But it’s weird, they’re not afterimages per se. I mean, it’s not like I see the American flag in green, black, and orange. I’m also not making much sense. OK, how to describe this?
I’ve been playing Half-life a lot lately. Half-life is a first person shooter game like Doom or Quake. So anyway, when I close my eyes, I can still see the game! But it’s weird, I’m not seeing the actual game (as in walking through any particular real level), but I see myself running through hallways and things exploding and other bits of the game. It would be surreal if it weren’t so eerie.
So…
Does anyone know what causes this? And has anyone else experienced this or am I truly going insane right now? Because I’m voting for insanity.
Wow. That’s almost as disturbing as the time I got the urge to throw my organic chem professor into the ocean after a marathon session of Black and White. Weird.
When we were vacationing in the summer, we would drive for 6-8 hours a day. We had Tetris though. After a while, I’d find myself playing tetris in my head when I was bored.
You’ve spent time paying intense attention on a very visual task, that involves spatial reasoning and building an internal model of a space. (Gotta pay attention on when to make a run for it, and what provides cover, and where to duck behind when that damnable Apache makes strafing runs in Surface Tension…) This is engaging large chunks of the brain. Skills (or if you prefer–God help you if you do–5K1LLZ) are being learned in the process of this, reflected in a heaping helping of physical and chemical changes within the brain itself that science doesn’t understand all that well yet. “Implicit” memories are being built–if you ever go back years later to play Half Life again, you’ll see what that means, you will “remember” the levels, habits to survive them as you play through, and perform much better than you would have playing it for the very first time. Those implicit memories are at least partially involved in the visual cortex, and since they’re fresh and many of the pathways involved are still firing a lot after intense bouts of playing–you’re “kinda” seeing images from it. I bet they’re more vivid when you close your eyes, correct?
I get it mostly after I’ve been playing something with concentration, and go to bed soon after. But don’t lose heart, you may still be going insane, but this alone doesn’t clinch the insanity plea.
Tetris and Warcraft II are the only ones that’ve ever done that to me, but then I’m not a fanatic game player.
As for why, maybe (really WAG) it’s something akin to the ‘muscle memory’ that athletes develop. If you’re really into a game, you’re concentrating pretty intently and repeating the same motions over and over, and your brain figures this is something it had better learn at a non-conscious level.
I can beat you on this one, Ender. I used to play Half-Life so intensely, I would get the little “weapon-selection” noises (you know, those funky honky-click sounds?) stuck in my head, and whenever I’d reach into the cubboard to grab something, I’d hear that noise. Whenever I’d pick up a book, I’d hear that noise. Whenever I put something in my hand (sigh… yes, even THAT…), I’d hear that noise.
Then the dreams. I’d dream that I’d be hanging around with Gordon Freeman (he’s a very nice fellow, even if he doesn’t talk much), and we’d be running around Black Mesa. I had to beg him to let me use the Gluon Gun, but he finally relented and I completely went to town. I also once dreamed that I beat up one of those black-suited women and coerced her into having sex with me… man, that was a great dream…
Damnit, Spoofe, that’s just way over the top there. I do hear sound effects occasionally too, but it’s not when I’m performing a specific action.
I think it’s happening all the time (even while (I’m typing this) but the effect is much more vivid while I close my eyes. This happened also when I was into Doom a few years back. This afternoon, I stopped playing for two hours, completely forgot about the game, closed my eyes and still saw the images. This freaked me out. I mean, I wasn’t even thinking about Half-life, and there it was playing out inside my head.
I’d go to sleep now, but I’m afraid of the headcrabs.
Several years ago, I had the Tetris Problem also. Constantly saw little pieces fall in my head. I’d move them around and stuff. Drove me absolutely crazy. Fortunately, I don’t play video games.
I used to have that happen to me all the time with Tetris and Heroes of Might & Magic II. Oh yes, and internet porn.
You are not alone, Ender. Mrs. O got me Populous: A New Beginning for Christmas last year so that I could occupyt myself while she was recovering from surgery. And occupy myself I did; we’re talking 12 to 14-hour sessions here. And as soon as I shut down and went to bed, there were all the little priests and spies and warriors and braves running around and fighting each other. I didn’t control any of it, just kinda watched 'em go at it.
I had the same problem with Snood, if I spent an hour or so playing that game.
This occurs to me as well, but only in first person games that I have been playing a lot. Black and White doesn’t do it to me, but Everquest and Unreal Tournament mess with my head for a while after I’ve stopped playing.
This used to happen to me when I played Tetris for hours on end. I thought it was just me! Interesting phenomenon…
In my experience, it’s pretty standard procedure after any intense concentration on repetitive tasks. I used to drive across the country quite a bit, on a tight schedule, and every time I got where I was going, I’d still be “driving” in my head for days to come.
Currently, I’ve been playing Majesty a lot, and I keep seeing those little gold coins popping up over the little people’s heads…
I’ve found that it only happens when it’s a game I like. Following Drastic’s seemingly perfectly good explanation, I suppose that if it is a game you don’t care for, you don’t focus so hard on it and don’t play it as often.
Not to worry Ender, I was a UNATCO agent whenever I closed my eyes for weeks after starting up Deus Ex. If you’re going crazy, I don’t think you’re going alone.
I’ve had that problem with Tetris. But my “mental Tetris” games were always bizarrely perfect: I never buried any holes and I always got just the right block. I suppose that make sense if my brain’s making up the game as it goes…it was just kind of dull.
I think I may have played mental Minesweeper once or twice too, but I can’t recall.
I have certainly done it with tetris, and there was an extended period where ALL my dreams had an EQ interface overlay.
I know a little girl who could not play video games for years because if she played even a little the afterimages were so bad that she couldn’t sleep and it scared her. I think she has grown out of that now.
ugh… that sort of shit happens to me all the time. of course, i play prohibitively large amounts of computer games.
play Diablo II for ten minutes- im still wacking imps around in my head.
play Black and White for half an hour- i am still moving food around and casting heal in my head.
play NOX- chuck fireballs around for hours afterward. In my head, most of the time.
and, well… just dont let me get NEAR Armored Core one or two- i pretty much always walk around feeling like i am a three story supermauverable battlesuit with prohibitivley heavy weaponry for WEEKS afterward. in fact, i feel like that now! (beep! RCS locked! beeeeee WUP! eeeeeeee WUP! foosh! foosh! post launched! impact!)
The same thing has happened to me and my wife. I mentioned that I had been experiencing afterimages from Black and White, and my wife said the same thing happened to her when she was playing Dungeon Keeper 2 a lot a few months ago, and that reminded me that that particular game caused me to see afterimages too. Not all games do it, no matter how much you play them (I frequently play ‘SWAT 3’ for hours on end without seeing it). An interesting coincedence is that both Black and White and Dungeon Keeper 2 were made by the same guy…
Yeah. This happened to me all the time, when I used to play video games. Most did it, if I played long enough. Tetris was bad (and I did that perfect game thing too. Boring yeah. I tried to mess myself up, but then couldn’t!) Goldeneye was bad. (Sometimes if I played only 1/2-hour at 9 or 10 in the morning. Wouldn’t think about it all day, then close my eyes to go to sleep. I was killing people in my head! I was an absolute assassin! perfect game every time. Then I got sort of guilty for killing people in my head and couldn’t sleep.
You know, I probably play games more than anyone here and I don’t get that. However I don’t really remember visual things or get visual images for anything. Closest I ever had was in counterstrike:)