Things that video games do to you

Back when I was playing Hitman Blood Money extensively, I once found myself (IRL) in a public bathroom with just one other person in it, and I caught myself instinctively looking around for somewhere to hide the body.

Lately, I’ve been slightly obsessed with The Sims 3, and I’ve started speaking Simlish (that is, the phrases that my Sims repeat often enough get stuck in my head). I’ve also started referring to my neighbours as “NPCs”.

Ever had that kind of thing happen to you?

Many years ago in the days of mainly text with static screens to show the setting, I was having a dream. I don’t recall the details but at one point I saw the phrase “press enter to continue” floating above me.

Magicka also does Simlish-type talking. I would also like to remind you that Vlad is totally not a vampire.

I just wish I could save. That and at nighttime I evaluate spatial locations by how much they’ll shrink my cover bar.

We’ve had discussions like this before, and I’m not the only one who reacted to Oblivion and Skyrim by developing a tendency to look at plants and consider harvesting them for alchemy.

Also, after accomplishing a real world task I’ve sometimes caught myself thinking “I’d better save now.”

It’s quite close to Swedish IIRC. Except for Bleeeegh ! :slight_smile:

Everyone has had the Tetris dream, right ? For a while I had the Rock Band dream. Solos forever. I also would see the bass chart of many songs I own whenever it got played on the radio, and did this annoying thing every *actual *drummer does all the time, which is tapping on stuff and stomping feet whenever bored or otherwise idle.

“Hmm… I think that’s foxglove. I’d better eat it just to be sure. I really want to learn its primary effect and I have like 280 HP so I should be good.”*

I do wish people would insult each other with “fetcher,” “nwah,” and “swit.”

*Note: do not do with Poisoned Apples in Oblivion.

When I made my L4D campaign I couldn’t help but look at real life buildings and rooms and imagine constructing them in Hammer, or seeing the most efficient brushes in real life.

After any game where you can wall jump I tend to imagine wall jumping off real life things, finding the longest combos or getting to the highest place in the most efficient route.

Save scumming would be a sick super power.

Aside from an occasional frustrated impulse to mash the “MELEE” button when someone’s getting in my way, mostly I just notice myself reaching for “command+z” or “command+c/v” when writing. On paper. With a pencil. :smack:

Back when I was playing a lot of Everquest, I played an Enchanter, a type of character who could “mesmerize” mobs - essentially cast a spell that made them freeze in place for a certain amount of time.

I found myself wanting to Mez annoying people all the time. Person next to me at the bar yammering away about dull stuff? Mez. People taking too long to check out at the grocery store? Mez.

It was at that point I realized I was probably playing way, way too much Everquest.

Sometimes, after playing a platformer game, I’ll close the game and go to a web browser or something… And then get worried about falling off the lines of text.

Also, reported for forum change.

Moved Cafe Society --> the Game Room.

I’ve had the “shit, I can’t reload this” thought right after something bad happened (a bad fall, etc.).

I’ve also occasionally wanted to “mouse over” cars while driving on the highway, to see if I could identify them as cop cars at a distance. :smiley:

Back when I played MUDs extensively, I would have dreams that were 100% text.

If I play an FPS often enough, it will intrude into my dreams.

I found myself whipping right in behind people in corridors (and once while driving) after playing Black Ops, clearly because my brain thought that I should stab them.

I’ve often wanted to hit the slow car in front of me with a turtle and blow them off the road.

Apparently I’m a violent person.

I was driving into San Francisco one morning, and there was a heavy fog. My first thought was, “Man, the draw distance really sucks today.”

When I was in college studying programming I would have dreams of text running past my eyes, code that I had to debug somehow.

There are times when a few of the superpowers I used in City of Heroes would be real handy in real life. Especially while driving/traveling.

Learning to drive at the same time as playing X-Wing. I almost pulled out in front of a car telling myself I could just redirect all my deflectors to the rear and absorb the damage.

Whenever I’ve been playing Assassin’s Creed a lot, I start trying to figure out how I’d scale every building I walk past.

Again with the Sims–I played a lot of that in college. I started to think about my own life in terms of the parameters that the game uses. Oh, my bladder meter is declining… I should go to the bathroom. My social meter is going down… I should go and interact with some people.