Strange Conversations: Part One Hundred and One
Posted 14 March 2009 in Strange Conversations by Catriona
Scene: a quiet afternoon in the study, Nick playing Fallout Three and me lurking on a forum. Suddenly, the peace is rudely shattered.
NICK: AAAAAARGH!
COMPUTER: Boom!
ME: Screech!
NICK: What just happened?
ME: Yes, what the hell did just happen?
NICK: I heard this noise behind me, and then, with the stuff . . .
ME: I threw something in the waste-paper bin.
NICK: Oh.
ME: And then you screamed and I didn’t know what was happening so I screamed.
NICK: I thought a giant insect had landed on me, in addition to the goddamned death claw trying to kill me!
ME: Right.
NICK: I mean, they’re the toughest roaming creatures in the game, they can kill you with one swipe, and now they’re just spawning everywhere!
ME: Okay.
NICK: Everywhere in the game, I mean.
ME: Yes, I assumed that.
NICK: So I’m just . . . I’m just a little jumpy.
ME: I can see that. But it’s okay now?
NICK: Yeah. No. Yeah.
(Pause)
NICK: Ha! Got the bastard.
Ah, immersive gaming. It immerses everyone in earshot, whether you want to be immersed or not.
Share your thoughts [4]
1
Drew wrote at Mar 14, 04:04 am
absolutely! pity the poor blighter who knocks on my front door during a boss fight, even, and I mean this, even if it’s my own children and there’s a blizzard outside.
“Boss fight, rug up, I’ll be 10 mins, and please keep the moaning down, it’s distracting.”
2
Catriona wrote at Mar 14, 07:04 am
I can sympathise with that—I have been known to accuse Nick of making me lose a boss fight by walking past at an inopportune moment. But he plays for hours and it’s not just the boss fights that are immersive.
But, really, it’s not a problem, except on those occasions when I have a deadline or a pile of marking while he’s playing: then he puts headphones on, so when anything happens he just shouts really, really loudly.
3
heretic wrote at Mar 16, 12:00 am
One of my favourite stories happened to a mate of mine in high school. He’d been at another mate’s place having a prolonged Doom ][ fest, hours of gaming fun. He was riding home through the bushy suburb streets of Karana Downs, when something rolled around in his lunchbox and produced a noise similar to one of the enemies approaching.
Apparently he jumped, tried to turn around and find a gun (logic had no say in what was going on) all in one panicky moment. He wouldn’t admit if he stacked the bike…
A more common occurence is this:
Me: mid combat, playing COD4
Leah: walks in “Hey you…”
Me: “GAH!” BOOM “SHIT! …um, yes?”
4
Catriona wrote at Mar 16, 12:05 am
That last conversation? We have had that many, many times. Except once I hear things explode, I usually leg it before I can find out how much damage I caused.
I’ve never been in the other situation, but my hands-down favourite moment in the Doom movie was when Karl Urban’s character shot his own reflection. We’ve all been there.