Comments on: Lost in the Supermarket

By: PoC

PoC — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 17:40:24 +0000

After playing Dead Rising, I noticed that I really, really hate malls. And I now analyze a store’s content in terms of what would be most useful in the event of a zombie outbreak.

By: Tfc Supermarket

Tfc Supermarket — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 08:27:43 +0000

[...] Lost In The Supermarket | Rock, Paper, Shotgun [...]

By: Older Elder Scrolls Freer | Design Website

Older Elder Scrolls Freer | Design Website — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:51:14 +0000

[...] Lost in the Supermarket [...]

By: GibletHead2000

GibletHead2000 — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 15:31:32 +0000

Similar to quicksave.. After playing Baldur’s Gate for any considerable period of time, I find myself reaching for the spacebar every time I have to make a decision about, well, anything really.

By: LlamaFarmer

LlamaFarmer — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:48:11 +0000

Everytime I go through an automatic door I pretend to open it with the force. Sometimes when I’m feeling lazy I point to light switches to turn them off…it never works.

By: Kast

Kast — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:06:30 +0000

On a similar vein, I found myself reaching out my hand to a cup the other day, expecting it to float into my hand. Or possibly float mysteriously a couple of feet in front of me.

I however didn’t feel pathetic, only mildly frustrated that life didn’t measure up to my expectations. Needs more features. Anyone want to try putting together a community patch?

By: F'yth

F'yth — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:55:39 +0000

Occasionally I’ll find myself reaching for the quicksave button or F10 (depending on what I’ve been playing). It happened again a few days ago actually. I felt somewhat pathetic (and dissapointed) when I realised that I was standing, in a shopping mall; and that even if there was a quicksave button, it would be a little unreliable for RL usage.

By: MPK

MPK — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 11:06:07 +0000

I caught myself strafing round corners in Tesco the other day, which was wierd, but it’s Tesco and it’s amazing the behaviour you can get away with in there. Also, there’s the old you-know-you’ve-played-too-much-Tony-Hawks thing of working out trick patterns as you’re going down the street, and you-know-you’ve-played-too-much-Champ when you assign monetary values to the lives of your family and friends.

Or is that Hitman?

By: LlamaFarmer

LlamaFarmer — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 09:12:44 +0000

There was a time when I was younger and I played a lot of CS or TFC and in real life I started to bang my shoulders into every corner I went round and door I went through. I think it was because in FPSs you don’t have shoulders to worry about, and if you can see a clear path forward you can walk forward. I also think I started to stafe round corners, but I can’t remember. More recently, while at uni after playing Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, I would spend boring lectures imagining how I would run up the walls and leap onto projectors, swing off lights etc.

By: FaceOmeter

FaceOmeter — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 09:05:26 +0000

Once, after a Neverwinter Nights all-nighter, I went into the kitchen to get some cereal beforemy morning lecture (those were the days…). But instead of opening the cupboard with the cereal in, Ijust stood in front of it. It took me maybe three seconds torealise I was waiting for the cupboard to glow blow, as interactive objects do in NWN when youmouseover them.

Three seconds doesn’t sound like a long time, but it really is…

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 03:20:49 +0000

Gaming has made us better at gaming. There are game mechanic analogies for a hell of a lot of the stuff we do. From the mundane to to complex. I don’t think that messed us up, I think it’s made us better thinkers. We abstract the problem better.
That’s why South Korean stock broking firms hire ex Starcraft idols.

However the one significant thing games don’t seem help us with, is concentration and patience. I think they give us shorter attention spans. So games don’t make us better at maths.

By: Janek

Janek — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 23:38:52 +0000

I think the only two (somewhat related) quirks of my behaviour that could possibly be linked to gaming are some degree of compulsive hoarding of apparently useless crap (hello, RPGs/point and click adventures); and collection of mundane, relatively worthless items (pint glasses, band badges, dog figurines etc).

Much of the joy of Morrowind for me was my quest to acquire skulls. Lots and lots of skulls. Which I put in a big pile in the master bedroom of my giant mushroom house. Itsa-itsa-itsa skull etc.

Of course in games the hoarding thing is often a necessity, whereas in real life it’s probably just a sign that I’m going slightly insane. Being a collector of stuff is a bit more common, and I’m sure skulls and pint glasses were collected from much the same root compulsion.