In-Game Habits That Leak Into Your Real Life

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Have you ever stopped yourself and notice you did something that you developed from gaming habits?

I even find myself whistling the tune that plays in the Barrens in World of Warcraft or saying "Thank you, kind sir." more often than I should (if you've ever met a begger in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion you know what I'm talking about).

Anyways, any weird and interesting little habits and quirks that you have developed in games that become part of little interactions in your real life?

Sniper's vocabulary is seeping inside my already quite awful English. :<

Beyond that, none that I know of.

I use quotes or the paraphrasing of quotes from various games all the time.

For instance, my dog once stole my sandwich, and I proceeded to shout, 'Stop right there criminal scum!'

Or if the battery on my mobile phone is low, 'Spah is sappin' mah cell phone!'

Every time I kill someone, I reload right afterwards, even if it only took one bullet; it's just like Call of Duty!

I like to look at the environment around me to determine what I could and could not climb around on in case an escape is necessary (think Assassins Creed or Uncharted). I know if I actually attempted any of these things, pain would be the result but I can dream...

Also, less gaming related but I try to rate my environments on how well I could do in case of a zombie invasion. You never know when that knowledge will save your life.

I've genuinely found myself strafing before. The immediate afterthought being 'What the hell am I doing and why?'.

I also use a lot of gaming quotes, sometimes without realising it. This means I laugh to myself at weird times...

I was about to try a roll in real life after playing a marathon of OoT and Majora's Mask.

I literally had to catch myself from doing so.

Only a few days of minecraft, and the sight of a sunset when I'm not very close to my house already makes me nervous. I think I may need help.

Plucking and eating the local flora to discover their alchemical properties.

My tendency to aim for the head.

i have a tendency to not jump or walk on cracks for fear i will fall through the world.

When people ask me what's up, instead of 'not much' I tell them about the mudcrab I saw the other day and how they're disgusting creatures.

When I walk through a crowd, I turn my shoulders and sometimes put my hands on people's chests, just like Altair. Thankfully, it's only a short-term effect of Assassin's Creed playing.

I have to pick up every single coin I see, I tend to literally jump over cracks, and I also almost ate a mushroom right off the stem.

I've started trying to do Parkour
I stack my backpack like the old inventory management systems
When I kill someone I check to see if they dropped any valuable loot

Whenever I walk on grid tiles, I always step in the knight's movement pattern from chess.

Does that count?

For a while after playing Fable 1 I would think 'alright hero' at people walk past me.

tippy2k2:
Snip.

Oh thank God, I'm not the only one.

What else... sometimes when I have to exert myself, I picture myself waving the Wiimote like you do for RE4's QTE's, or mashing circle to stab a Minotaur in God of War. That was actually really useful when I was a factory labourer.

I always drive on the sidewalk with the intention of wiping out enemy gang members and increasing notoriety for the fun of it.

I usually take a few seconds to decide for the good or evil moral choice when I am having conversations with people.

Yeah... none of those are real... I can't think of any gaming habits that sneak into my life if I have some. There might be something subconscious though.

Daaaah Whoosh:
When I walk through a crowd, I turn my shoulders and sometimes put my hands on people's chests, just like Altair. Thankfully, it's only a short-term effect of Assassin's Creed playing.

Oh god, I do this too.

My mind tries to quicksave before decisions after playing a lot of Fallout/Mass Effect, which is a fucking weird sensation.

Also, after a Grand Theft Auto IV binge, I heard something behind me and my mind tried to press in an imaginary right thumb stick to immediately switch the view to behind me, without me turning to look. Also goddamn weird.

Also, recently I say and write 'goddamned' JUST like Zaeed from Mass Effect 2. I even think it in his voice, EVERY TIME.

Bernzz:
My mind tries to quicksave before decisions after playing a lot of Fallout/Mass Effect, which is a fucking weird sensation.

Also, after a Grand Theft Auto IV binge, I heard something behind me and my mind tried to press in an imaginary right thumb stick to immediately switch the view to behind me, without me turning to look. Also goddamn weird.

Also, recently I say and write 'goddamned' JUST like Zaeed from Mass Effect 2. I even think it in his voice, EVERY TIME.

I've been there with the quicksave (though it happens to be mostly when I'm playing other games, either real or other video games without controlled saves).

