So I am playing Fallout 3 (post apocalyptic role playing game) and loving, loving, loving it. Despite having lots of young children and a demanding job I am staying up into the night wandering around the wasteland, exploring, fighting and all the rest. Great stuff.
But I've just been in a bit of the game where you plug into a virtual reality situation and get trapped inside and need to figure a way out.
The fascinating thing I have realised (in retrospect) was that because this section of the game wasn't 'real' I didn't carefully explore and appreciate this quest as I have done with the rest of the game. Instead I rushed through it thinking that it didn't matter and had little worth because what my character was experiencing was all electronic make believe that had no value, impact or relevance on his 'real' existence.
Once my character had escaped the VR scenario I got back into slowly and deliberately enjoying the world and the adventures he has in it.
So why, when inside the game my unconscious decides that a VR section is a pointless waste of my time, is the main game itself so addictive and compelling for me when actually IT IS a pointless waste of my time that has no value, impact or relevance to my real existence?
Why does my unconscious not make the same judgement call about the game itself and stop me playing?
In fact other than the small benefit of being a pleasurable leisure activity it is actually of detriment to my real life as it takes up time and energy sorely needed for more important things AND it hovers in my head all day taking up processing space with day dreams and making me post about it on here!!
Of course now all this has BECOME concious to me I can apply my reason and values to it and decide to do the right thing and stop playing and do something more useful anyway.
Yeah right.
Anyway here is the BRILLIANT trailer if you haven't seen it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYZpR51XgW0
Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude!
Quote from: Keef Monkey on 11 August, 2009, 11:42:00 AM
Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude!
Um...yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessss?
I think you that with your concise and erudite comment what you are implying is:
I'm thinking about it a little too much?
Taking everything slightly too seriously?
Need to chill out?
Perhaps adopt the attitude of a bombed out surfer?
Or perhaps not, perhaps you are just expressing admiration for the game demo, or for my mentally tangled wrestling with the nature of reality.
Either way us Monkeys have to stick together, so thanks.
I'm leaving work early now to go and play some more.
Yay for addictions!
hey hey! i too am hopelessly addicted to this absolute gem of a game so don't feel too guilty! first playthrough clocked 412 hours!!! second time round im up to about 100 plus!
missed a lot of stuff first time so went back to do it again. third time i am going to go against all my normal morals and be a complete bastard even to the extreme of mining little lamplight!
Yeah I've tried that in other games and I just can't do it. I can't be the evil guy, just can't.
Couldn't lose even one little sister in Bioshock, and in Fallout I feel guilty even if it just stealing a quantam or something from someone!
Stuck at the in-laws for a week and going cold turkey at the moment.
Embarrassed to say I found all the old 50's tunes that 3Dog plays and stuck them on my Ipod!
i dont feel too guilty about nicking stuff i always play as a han solo type rogue and in fact iam saving the world etc especially in games like fable so its only fair people contribute to the cause! ;)
if your on xbox live im "MOGGY ZOOM" feel free to add me!
But I've just been in a bit of the game where you plug into a virtual reality situation and get trapped inside and need to figure a way out.
Maybe it is the irritating background music?
Hi Carl,
I went into the old abandoned house and banged different objects in the front room which produce musical notes. If you get a note out of sequence it makes an error noise after the note. I worked it out with trial and error but I'm sure if you googled it you could get the sequence online.
Did it have different background music in the VR simulation? I wasn't in there long enough to notice!
I think I hated that bit because they took away my gun(s)!
Minky
When I first ran through Fallout3, I decided to go the same way as I did in The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, and get the main quest out of the way first. What a mistake that was, [spoiler]as the main quest finishes the story![/spoiler] but some of the DLC has changed the main quest, which I prefer. I'm going through it yet again, this time trying to behave myself! Currently I am wandering around Point Lookout, ridding the world of the shallow end of the gene pool!
Quote from: Minkyboy on 25 August, 2009, 06:26:19 PM
Hi Carl,
I went into the old abandoned house and banged different objects in the front room which produce musical notes. If you get a note out of sequence it makes an error noise after the note. I worked it out with trial and error but I'm sure if you googled it you could get the sequence online.
Did it have different background music in the VR simulation? I wasn't in there long enough to notice!
I think I hated that bit because they took away my gun(s)!
Minky
i tried that abandoned house thing and got a good karma hit but to be honest i preferred the play it out scenario and pander to the little girl with the german accent's whim especially at the end when[spoiler]you become the pint sized slasher,that was sick but fun![/spoiler]
Somethings wrong with me and ganmes these days, I love the original Fallout Games (the RPGs not Brotherhood of Steel PS2 shit) and totally redringed my Xbox360 (I figure it had something to do with the 150+ hours spent on it) on Oblivion however I just cant get into this. Probably played it for about 4 or 5 hours and then just couldn't be bothered picking it up again, i recognise that it is a p[retty good game but just couldn't get into it. Who knows why maybe it all felt a buit too much like Oblivion with guns for me.
CU Radbacker
Quote from: Radbacker on 28 August, 2009, 12:26:19 PM
Somethings wrong with me and ganmes these days, I love the original Fallout Games (the RPGs not Brotherhood of Steel PS2 shit) and totally redringed my Xbox360 (I figure it had something to do with the 150+ hours spent on it) on Oblivion however I just cant get into this. Probably played it for about 4 or 5 hours and then just couldn't be bothered picking it up again, i recognise that it is a p[retty good game but just couldn't get into it. Who knows why maybe it all felt a buit too much like Oblivion with guns for me.
CU Radbacker
yeah, ifelt like that at first even to the point of trading it in. but i gave it a proper go and once you level up and get acess to the better weapons and power armour it suck you inand the feral ghouls STILL have me on edge