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.

Comments

Good lord

[Dracolytch]

From the article:

"I've been using the computer for so long, and command-Z works for undo in all the software programs," Hoffman said. "So whenever I find something in my life that I want to undo, I reach for the command-Z keys and I find it weird that it doesn't work."

You need a fucking vacation. NOW.

~D

Tetris attack

[UtucXul]

Mostly it was Tetris Attack for the SNES for me. When I played a lot of that there were tiles in the bathroom that I kept rearanging in my head to make matches like in the game.

We won't talk about what too much Goldeneye made me think.

Of course...

[Dracolytch]

This is honestly like almost any other phenomenon... If we do something enough, we start thinking of the world in those terms. If you do art, you begin to see things as an artist does... Colors, relationships of spaces, etc.

By no means is this limited to gaming, and it's also what makes interactivity such a powerful tool for learning. Most people I know prefer to learn by doing. Doing in a properly engineered virtual world is a great way to prepare people for doing in the real world. That's what simulations are all about... And most games are simulations.

~D

too much DDR

[Second_Derivative]

I'd say it's pretty bad when you hear a techno tune, close your eyes and you can just see the arrows...

Personal excesses:

[Von Helmet]

1. I played Theme Park fanatically when it first came out. Waiting for new rides and shops to be researched was agonising. You'd sit doing little routine things to pass the time, waiting for the little light bulb to appear in the top right hand corner of the screen. After playing that for hours at a time, I'd keep imagining I was seeing something flashing just out of sight.
2. More recently, playing Splinter Cell makes you look out for shadows and places to hide. I used to catch myself trying to step as lightly as possible when walking around too.
3. At my mother-in-law's house the bathroom is at the top of the stairs, but slightly offset. You go up the main lot of stairs, turn left and go up like two more steps, then the bathroom is on the right. I tend to run up the stairs, leap to the left, and then step forward into the bathroom. It always makes me think of strafing in FPS games.
4. Playing any game with sniper rifles always has me looking out for places where other snipers might be hiding, and for places I could snipe from.
5. After playing games that make use of EAX, and being impressed, I have been known to walk into the bathroom or somewhere and think "wow, that's a good effect". The same as people saying they've been impressed with "the graphics" outside, and wondering how the engine can handle the level of detail in such a wide open area.

Re:GTA3

[aixou]

++ This is something I've talked about with many of my friends. After playing a lot of GTA, almost all of my friends feel the same way -- they start sizing up cars and getting tempted to hop in a running car. We're all level headed people and we would never actually do it, but I can't imagine what those who are more easily influenced would do.

This is one of the reason I call bullshit on anyone who says that videogames can't actually spawn violence, or that it's easy to entirely differentiate between videogames and real life. I'd like to hear more opinions on this.

And you say video games dont' cause violence. . .

[Anonymous Coward]

Interesting how most people who have posted so far, have cleary admitted that too much gaming has affected their conscious thought processes. Although not to a point they have acted on it, what about others who "have" allowed it to affect their lives?

I'm sure many of you have said previously, that video games do not make people kill other people. But there is clear evidence here, that it CAN! The only difference is the level of self-immersion. It very well may be that some younger, lesser developed minds end up -not- being able to separate reality from fantasy, and they end up buying a gun and blowing people away. It's all part of the gaming experience.

THINK ABOUT IT A WHILE! The only thing keeping you from going postal on the freeway is that you have a greate knowledge and bring yourself back to reality faster. The only thing that keeps you from mugging the guy in front of you, is the same "reality check", the only thing that keeps you from buying a gun and blowing people away is that same "reality check".

Some people aren't capable of that "reality check". And most of you have already admitted to having the lines between reality and fantasy blurred. So have I.

But the next time some kid is arrested for shooting up their school, and they blame it on video games. You had damn well better listen, because you have all but admitted, it's TRUE!

Re:I feel you

[mikael]

Anyway, it's when you start having dreams about gaming that it maybe too much. But then again when you're dreaming, maybe you just haven't played enough?

