-31-2009, 03:01 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTrf5anN4k8

lol a lot.

And I want that song.

linkspast

07-31-2009, 03:51 PM

Ddr ........

Skummel Maske

07-31-2009, 05:24 PM

Quite often. Every time I have a "gaming binge", really. When it comes to FPSes, I tend to get used to that way of moving, so walking around normally ends up feeling weird.

Most recently I'd been playing Prototype alot. That naturally led to me sizing every building up, and looking for vertical "shortcuts" when walking around in town. Most bizzare. At least I didn't grow claws or toss cars around.

I don't know if this counts but ever since I played Super Mario Bros. for the first time, when I'm a passenger in a car/train, I look out and imagine Mario running on and jumping over telephone poles, scenery and the horizon line.

I still do that occasionally. I travel between my hometown and the town I study in alot, and that's a 2 hour bus ride, so I guess that's one way to stay awake. I've done that for as long as I can remember though.

Alexis

07-31-2009, 07:06 PM

Last year in orchestra, I was really bored, so while I was playing some Pictures at An Exhibition, I kept feeling like I was playing guitar hero. Even though I've been playing viola for 14 years and guitar hero for about 1 or 2...

Also, when I went to the Medieval Faire in Ohio, I kept wanting to play Oblivion really bad.

Vilecat

07-31-2009, 07:12 PM

WoW has me on that. Pretty much every game I enjoy and have been playing a lot recently will do that sort of things. FF, Disgaea, Atelier Iris, Smash Bros,...
I'd either replay the entire scene/level in my head to see the possibilities on how to win, I'd have urges to use the in-game features/commands irl, or what annoys me the most, I'd think about something then the game will start "melting" in.

I sometimes get that from movies when I just came out of the theater too. I probably have a too vivid imagination.

Penfold

07-31-2009, 07:31 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTrf5anN4k8

Haha, nice, Gasworks Park really seems like a great place for parkour. I'd imagine the UW Parkour group must go there pretty often.

Final Hero

08-01-2009, 03:50 AM

This happened with me once with the game Vagrant Story. One of the features of the game - a very cool one - is that you can combine weaker weapons in the game to create stronger weapons, and I'd spent all day trying to get a Katana in the game to combine and make a better two-handed sword. Anyway, I finally gave up and wandered over to one of my friend's houses, to discover a katana that he'd ordered online months before had finally arrived. I caught myself starting to run out the door with the sword to go home and combine it with the one in the game.

Nase

08-01-2009, 06:48 AM

Whenever I had been playing a lot of Diablo, it leaked into my dreams. Not so much story wise but in the sense that I saw my own health and mana bubbles, no matter if the dream was funny, nightmarish, sexual, or plain boring.

As far as real life goes, rhythm and repetition are probably the main factors for a game to do something like that to your brain.

Like combo chains in Tekken! There was a time where I couldn't stop pressing 10 hit combos into the air all day. You could call it an addiction to patterns i guess.

Jarvi

08-01-2009, 07:00 AM

WoW has me on that.

This, I keep replaying boss fights in my head from trying to learn them and wiping for days >_>

Emunator

08-01-2009, 07:18 AM

Last time I played one ongoing game of Tetris DS for a week and a half (scored 22 million points before accidentally leaving the game unpaused and dying) I had the Tetris Effect going on for nearly 6 months afterward. That's the kinda thing that'll drive a guy crazy after so long of it happening.

I had no idea it was an actual effect though, I thought it was just one of those things that only happened to insanely addicted people like me :P

Oh, and back in elementary school, after playing Super Mario 64, I would always envision Mario wall-jumping his way around the classroom or my desk while I was bored. I still unconsciously do that sometimes.

Prophet Orwell

08-04-2009, 06:27 PM

A good friend of mind played Morrowind so long that while he was working at a bookstore he tapped his finger on a pile of books twice. It took him a few seconds to realize why he was unable to pick up the stack of books.

As for me, it happens with Lumines, Tetris, WoW, TF2 (I look for things to set on fire, or alternate routes of flanking someone, or even prime sentry locations), and DDR mainly.

The Derrit

08-04-2009, 07:44 PM

Oh, and back in elementary school, after playing Super Mario 64, I would always envision Mario wall-jumping his way around the classroom or my desk while I was bored. I still unconsciously do that sometimes.

i still kinda do stuff like that, with various games

i like sizing up my surroundings and being like if i were ______________ what could i do to get where

JCvgluvr

08-04-2009, 08:26 PM

I work at Fed Ex as a package handler. Basically, I take the boxes off the conveyor belt and fit them together inside the truck.

It's almost exactly like real life tetris. I even have a system where I'll save a certain-shaped box for later until it will fit perfectly in my current row. I often take this perfection much too far, and it even gets me behind in my stacking...

Oh, and back in elementary school, after playing Super Mario 64, I would always envision Mario wall-jumping his way around the classroom or my desk while I was bored. I still unconsciously do that sometimes.

That sounds like this. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJwFUNHtCJQ)

Nase

08-04-2009, 08:57 PM

Oh, and back in elementary school, after playing Super Mario 64, I would always envision Mario wall-jumping his way around the classroom or my desk while I was bored. I still unconsciously do that sometimes.

Ha, I did the exact same thing with Sonic. Especially when being in a car and looking out.

Darklink42

08-04-2009, 09:48 PM

The only memory I have of this sort of thing was right when I bought Mirror's Edge. I must have played it for hours on end every day. One day I walked into work and immediately started looking for an escape route. "Jump onto the file cabinet, lunge to the pipe, climb up the pipe, into the ventilation shaft...." I stopped myself and realized maybe I was getting a little too into the game..

That happened to me too. I'd go for walks, or be going to my next class, and the entire time I'd be thinking about how best to get up onto a building or the best way to escape.

Also, this thread reminded me of this one: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6916

Thylacine

08-04-2009, 10:43 PM

I recently left a group of friends (graduation does that) who would play Rock Band ritualistically once a week for the entire day.

Whenever I listen to music now, I imagine playing the drums or singing it in Rock Band. Every now and then, guitar will creep in. It even happens on songs that would likely never be suitable in Rock Band, like piano-based stuff from The Fray or whatever happens to be on the radio with unusual instruments. I see the visualizations of the song.

Salluz

08-05-2009, 12:38 AM

I used to run around like Sonic and the others after playing Sonic Adventure. I even tried to do the pose on the front cover.

Yes, this has happened before (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyNvoOAofIM&feature=PlayList&p=B92E12705AAC1595&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=15) (not to me, though).
I would love to wake up to that.

Alexis

08-05-2009, 02:13 AM

I used to run around like Sonic and the others after playing Sonic Adventure. I even tried to do the pose on the front cover.

I would love to wake up to that.

That reminds me, when I was younger and we had the Sega Genesis, me and my sister would run around and play Sonic and Tails. Good times.