Rarely I also find myself thinking about areas I am in as a map made by a game dev, and start trying to figure out where the loot might be. The weirder part is that sometimes when I check where I think these things are (basically, if it is enroute and wouldn't look odd checking), and then I do find stuff.

Everywhere I go I scope out the area to see if it is worth coming back to in a Zombie Invasion.

Bernzz:
My mind tries to quicksave before decisions after playing a lot of Fallout/Mass Effect, which is a fucking weird sensation.

Also, recently I say and write 'goddamned' JUST like Zaeed from Mass Effect 2. I even think it in his voice, EVERY TIME.

Same here on both accounts, except replace quicksaving with just saving.

If I've been playing a cover-based shooter, I often survey the area for good cover.

After playing quite a long session of GTA IV, I did once answer my friend's request to go bowling by going "No, Roman, I do not want to go fucking bowling with you!"

Luckily he'd played GTA IV and got the reference, although he thought it was a joke.

Besides that, here and there, I'll spout the odd quote from a game.

tippy2k2:

Also, less gaming related but I try to rate my environments on how well I could do in case of a zombie invasion. You never know when that knowledge will save your life.

I do this almost constantly. I've already figured out which buildings in various parts of town would be good to hole up in, depending on where I might be when the apocalypse starts.

Daaaah Whoosh:
When I walk through a crowd, I turn my shoulders and sometimes put my hands on people's chests, just like Altair.

This is actually quite useful for getting through crowds, which is why he does it. Thought I haven't played Assassin's Creed games in quite some time.

Bernzz:
My mind tries to quicksave before decisions after playing a lot of Fallout/Mass Effect, which is a fucking weird sensation.

eventhorizon525:
I've been there with the quicksave (though it happens to be mostly when I'm playing other games, either real or other video games without controlled saves).

And you guys have similarly-color-schemed avatars. COINCIDENCE?!
... Yeah, probably.

Shuguard:
i have a tendency to not jump or walk on cracks for fear i will fall through the world.

In which game does that occur?

I smash open people's crates and containers for health. I also used a crowbar as an offensive weapon and beat people to death by waving it in their face for a few seconds.

At least I did until the police got involved. (Writing this from inside the State Penitentiary.) Gordon Freeman makes it look so easy.

The Thinker:

Shuguard:
i have a tendency to not jump or walk on cracks for fear i will fall through the world.

In which game does that occur?

every game that has 3-D movement. I'll make a short paranoid list:
Skyrim,
Oblivion,
any survival horror game,
Warhammer online (many, many, many times i have fallen through the world),
sw:tor( while mountain climbing),
any game that allows me to jump, therefore i'm always jumping over the cracks or away from them.

I honestly avoid cracks in real life, i do have a pretty bad fear of heights or falling.

too much league of legends. I run into groups of people I don't belong in and fling the smallest squishiest one towards my friends so they can focus him, and then I spill my orange juice as I run away to slow them down.

nah, sorry, nothing realistic.

People hide their pottery before I come over nowadays. C'mon, if you put your money in a jar in the corner of the room, it's mine once I smash it.

No for real, my reality/game line blurring happens mainly from Animal Crossing. See a weird looking patch of dirt and note to come back with a shovel, notice a strange looking bug and reach for my net, the wind picks up and I scan the sky for presents tied to balloons...

Daaaah Whoosh:
When I walk through a crowd, I turn my shoulders and sometimes put my hands on people's chests, just like Altair. Thankfully, it's only a short-term effect of Assassin's Creed playing.

You didn't turn your shoulders anyway? Easiest way to get through a crowd.

I started saying "Logging you out Shepard" when I logged out for a few months after playing Mass Effect 2

Well these days at work, one of my tasks is to put out the deliver stocks onto the shelf. The manager encourage us to rearrange the stock area and fit in as much new stocks as possible. With that in mind I tend to think of Tetris as in rearraging the products like shapes and fit in without being too cramp (I sometime hum the themetune in my head).

I always reload after shooting someone, even if I only used one bullet.

Makes sorting and refilling the magazines a real pain.

Geth2:
Everywhere I go I scope out the area to see if it is worth coming back to in a Zombie Invasion.

Oh my god, so I'm not alone. Right now I know exactly what I'd do and where I would go in my town if there ever was a zombie invasion.

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