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[Grildon Tundy]

By this, I mean that thing that happens when you play a game for so long that your mind warps and starts applying video game mechanics to your day-to-day life.

A few examples from my personal experience:

-Playing Rock Band/Guitar Hero and watching the note-track moving towards the screen to the point that when you stop, the ground seems to move away from you. Or you "see" a note-track when listening to a song outside the game


-The Sims' Comfort/Food/Social/etc meters pop in your head when you're chilling/hungry/hanging with people/etc

-Playing Baldur's Gate 3 for tens of hours, then telling a joke amongst your friends and seeing a "[Friend] liked that" notification pop up in your mind's eye

Apologies to all my aphantasia bros/sisters out there. But maybe this manifests for you in a different way?

I know I can't be the only one this happens to. Anybody else have any examples from their experience?

Edit: Punished Miku reminded me this is also known as "The Tetris Effect"

 

[Punished Miku]

This just happened to me yesterday with Starfield.

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/starfield-early-access-thread-see-that-standard-edition-over-there-you-can-upgrade-it.1660492/post-268354508

 

[Majormaxxx]

Back in the day, playing gta 3 for too many hours, then leaving home and eyeing all cars on the street differently.

It's a sign of excessive gaming.

 

[AV]

Spending a day levelling herbalism or just farming herbs in WoW, to then go outside the next day and have a heart attack when a real flower looks like a rare herb.

 

[Virex]

No, I know the difference between a game and reality

 

[deriks]

The Sims= you need good stuff to live well, but you need to work, not to cheat... you fuck
Metal Gear Rising= politicians are shitty and everything is around money. Deal with it or die
Last of Us= you to live, someone has to die

 

[Beer Baelly]

 

[Grildon Tundy]

No, I know the difference between a game and reality

Wow, your brain doesn't attenuate to sensory input like with the Rock Band example?

Must be hard living life always feeling the clothes you're wearing, the hairs on your head, contacts lenses on your eye, glasses on your face, etc.

 

[Husky]

One time at my computer, I hit 3 or 4 on my keyboard to speed up time, like I do in The Sims games.
Many years ago, I'm pretty sure I tried to hit Q while I was outside, to open up my Skyrim quick menu.

 

[funking giblet]

Vampire Survivor... The Blue gems... everywhere!

 

[diffusionx]

I remember when I rented a Virtual Boy, I played for a while and everything had a blue tint when I stepped away.

 

[adamsapple]

Don't turn into Lewis from Edith Finch.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

Vampire Survivor... The Blue gems... everywhere!

How did this one manifest? Like you'd just kind of see them when you blink right after you stop playing?

 

[Xcell Miguel]

Happens to me very often, and as I do some 3D at work I tend to observe things differently, shaping in my head how they would be modeled in 3D, looking at the texture from different angles and how it reacts to lights.

Two years ago I played a lot of iRacing, and then when I drove my car and passing cars on the multi-lane roads I imagined the spotter in my head saying "car right", "clear right"

I often think about the animals/insects I see with their Pokémon equivalent name.

I can relate The Sims needs meters, I use them too
EDIT : I also imagine The Sims' task queue squares sometimes when I go through several tasks

 

[Schmendrick]

I often think about fast forwarding through a lot of my work meetings like I do with most in-Game conversations, aside from that...never.

 

[cireza]

I don't really get the meters poping in your head when you get hungry.

Sure, there can be persistence in repetitive things that you have looked at, such as Rock Band scrolling lines. Or when you close your eyes (and actually even when you don't) things can persist. But it is not like a meter is going to suddenly pop because I told a joke.

At least that's how it is for me.

 

[Rien]

Never

 

[Grildon Tundy]

I don't really get the meters poping in your head when you get hungry.

Sure, there can be persistence in repetitive things that you have looked at, such as Rock Band scrolling lines. Or when you close your eyes (and actually even when you don't) things can persist. But it is not like a meter is going to suddenly pop because I told a joke.

At least that's how it is for me.

Like someone else said, it's a sign of excessive gaming, imo. The BG3 example wasn't automatic for me like some of the other examples were. I was reminiscing and it came to mind.

Found this Reddit thread showing I'm not the only one where the meters thing has happened, at least:

 

[funking giblet]

How did this one manifest? Like you'd just kind of see them when you blink right after you stop playing?

Pretty much saw tonnes of them rushing towards the centre of my vision, like in the game, every time i closed my eyes.

