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Too Much Gaming, Anyone?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the yes-there-is-such-thing dept.

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.

11 of 894 comments (clear)

  1. dreams by psycht · · Score: 5, Funny

    I know I've had too much Quake III, when often used to dream of insagibbing my friends.

    Although good dreams, I knew I needed to back off a bit.

    --
    thelikesofwhich.com
    1. Re:dreams by wastingtape · · Score: 5, Interesting

      My first year of college, when i lived in the dorms, one of the guys there created a Quake III level of a portion of the campus, complete with all the buildings and everything.

      Talk about mixing games with reality. It's odd enough to feel the urge in real life to "act" like you would in the games, but when you've already spent hours in the game map which is a replica of your real environment, and you know around the next corner there's a rocket launcher, it's hard to stay focused that you're in the real world. :P

  2. same, but different by dynamo_mikey · · Score: 5, Funny

    Too much gaming definitely caused me problems, for example I find it hard to focus after several hours because my wife is yelling at me.

  3. Re:GTA by spywarearcata.com · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think I erred in permitting my kids to play GTA *before* taking driver's training...

  4. Re:GTA by artemis67 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think I erred in permitting my kids to play GTA *before* buying them semi-automatic weapons...

  5. Of course... by Dracolytch · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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

    --
    This sig has been enciphered with a one-time pad. It could say almost anything.
    1. Re:Of course... by OldSoldier · · Score: 5, Funny

      I agree completely. For myself, it isn't just limited to computer games. Many years ago when the Othello brand of Reversi came out my siblings and I played so many games back to back that both my brother and I suffered from the symptoms described.

      We both were in high school then, he was working at a grocery store... stacking fruit, when he saw apples next to oranges he thought he could put an orange on the other side and flip the apple over and it should become an orange. When I took naps on a couch with a pillow at my head, I felt, if someone put a pillow at my feet I should flip over and become a pillow.

  6. Re:I feel you by mikael · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

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  7. Lucky you by Prince+Vegeta+SSJ4 · · Score: 5, Funny
    I realized I was playing Unreal Tournament too much when I used a modified wireless tazer to shoot a big glob of liquid, then performed a shock combo on the neighbors cat.

    Poor fluffy, his hair stood straight up for a week.

  8. Re:After playing too much City of Heroes... by filenabber · · Score: 5, Funny

    Your post will be summarily deleted without further notice. You have used the word "marvel" when speaking about COH. This is not allowed.

    --
    Are you a Candy Addict?
  9. Chess by CrazyWingman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Y'all are sick. Not because you dream video games, but because all of the stories here are about dreaming about video games. Have none of you ever played a game without a pc/console?

    I can remember chess club back in high school. After the tournaments, we would be driving home on the van, and I would still be seeing how I could attack the person two benches ahead and one person over from me. I was not the only teammate who had this happen either.

    Go play a "real" game.