Echoes [Thauma]

Have you ever awoken in the middle of the night because you were being chased by Bowser in your dreams? Did you ever, after playing Doom for the first time, find yourself walking around a mall and appreciating three dimensional reality? When you daydreamed your World War Z plan, did running zombies of the Left 4 Dead variety feature? Have you ever been listening to a track from Rez and visualising in the game while shopping?

Relax, you’re just engaged. The game made an impression in your subconscious, signifying itself as something more than just a fun way to pass the time. It got inside your head and bounced around, like an echo.

Echoes are how you know if a game is thaumatic. Echoes are cool.

 

(Today’s image is from the I Am Iron Man 2 augmented reality app.)

Comments

[Piotrbugno]

I loved your use of the word "echo": it's describe perfectly the mix of daydreaming and impressions left by games.

Just wondering: when does engagement become addiction? I always felt that these echoes where a clear sign of my addiction to a game (e.g. the mother of all addiction: World of Warcraft) and a warning to stop.

[Tadhg]

I think it's addiction when you're tolerating the game more than having real fun with it. Like slot machines or loot drops, you know that there's the potential of reward out there but most of the time it's just work.