Study Claims Videogame Mechanics Persist in Real Life

[Micalas]

Not going to touch on the Tetris Effect because everyone already has.

I've experienced this but to a less retarded degree. After a long weekend of playing WoW with my friends (I quit 7 months ago) I would occasionally refer to my pocket change as "silver." Another thing is when I'm at work I'm sitting at a computer. All of my work is there. Whenever someone calls me I find myself pressing what would be my Push-To-Talk key on my keyboard before I speak.

 

[Mortuorum]

Makes sense, I guess. We (gamers) spend a tremendous amount of time internalizing interfaces into virtual worlds. I can understand how someone might instinctively try to access the same "interface" when in a real-life stress situation. I can't remember it ever happening to me, but then I'm old compared to most gamers and a relatively smaller portion of my life experience has been influenced by videogames.

 

[PrototypeC]

No, it sounds weird but this is a real thing. I know because I've experienced it a lot! Me and my sister have had conversations about it, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

Things will happen like I'll be reloading and trying again on a certain part of a game, and when I'm done with the video game I have to kind of remind my brain over and over that NO, if you drop a glass you cannot go back in time and un-drop it, so be careful!

It's hard to remember times this has happened off the top of my head. Games from Bioshock to Harvest Moon to Fatal Frame to gameboy games have triggered this weird state of half-reality. I figure that it happens more often with video games because they can be so much more immersive.

 

[PrototypeC]

It is still a little weird to me that they gave it a new name when this phenomenon occurs with many devices just as strongly as video games, and that it's been a part of the human mind since we had a mind to think with! Surely there have been studies of this kind of mental conditioning before?

 

[the.gill123]

After playing 21 hours of CoD BlOps in a span of 6 days, a helicopter went over head, and I actually did the motion of pulling out a rocket launcher and aimed with it, then suddenly realised what I had done, luckily I was on my own, but laughed about it later when I told some guys what I did.
Another time, not quite so bad, I played so much Guitar Hero that everytime I closed my eyes, or listened to music, I could see the runway thing scrolling infront of me.
After playing lots of Assassins Creed, I had a really strong urge to suddenly start climbing these old victorian houses in Bristol.
Another time after playing a lot of Red Faction, I was at college, but didn't want to walk all the way around to the front door, and for a split second went to get my hammer out.
Finally, after playing a lot of Reach last year, I was at Uni, but cant remember what caused me to do it, I nearly motioned throwing a Plasma Grenade at someone.
The thing is, I don't care what people say about computer games, as soon as they make a new tv series that is as engaging or stimulating as a game, then I will stop playing games so much. But as it is, all there is on tv is either shitty reality shows, rolling news or just tv shows made for thick people. So I like playing games, it keeps my mind active, often I have to think about a situation and tv dosen't do the same, tv is boring when compared. And I like having odd twitches, which are me stopping myself from doing odd things, which I would normaly do in a game.

 

[imnot]

Well I do the whole , 'shit I put the cat in the dishwasher! better reload' thing occasionaly and once went to turn lights on in my room so no creepers spawned (7 hours of mc + very tired), but other than that, nothing much

 

[Esotera]

Came into article expecting details of how to make portals actually appear in the real world...disappointed.

But this is still pretty cool. It'd be really useful if someone made a simulation of a heart operation on the Wii for example.

 

[Scow2]

This is utter quackery. Furthermore, this is known as The Tetris Effect [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheTetrisEffect]. It's been documented already. Now they're just making up excuses to investigate people who have literally gone insane from gaming too much that they've lost the distinction between fantasy and reality.

"Game Transfer Phenomena" indeed. Here's a solution - GTFO your house every once in a while!

Actually, it's not insanity or lost distinction between reality and fantasy. It's a phenomena caused by reflex/muscle memory, and is something you aren't actively aware of doing. Video games are simulations. How realistic they are varies from game to game. But, like all simulations, video games train people how to react in certain situations. Most of said situations, though, do not actually occur in real life.

As a few people have noted, it's not uncommon to adopt the gait, accent, or other physical behaviors seen in characters of games, especially those that offer strong verisimilitude ("immersion" for Yahtzee fans). As far as our brain is concerned, the worlds depicted in video games are "real enough". Otherwise, we'd never be able to learn how to play them. (We'd be constantly asking, "Why does pressing this button on this controller make the sprite on the screen move up then down" instead of being able to reflexively press B to jump.)

And interface elements are the most common subject of GTP because they are the way we interact with the game world.

 

[Aprilgold]

Uh...what?

I literally play video games pretty much everyday (Stopping only to work), and I've never experienced 'GTP'...although, I will admit that many of my dreams consist of the game I'd been playing that particular day.

I think the weirdest thing that happened to me was I was wearing a sweat band and I almost started pressing the little button on it like it was a pip to find my house keys. Of course my other hand then got the keys, but it was certainly weird, never happened again, that was after a very long exploration in Fallout New Vegas, ME THINKS IT HAPPENS AFTER LONG PERIODS OF GAMING FOR A SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME!

So, proving that the Tetris effect actually exists, are you bloody crazy?
A)Doubt the researcher.
B)Called the researcher a liar.
C)Make witty comment followed by proof that the researcher is lying.
D)Leave the website.