 

[sono]

My wife put red carnations in a vase in the hallway. After a long horizon zero dawn session i went to pick them to improve my health does that count

 

[Grildon Tundy]

Never

You're telling me that your day-to-day perception of reality would be totally and completely unchanged if you could go back and erase all instances of gaming from your memory? You never learned a fact, got interested in a topic, discovered a new framework of thinking because of a game?

 

[Rien]

You're telling me that your day-to-day perception of reality would be totally and completely unchanged if you could go back and erase all instances of gaming from your memory? You never learned a fact, got interested in a topic, discovered a new framework of thinking because of a game?

Honestly no. I play videogames for a long ass time but it never slipped through in my reality.
I have this much more with music tbh. If you would erase all instances of music out of my life my day-to-day perception would drastically be different.

 

[brian0057]

The Tempenny Tower mission in Fallout 3 taught me a valueable lesson. Both by a character and by Bethesda.
Helping Roy Phillips get the ghouls into the tower because you were sure that it was the right thing to do. It was just some biggots in those apartments. The ghouls have every right they have.
After a few hours, I return. Only to find the tower infested and everone dead except for the ghouls. After this, every time I play an RPG, I pay attention to actions way more than what a character says. This is one of the games that hammered home the point of "actions speak louder than words" for me.

As for Bethesda, they give you bad Karma for killing Roy, so I can disregard their sense of morality. Killing that piece of shit was so satisfying in later playthroughs. I've never done that missions since. I just kill Roy on sight.

 

[Mephisto40]

When PSVR 1 released i Played it for 2 days straight with minimal breaks
I felt like real life was the game afterwards when I left the house

 

[winjer]

Real life has better graphics, but there is no save system and no respawns.

 

[Peter303]

Whenever I see a propane canister I just want to shoot it.

 

[German Hops]

I had one of those French learning games on the ds.
The answer is no.

 

[droors29]

Death Stranding landscape assessment to find the easiest route while hiking/playing disc golf

 

[Catphish]

No Man's Sky's procedural generation sent me on a field trip down the rabbit holes of quantum mechanics and simulation theory.

That was fun as hell. I've played thousands of games, but this was the first one that led me to question the nature of reality.

 

[MudoSkills]

Only really with puzzle games. Happened with Tetris, Meteos, Lumnies - after a session whenever I looked at any screen I'd find my mind wandering, and I'd suddenly be playing the game in my head over whatever else I was looking at.

Also had something with Guitar Hero, where I'd sometimes hear a piece of music and think about how I would chart the song - but that was more intentional.

 

[IAmRei]

Eversince final fantasy tactics, which gave me crictical thinking, and shenmue for my love to city strolling.

Maybe also zelda for my sense of adventure, helped me to open many possibilities for seeing things from other angles

 

[BlackTron]

Teen years, I wanted the name for a real flying dinosaur but transposed it with "Aerodactyl", had a pep talk with myself after that one

 

[Garnox]

Final Fantasy X for the impact on religious discourse.

Mass Effect for its ethical dilemmas presented and playing it during a time when I was escaping into the game to cope with the harsh realities of life at the time.

 

[Mamofish]

Playing a lot of skyrim and then marveling at the sight of mountains in real life thinking "This is the highest resolution terrain I've ever seen".

 

[CGNoire]

Starring out the passenger window of a car using your fingers to Tony Hawk grind every passing guardrail.

 

[E-Cat]

Back in the day, playing gta 3 for too many hours, then leaving home and eyeing all cars on the street differently.

It's a sign of excessive gaming.

Jack Thompson was right

 

[Majormaxxx]

Jack Thompson was right

I don't know if he was right but it's a sign that playing video games for 5+ hours straight is too much.

 

[E-Cat]

When in a spa as a kid, coming up for air to replenish health. Also thinking that the spa was Zora’s Domain and hearing the music.

 

[delfrickintree]

Starring out the passenger window of a car using your fingers to Tony Hawk grind every passing guardrail.

I think everyone did this as a kid, regardless of which games they playes. I always imagined someone running along the ditches or the treeline, etc

 

[Drizzlehell]

This little scene had a very profound impact on my perception of altruism as a kid, and to this day, it genuinely makes me consider the potential consequences of my actions when interacting with strangers.

 

[Puscifer]

Death Stranding

I got delayed in my playthrough and started it during COVID and combined with the commentary on social media and video game culture it really made me pull back on a lot of my attachment to the hobby and start enjoying the outdoors more.

I think this post says a lot about the feelings that the game made me confront, I didn't exactly quit gaming but it definitely became just a "thing" for me

Reddit - Dive into anything

reddit.com

 

[Hudo]

Death Stranding caused me to be nicer to my DHL guy (no joke).