Too Much Gaming, Anyone?

Nrik noted a wired story about too much gaming and how sometimes a few too many hours of gaming can cause your mind to blur some lines. For me it was Tony Hawk- I played so much that I started sizing up curbs for grinding while driving home from work. Katamari Damacy has been a problem too. I'm fairly certain my car is large enough to pick up the railings on the overpass near my house. I'm even more certain that these thoughts are bad.

Oh yeah..

[grub]

For me it's the Thief series of games. I've been walking behind people and thought "I could blackjack him/her..." Don't call the guys in white coats, though, I've never lurked in shadows while wearing a black cape or muttered about "Keepers".

dreams

[psycht]

I know I've had too much Quake III, when often used to dream of insagibbing my friends.

Although good dreams, I knew I needed to back off a bit.

i do that all the time

[frogger01]

this happens to me all the time. i can hardly fly for ten minutes in my tie fighter before i think that i'm in a star wars game....

Burnout 3

[clarus]

Even worse was when I went on a burnout 3 binge. I would pull alongside a tanker trailer and start calculating the best angle to hit it so that i could bounce over the median into oncoming traffic.

It certainly did change my temporary assesment of situations.

Hmm, guess I need to stop playing CTF!

[garcia]

In addition to attempting to blow someone away with a nearby shopping cart at the grocery store while reaching for a flag wrapped in plastic I have been told I say, "owned" entirely too much.

Bah. If only I could grapple to work.

same, but different

[dynamo_mikey]

Too much gaming definitely caused me problems, for example I find it hard to focus after several hours because my wife is yelling at me.

Re:GTA

[spywarearcata.com]

I think I erred in permitting my kids to play GTA *before* taking driver's training...

Zerg in my sleep

[sckeener]

I can remember playing so much starcrack, that I couldn't close my eyes without seeing Zerg prancing around.

Little zergs scratching at the door.
Little zergs digging holes.
little zergs racing across the landscape.

It was wonderful.

After playing too much City of Heroes...

[Bobartig]

When I see a crowd of kids/ppl standing in a parking lot, I think about positioning for area attacks based on surrounding architecture and the shape of their group.

I also marvel at how long it takes to get around cities without superspeed (basically the ability to run 60 mph all the time)

Re:Oh yeah..

[CK2004PA]

For me its America's Army. I'm watching the nightly news of Marines clearing houses in Fallujah and thinking to myself "Why don't they RPG that house first, then throw in flash bangs and frag nades before kicking that door in?"

I know thats bad.

Oh yes, it's for real.

[Vengeance]

Too much Doom had me scared in the office.

Too much Quake2 had me strafing around corners (still do this a bit).

Too much Asheron's Call had me jumpy just from being outdoors (what was THAT? Oh, just a log, not a golem).

Too much Liesure Suit Larry, and I... nevermind.

Battlefield1942's scary effect on me

[Anonymous Coward]

After playing for a few weeks I started suffering from the delusion that if I joined an army, they would give me a gun and actually let me kill people! With no repercussions! I know it is crazy talk, but it's true. I had to put it away just to stay safe.

Re:GTA

[dsginter]

Is it just me, or has GTA clouded the minds of others as well?

It isn't just you... [navy.mil]

Re:GTA

[artemis67]

I think I erred in permitting my kids to play GTA *before* buying them semi-automatic weapons...

WoW...

[methangel]

I know that after playing 6 hours of WoW and stopping at 4 a.m. I dream about levelling up and gaining items. The issue is, my mind believes that I HAVE gained levels and I DO have the new items. I am sadly mistaken when I play again.

Re:Quake

[darth_pepsi]

I've hardly ever played Quake yet I remember being in theatres watching the crappy remake of The Planet of the Apes. They were inside a building and one of the windows was shaped like the Quake I symbol. So I blurt out "look Quake I!" Thankfully I wasn't the only person in my group to have noticed...

GTA Radio

[Grayden]

A year ago when Vice City was the hot GTA title, I went driving with my girlfriend and she asked if I would change the radio to K-CHAT. I actually reached for the dial before we both realized that we had been spending a bit too much time playing/watching the game.

too much warcraft

[neckdeepinspecialsau]

I knew I was playing too much Warcraft (custom map DOTA to be exact) when my 3 year old daughter came running down the isle at target holding a WC3 box yelling "Daddy, Daddy it's your game! Woot!"