A! I doubt your theory, Mr. Researcher...
I couldn't resist.
Yeah, it seems to be something after gaming for quite some time. Once I actually felt a conversation slow down so I could choose the right choice floating around my head like the conversations in Heavy Rain. Seemed to happened after playing it for a while, so I'm ASSUMING temporary.

I do love how people are responding to this with the same sort of thoughtless, knee-jerk reaction of the Jack Thompsons of the world.

Not experiencing GTP doesn't mean your not an addict. It means you don't let games enrich your life in the way they could. Its not an insanity, its the capacity to think, and this sort of influence and contextualization happens with everything you experience in life, its just highly measurable in games. Games like Chess have helped Generals for a long time. Rote repetition may be understood through playing Simon Says as a child. Even the simple act of sacrificing something smaller for a later payoff could be contextualized by the game of checkers, or the idea of investing your money could be understood through the lens of economic upgrades in an RTS.

Games are formalized systems of rules. The world is a bunch of formalized rules systems. Of course you can learn about 1 through the other. Besides, nothing is being said about loss of your ability to distinguish between reality and fantasy. Kneejerk reactionaries with an agenda and no understanding of science may say otherwise but GTP does not make you lose touch with reality any more then knowing the equation 4/3 pi R cubed makes you obsessed with Basketball.

(You see, cause the basketball is round.)

I see what you did there, but this guy makes a ton of sense. Its not that the person is crazy, its just that they got so immersed in the type of action or muscle memory that they just started doing it in real life, its no a biggy.

 

[DustStorm]

Something similar happened to me one time when I woke up: I looked for my ammo and health bar at the corner of my eyes but couldn't find it, I almost tried to figure out if it was a glitch or cutscene but than realized I was just waking up.

 

[Null-Entity]

Yup done a few things like this myself.

Have played games like Silent Hill/Resident Evil and opened a door like them (all slow and sedate like).

I have with no keyboard infront of me tried to quick load life a few times

Resident Evil has left me with a maddening desire to pick up every key on the ground as if it will open a door somewhere to something important !!!.

Plus once while working in 3D studio max late one night I got up and saw the world with a wire frame overlay for a good min.

 

[Braedan]

I always joked about how a save feature would be handy, but people reach for controllers and try to grab search bars?

Either bullshit, or some of us need to crawl out of the basement for a few minutes a day.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Huh. Seems similar to the Tetris effect.

I spent so much time on the Escapecraft Minecraft server, I had a dream where I /spawned to get out of a bad situation. I wish I could do that.

 

[Wicky_42]

Yeah, this study totally relates to me - every time I shoot someone I keep expecting them to respawn...
-_-U
But seriously, every time I vomit out a blob of larva I get worried I don't have enough overlords.

No, no, sorry, gotta be serious. Sometimes I find myself absent-mindedly bashing machinery with a wrench, just to see it it'll repair itself, upgrade, or perhaps fall apart and give me goodies. That last one tends to happen the most, but you have to bash it reeeeal hard sometimes.

"Wanting" there to be an "undo" function on life is nothing unusual or new. Trying to hit ctrl-z doing anything not on a computer is just learnt behavioural reflex or something - not that it happens to me, but it's so ubiquitous throughout PC use I could understand someone doing it whilst not concentrating.

"Reaching for a controller" though? What is that, a 'sitting down' reflex? "I'm bored"? I dun geddit. [PC elitist]Also, if that was a common reflex, I can see where this study was going wrong; everyone knows console users have 'difficulties', fnar fnar![/PC elitist] ;O

 

[Tarkand]

Happens to me all the time...

After playing Burn Out, I'd say Near Miss! everytime I saw a movie with a car stunt in it.

After playing GTA3, I would automatically identify cars in the street by their fake GTA3 model name rather than the real one and mentality rating their speed/handling/toughness based on the game's.

Getting out of a sliding side door of a vehicle often gives me 'flash back' to getting out of a transport/tank/APC from whatever recent game I've played.

Whenever I run (usually after one of my dog in the yard, playing) I always imagine myself as whatever character I've played last and quite often my hands clench as if I'm holding a gun/other piece of gear before I realize it.

The Sims is another powerful one (and unlike much others, long lasting), despite the fact that I haven't played any Sims in year, I still tend to associate 'attribute' bar to given situation (Mainly when I'm uncomfortable, hungry, sleepy or all 3... This never happens when I'm content/having a good time) - I'll start feeling like I really need to find a better chair to get my comfort back up or that I need to get away from this lame party and do something fun because my Amusement bar is low. It's hard to explain, because ultimately this isn't any different than what anybody does (i.e. You're not comfortable, you find a better chair - nothing mental about that), but the idea of the 'Bars' really flashes in my head before I make the decision.

And like 95% of the gamers in the world (even those here who say it never happened to them - yes, you guys are liars, I'm sure), I get the irresistible urge to play Tetris with my items at the grocery store when I put them down on the mat at the checkout counter .

And so forth.

 

[DarklordKyo]

It happens in real life. One time, I played a lot of Prinny: Can I really be the Hero (a game that has combat dependent on button mashing, but not the bad kind in fighters), and I had an involuntary hand twitch that made my hand all shaky (like I was button mashing the air).