When you're dreaming about a video game, you're seeing your mind self-optimising to play that game more effectively.

Realism more dangerous than fantasy?

[CustomDesigned]

That is an interesting comment. Perhaps games that too closely resemble daily life are more dangerous than games that are largely fantasy. The reflexes and unconscious strategies learned in a fantasy game are unlikely to be triggered in real life. Games like GTA seem to be another story.

Games that are highly realistic, like high end flight simulators, can actually train reflexes and unconsious strategies that are effective in real life. The problem with GTA seems to be that it resembles real life visually and aurally, but not in terms of morality, risk assessment, or practical physics.

Re:GTA3

[Chris Burke]

This is one of the reason I call bullshit on anyone who says that videogames can't actually spawn violence, or that it's easy to entirely differentiate between videogames and real life. I'd like to hear more opinions on this.

But it is easy to tell, as evidenced by you not stealing any cars. You might feel a GTA-inspired urge to size up the car and take the nice fast one so you can evade the cops(I do too), but you know that you are in reality and that the real-world consequences (not just legal for you, but the consequences for the one you steal the car from) stop you.

The problem is not that reading/seeing/playing a game involving some concept may cause you to think about doing it in reality. The problem is the "more easily influenced" people who actually would forget about the barrier between reality and fantasy and act on the urges.

If playing GTA can make you commit real-life crimes, then watching the History Channel can make you commit genocide, and either way you are a nutjob who should be locked away. That's just my opinion, anyway.

Re:Oh yeah..

[Anonymous Coward]

Note, fantasize, I bet the same goes for movies, series and books (atleast for me it does)

Columbine?

[digidave]

What's most interesting is that when a story is posted about somebody blaming a game company for some sort of crime, everyone here says "I've played GTA for 72 hours straight and never carjacked anyone!". Yet here we are and everyone's agreeing that the lines can get blurred, even momentarily.

Is carrying out video game violence just the next logical step to what you all have experienced? You'll probably never reach that point, but what social or mental deficiency would you have to have before acting out a game becomes reality? Do we maybe start looking at Columbine and other tradegies and saying that maybe games to have some role in some violent acts.

Most difficult of all, is if we can find a link, what do we do about it? Go back to NES-style graphics?

Re:GTA

[strikethree]

What I find hilarious is that when some parent sues Take 2 Interactive because their son went on a shooting spree, people come out of the woodwork screaming bloody murder about how the parents are at fault and not the game... but then, stupid things like this get posted and we see lots of comments like yours saying that GTA did/does affect how you think. hm.

Maybe it can still be reconciled though: You did NOT run over any pedestrians, nor did you take a policeman's car. Therefore, while it might affect your thinking at some level, you were still able to make your own choice. Perhaps violent games should be restricted to those who are legally recognized at knowing wrong from right?

strike

Re:GTA

[lukewarmfusion]

You're completely right... (not about my comment being stupid, but about the flip-side)

If a child can't control himself after playing video games, he shouldn't be playing them. It would be the parents' responsibility to monitor the child and make this decision.

Some people get really angry when playing games... (I'm one of them) others have a hard time ending their competition when they stop playing... (I'm fine on this part). The combination of these two factors could be enough to let a game send someone over the edge. That's not the fault of the video game (there are hundreds of other scenarios which can do this) but it should be headed off before it becomes a problem. My parents recognized that I would get in fights with my brothers if I lost a game... so they shut me off from gaming, adjusted the amounts I was allowed to play, and restricted the types of games I had. Of course, this is all anecdotal, but it certainly ends with "and I turned out fine." Fifteen years later, I am perfectly capable of enjoying a game without letting it blur the lines between video game reality and the rest of the world.

There are games that I won't let my children play until they're older... maybe 14 years or so. GTA isn't a game for anyone younger. But that doesn't stop them from wanting it. And when parents buy it for their kids, they're contributing to the problem.

My wife is a developmental psychology PhD candidate; her specialty is in parental monitoring of adolescents. I get to hear/read about this stuff from a more "scientific" perspective, and it's amazing how much we agree on this topic.