Times when games impacted you more than you expected.

[Dreiko]

Very much so yes, I usually focused on avoidance tactics, than anything, because I've never been a fan of fighting (sparring bothered me even with it's controlled nature), but when I did feel compelled to strike, leg to the vitals was my preferred method.

Never did serious martial arts but as a kid I loved fighting. It was never "real" fighting though, it was just stuff where you punched someone hard enough once and it stopped there. I always was a bit scared of hurting people when it got past that point so I never pushed my advantage beyond that so that's prolly why it stopped there thinking about it lol. I remember this one fight with some kids from another school I didn't know where the kid picked up a huge rock and if that had hit someone it could easily break a bone or even kill you if it hit you in the head and I was just kinda in shock that someone would do that. I never really lost my rationality even while in the process of fighting I guess.

It's interesting how your height shapes your view of fighting, I was always one of the tallest kids but around middleschool I hit my early growth spurt which made me into nearly 6ft so that basically scared off any potential fights so I never really had to learn how to fight as a result. There was this one dude in the entire school who was taller than me (and by a large amount too, he could be a basketball player lmao) and he was even more mellow than I was so I'm sure he also didn't have to fight.

But yeah in my experience kicking someone is a good way to have your leg grabbed and get yourself grappled into the ground. If I used my legs it was always for kneeing people. One of my last fights ever I just somehow grappled the dude in such a way where his back was facing me and his arms were completely locked with mine so I just kneed him in the tailbone like 3 times and that was it.

 

[happyninja42]

Never did serious martial arts but as a kid I loved fighting. It was never "real" fighting though, it was just stuff where you punched someone hard enough once and it stopped there. I always was a bit scared of hurting people when it got past that point so I never pushed my advantage beyond that so that's prolly why it stopped there thinking about it lol. I remember this one fight with some kids from another school I didn't know where the kid picked up a huge rock and if that had hit someone it could easily break a bone or even kill you if it hit you in the head and I was just kinda in shock that someone would do that. I never really lost my rationality even while in the process of fighting I guess.

It's interesting how your height shapes your view of fighting, I was always one of the tallest kids but around middleschool I hit my early growth spurt which made me into nearly 6ft so that basically scared off any potential fights so I never really had to learn how to fight as a result. There was this one dude in the entire school who was taller than me (and by a large amount too, he could be a basketball player lmao) and he was even more mellow than I was so I'm sure he also didn't have to fight.

But yeah in my experience kicking someone is a good way to have your leg grabbed and get yourself grappled into the ground. If I used my legs it was always for kneeing people. One of my last fights ever I just somehow grappled the dude in such a way where his back was facing me and his arms were completely locked with mine so I just kneed him in the tailbone like 3 times and that was it.

Well my martial arts days was back as a pre-teen and teenager, which was back in the 90s, so MMA wasn't really a thing yet. And I never actually used it in a real fight. As i stated, I'm not a fan of actual violence, sparring is fine, but frankly I did martial arts mostly for the forms and the mental balancing. I found much more benefit from memorizing the forms and doing those as floor exercises, and hated when a lesson went to the sparring session. I usually did fine, as my reach allowed me more combat control, but I didn't enjoy it.

 

[CM156]

I'm counting this as a game, even though some people might disagree with that assessment.

I went to the mafia museum in Las Vegas two years ago. One of the exhibits was a law enforcement use of force training. We were put in rooms with a projection of a crime response as well as firearms. So it was kinda like cut-rate VR. The first two situations went well (my partner shot a couch without needing to, but that wasn't an issue). We were then put in a scene where we were chasing someone. Through my head I'm thinking "Okay, they're running. This is easy. I don't shoot in these situations." Then the guy turns and I see something metal and shiny. Out of instinct, I fire several shots. It cuts away to show the body falling over and a metal necklace falling out of his hands. He didn't have a gun.

That really messed me up for the rest of the day. To think that if I had been in that situation, I would have killed an unarmed person.

 

[BrawlMan]

Evil Within 2 really got me hooked to try a some more over-the-shoulder survival horror games. I have about over 50 hours into that game. Hi-Fi Rush gave me a big feeling I have not felt since the Dreamcast/PS2/GC/XBOX era.

 

[mirbrownbread]

The ladder scene in Snake Eater right after The End boss fight.

When her voice starts piercing through following that exhausting ordeal, it gets me every time. I remember pausing for several minutes the first time I reached that point - a moment when Kojima's understanding of movies and what makes us relate to them really settled in. After that experience, I started looking at all video games with different eyes, waiting for the next invisible thread between me and the creators to form.

Games are not just exercises of correctly-timed button inputs the player should condition themselves to perform - they can convey important messages, perhaps ones that cannot be painted via any other medium.

 

[Absent]

One unexpected form of impact that takes time to assess is how powerful or evocative an environment is. It takes me years to measure how a game's environment has stayed with me, becoming the background for dreams, or a point of reference for real life landscapes. How it seeps in like the memory of a familiar place, even if I didn't realise, while playing the game, how much it would.

One odd example (aren't they all) are the hills near the end of Clive Barker's Undying. When you just follow a path up to some rions, or something, and get swarmed with little goblins, or something. For some reason, that virual place keeps coming back to my mind.

I hadn't been impressed by the game, as I played it. I was disappointed by it being a mere first person shooter, with clunky models (felt like all the furniture was gigantic compared to the character models) and railroaded (with doors opening on new areas when the plot agrees). Not to mention the stupid cliffhanger ending. But, still, something in the design and atmosphere had really struck my imagination.

 

[Summerstorm]

Uh, older thread, but right up my alley:

Played Defcon (a "Wargames" or Coldwar inspired "Hot-War" simulation, you plan out the route for subs and carriers, and which missile silos go when in alert and where to aim, and set up the defenses)

So then after the war goes nuclear und you launch and see which missiles go through and hit what target number pop up: How many megadeaths you caused. Like: Yeah, full hit on Moscow. WHOOO

And then i begin to hear something. The Soundtrack up the point was just oppressive gloomy background... but is there someone crying? And it got louder, clearer with more destruction (Which you see only as basic numbers on a map).


That took me totally out of the game and i was just: WTF am i DOING? Reflecting how similar it must be to decide things or just follow orders after you turned them into a "game" in your head and removed emotional connections from the tasks.

Excellent message. Good game and than at the end coming in with a subtle but somehow heavy hammer.

 

[Absent]

Excellent message. Good game and than at the end coming in with a subtle but somehow heavy hammer.

 

[Gordon_4]

Mass Effect 3 gets me good a couple of time. Mordin's scene on Tuchunka and Grunt's fight against the Rachni on Utukku, along with the follow up delivering a message to a dead Krogan commando's Asari wife.

"Oh blue rose of Illium......."

Oh it was fucking ON after that.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

This is gonna sound dumb and all the girls are gonna laugh at me, but the cat in the beginning of Forspoken looked a lot like my cat. And even though none of the intro was convincing, the moment that cat was in danger when fire broke out in flat, adrenaline and fear flooded the bloodstream and was like "nooooooo don't you dare burn my poor baby!"