His office would be the perfect place to camp...

[Biobanger]

Article on the Obvious

While motorists and pedestrians shouldn't worry too much about rogue Katamari Damacy players, Kozy Kitchens' experience with having a difficult time separating her real-life consciousness from that of her game playing is all too common among hard-core gamers. It's so common, in fact, that game publishers might want to consider warning their customers that they may soon be unable to tell the difference between the game and reality.

I've been there. You've been there. Now they wrote a story about it.

[Paelos]

I've contemplated the next day's conquests in Rome:TW while lying in bed at night. I had a waking dream about Diablo I at some point in college. I used to play out Warcraft II strategies in my head while at school.

And yet I haven't tried to attack Greece, slay monsters in a sewer, or force regular folk to mine resources for me IRL.

[Calantus]

I've been there. You've been there.

Woah, slow down there sparky. Some of us are still sane around here.

[MrHat]

I will have to say the worst were Tony Hawk Pro Skater and Driver.

I refused to drive after playing Driver for a long time, I was afraid of what I might do.

[Nebu]

What's the over/under on how soon someone uses this article to explain why their kid shot a friend after playing GTA - San Andreas?

[Merusk]

That article covered the whole spectrum of crazy.  CTRL-Z to try and undo life issues? Jerking the wheel because you thought you could Katamari a mailbox? Deciding which co-workers to kill first?  Kozy Kitchens?

I can relate to working in a software for so long you try to use its commands in other programs. (I frequently try to hit "s" for scale or "u" for undo in programs other than AutoCAD.)  Or even contemplating your current favorite game, and strategies when you're in the middle of a boring task or before you got to bed.  Carrying it into your life like that is a whole new type of crazy to me.


Kozy Kitchens?

[LordDax]

Someone better be careful with those warning labels. The olderset of us gamers saw the huge shitestorm that launched the ESRB ratings and how much trouble they actually caused when politicians looking for an election ticket realized that 12 year old kids were in fact buying teen games(Say it ain't so!!). To start slapping reality warning labels on games may kick the legs out from under the industry that recently finished it rehab from the recent battles. In a worst case scenario, we might see games have to adhere to something like the old "Comics Code"...

And I would love to know how many of you remember the "Comics Code" Talk about nostalgia  :)

[toma levine]

This is a non-issue imo.

The other day I saw a couple of kids out in their yard dueling with sticks and making "bshhzzz" noises. Apparently they had seen this "Star Wars" movie and were acting out some sort of bizarre "light saber duel" fantasy.

Clearly their perception of reality is permanently distorted, all on account of seeing the film.

[Nebu]

And I would love to know how many of you remember the "Comics Code" Talk about nostalgia  :)

I remember this... but I'm older than most here.  I did some google-foo and came up with THIS

Seems a bit more restrictive than I remember... but I was just a kid.

[LordDax]

Nice work Nebu :P And actually it is alot stricter than you remember because probably like me, you  were more of a marvel fan? Marvel quickly became dissatisfied with the strict adherence to the code and decided to start breaking a few rules, then more, then elminated the code. Thanks to Marvel's efforts we can enjoy the controverisal comics that actually cover life issues that we enjoy today. Controversial ones like, Strangers in Paradise, The Call, and J.A.C.K. Google em if you don't know what they are.

[schild]

Games that affected me in this way (in no particular order):

All the Tony Hawk's
Katamari Damacy
A boy and his blob (wow, I bet the blob could get that book from the top shelf)
Maniac Mansion (quite possibly the stem of a majority of my fears. I think I was 6 when I played it)

[sidereal]

Can't relate, except the driving games.
I had to make a conscious effort to control my driving after playing Need For Speed Underground for 8 hours.

Oh, and I always do spin moves in heavy pedestrian traffic.

[Nebu]

Nice work Nebu :P And actually it is alot stricter than you remember because probably like me, you  were more of a marvel fan?

Damn, you're a psychic!  Yes, I was a big Marvel fan as a kid.  Fantastic Four, Captain America, Silver Surfer, Daredevil, Submariner and X-Men were big in my collection.  I still am a fan of silver age comics and kick myself daily for selling off my collection so cheaply.  

Please excuse the derail... back to your regularly scheduled topic.

[Furiously]

I tend to drive a bit more aggressively after playing some GTA. I'm almost tempted to get Underground 2. But then I smack myself.

[geldonyetich]

Fortunately I've managed a certain level of insilation from games, and I'm rarely affected in this way.  (Chalk it up to a decade or two in which I spent nearly every day alternating from playing games to going to school or work - mental the barriers between reality and game fantasy are well built indeed.)  About the worse I manage is pangs of paranoia from particularly creepy games in much the same way as after one might see a horror movie.    System Shock 2 is great for getting the ol "fight or flight" response active.

I haven't tried to actually roll anything up after playing Katamari Damacy because I'm ever-aware that my attempts would go without any sufficient adhesion (which is a pity, because Katamari Damacy really makes rolling look fun ;)).   However, I did notice that sometimes I'll step away from the game with sharpened spacial awareness.   I'll get up to use the restroom and suddenly notice, wow, this restroom has a lot of space in it.   Once I was playing a Katamari Damacy demo at the local Target and as I walked back to the check-out stand I really noticed all the space between the various forms of matter (people and objects) around me.     Trippy, but cool - I wonder if it's related to a Mindfulness state, but more likely it's because my special brain centers are on overdrive from being really focused on that game.   (It probably doesn't work when I'm not extremely focused on it.)

[LordDax]

I can see it now...
"Hello and welcome back to Foxx news. Where you get the whole story but only in the parts we want to tell you about. Tonight's story is "Game On". VG, the street name for V)ideious G)amealphalean,  hits the club scene by storm. In a recent study by local drug enforcement officals it was foudn that no longer do you have to take the fifth letter of the alphabet to get that surrealist feeling and hyper awareness. Abusers experience the effects quite intensely after high dosage that can last up to 24 hours at a time. Warning signs of a VG abuser include: blistered thumbs or fingertips, excess consumption of caffiene, many empty snack packagings, constant digitized music audible, and slight loss of interpersonal skills. Parents do you know what your kids are playing tonight?"

What have you done Geldon? What have you done.....

[geldonyetich]

The man's just trying to keep me down!

I can't promise the same spatial awareness from most 3d games, but Katamari Damacy in particular really stresses your awareness of spatial relationships.  This is especially if you're trying to determine the biggest object your Katamari is capable of rolling without memorizating mass size numbers alone, but rather "by eye".   If you're focusing hard enough on it, coming off of that game may be a bit like a visual batting donut effect.