Yes sadly I no longer use that exclamation. My wife tells this story way too much.

Re:GTA

[Sheepdot]

Is it just me, or has GTA clouded the minds of others as well?

Yes, I get this overbearing sense of omniscience, like I'm looking over a city down on what appears to be a 2d terrain. Everything is all pixelated and ...

Err wait, did you mean Grand Theft Auto 3?

Contrary to public belief, there was a GTA and GTA2. The multiplayer features in GTA2 were excellent for LAN partying (if you were fortunate enough to have the PC version). Now if only they'd add some TRUE multiplayer to GTA3, then the game wouldn't just be an "expansion" anymore.

On scaring the passengers ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Note to self: Do not, while driving the car, describe to your girlfriend how easy it is in "Halo" to flip over a Warthog jeep.

"Quad Damage!"

[E IS mC(Square)]

After playing Quake on company network with 30 others for like 5 hrs straight, its impossible not to dream of fragging others and all. I used to get up when I blew up myself launching rocket on myself.

Also, a room-mate had the habit of shouting "Quad damage!", "fragged!!", "f*ck you, @$$hole" and things like that in sleep!!

Re:Oh if only...

[TheLink]

You forgot one more vital thing...

Background music so you know when to do the quick save :).

Imagine a "superhero" with such a super power- no other powers except having predictive background music... ;)

This isn't new.

[afstanton]

My dad and I observed this a long time ago after playing Pac-Man for too long - he was driving down the road and kept trying to drive down the middle of the road, on the dotted lines. Fortunately he avoided the brightly colored cars, but kept wanting to run into the blue ones.

Fake

[chadseld]

Sometimes I look at the (actual) sky and start to critique the over-done cloud layering effect (ala Unreal), and a swear I actually see the cracks between texture maps. "These graphics look so fake." Then I know I need to take a break.

Doom II waking hallucinations...

[Anonymous Coward]

I played Doom II...alot

I got to the point where I could play name that tune with the levels and their music. Then I started hearing similar sequences of sounds in other music. When that occurred, I would get very disoriented due to what I was seeing at the time not matching what I was hearing.

This has never completely disappeared. 1:17 into Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride", I have an irresistable urge to whip around and unload two barrels into a Cacodemon.

Re:Ah, the days of tetris

[peragrin]

If you want really scary I got bored one day and decided to get some good scores in Minesweeper.

It took a couple of days and when I was done I saw the various number sequences in my sleep. I could play minesweeper in my head.

Then I realised the truth. MSFT had control of my brain and was using it to upgrade minesweeper. A bit of tinfoil and a linux install and I am feeling much better now.

Re:After playing too much City of Heroes...

[Iorek]

How do people live without a travel power? ;-)

I just find every third thought I have is COH related. I have those "Oh, I should tell my wife/buddy/stranger on the bus about this!" moments, only to realize that they're all game related, and they won't give a hoot. A good example is City of Zeroes [ign.com]: hilarious, if you play.

Not limited to "gaming"

[DeepCerulean]

at least in the computer gaming sense. I know when I was in high school on the chess team (no laughing), we used to study and play chess constantly. it definitely got to the point where we would be walking down the hallway looking at the tiles on the floor and thinking, "if i were a knight i could capture them right now..."

Re:Quake + College Broadband = Hallucinations

[Ironsides]

I was at the mall with my girlfriend

You're already one up on almost everyone else on /. Don't bother with the conseling.

Lucky you

[Prince Vegeta SSJ4]

I realized I was playing Unreal Tournament too much when I used a modified wireless tazer [boingboing.net] to shoot a big glob of liquid, then performed a shock combo on the neighbors cat.

Poor fluffy, his hair stood straight up for a week.

Zelda, Ocarina of Time.

[mikael]

After playing Zelda, Ocarina of Time, I still have this desire to hit the large stones on the lawns in our campus with a large sledgehammer, just to see if there are any secret tunnels leading to quest characters.

When my little cousins played Super Mario 64 first came out, they later visited an art museum, and wer tempted to try taking running jumps at large paintings to see if there were any secret entrances.

I know I play too much DDR when

[Man in Spandex]

I start losing weight.

Counter Strike: Source

[lemkepf]

As most of you know Counter Strike got a major graphical upgrade with the release of Half-life 2. Last night after playing for 3 hours and then having to get called into work i realized i was looking at my office building as if Terrorists were inside!

I would subconsiously think of where the enemy could be sniping from. Where would a good place to throw a grenade would be. Should i rush and straif the corner, or try and find a round-about-way of enterting that area. I even got to the point where I was thinking... "Man that would be an easy headshot!"

What did i learn from this? Never bring a gun to work... you might relapse into Couter-strike mode :)

Re:After playing too much City of Heroes...

[filenabber]

Your post will be summarily deleted without further notice. You have used the word "marvel" when speaking about COH. This is not allowed.

Reality TV meets Leisure Suit Larry

[micromuncher]

If you really want to start addicting people... someone will make a MMORPG where the intent is to get drunk and whore as much as you can. Then let everyone watch. Say goodbye to EQ and WoW then...

I want the red cherry flavored lubricated ribbed rubber please.

Oh yeah, I want royalities.

Battletoads

[numbski]

It's been a looooong time, but when I was a kid, those stupid levels with the speeder bikes....ugh! Anytime I get into traffic and start weaving through, I hear the music in my head.

Duh duh duh. Dun dun, dut, dut da da. Dut da da ut. (doo do do do do do do)....

Worse. If I hit a jam shortly after, I hear sad midi drums.

Boom chick, boom chick, boom chick chick chick... :P

I once saw this guy at a mall

[WormholeFiend]

He was walking down a staircase, and before reaching the bottom, he jumped, landed in a low stance, looked behind him, looked forward, got back up and started walking again.

I figured he played console games a little too much.

Re:WoW...

[mizhi]

I've found after playing CoH intensively that I'll sometimes think I can just point at an object and interact with it.

On related notes, when I've been coding intensively, I sometimes wish I had a debugger handy for real life situations.

spelling error...

[gnuman99]

I find it hard to focus after several hours because my wife is yelling at me

s/wife/mom/

Re:Same here, only work instead.

[redfenix]

Now all you have to do is convince your boss that you're just as effective asleep as you are awake. Then you can take those well-deserved naps at work after lunch.

Re:Of course...

[OldSoldier]

I agree completely. For myself, it isn't just limited to computer games. Many years ago when the Othello brand of Reversi came out my siblings and I played so many games back to back that both my brother and I suffered from the symptoms described.

We both were in high school then, he was working at a grocery store... stacking fruit, when he saw apples next to oranges he thought he could put an orange on the other side and flip the apple over and it should become an orange. When I took naps on a couch with a pillow at my head, I felt, if someone put a pillow at my feet I should flip over and become a pillow.

Re:GTA

[BlueCodeWarrior]

I think I erred in permitting my kids to play GTA *before* teaching them that you're not really supposed to beat up a hooker.

Unless that's what you're paying her for.

Re:Oh yeah..

[Specter]

Oh it's not all visual. It turns out that the sound of someone slapping their BlackBerry back into it's holster sounds a lot like someone reloading their pistol in Counter Strike. There was quite a while there where anytime someone holstered their BlackBerry my first instinctual thought was: "Awesome they're reloading! Time to frag!"

Re:Counter Strike: Source

[Lendrick]

Never bring a gun to work... you might relapse into Couter-strike mode :) ...or get fired, 'cause, like, you brought a gun to work.

Re:GTA -- ,my thoughts in the Walmart parking lot.

[Johnny5000]

I have the same urge when I'm at a walmart, but what's GTA?

Re:GTA

[lukewarmfusion]

I had that exact thought once, but it was behind a beer truck and it wasn't so much "reloading" as "getting loaded."

Paintball + CS Geeks = Hilarity

[cbrichar]

One of the funniest recent memoriest I have of people trying to apply gaming mentality to "real-life" settings (albeit still a game setting) was a recent game of paintball my friends and I participated in.

We were all gung-ho, having each logged many a late night in CS, and felt we've have an edge on the competition with our intricate knowledge of coordinated attack squad tactics.

Now picture all of us nursing our burning legs after less than a half-hour, having discovered that it's actually incredibly painful to run around in a squat position for periods of time longer than about 4 minutes.

I noted that there was a noticeable lack of suicide charges into enemy territory as well.