Besides the obvious "I played Grand Theft Auto and even though I know better I still can't see a pedestrian without getting the urge to run them down in my car---thankfully I resist" forms of mind warping, how has gaming subtly altered your perception of the world?

Personally, I saw a brick lying on the sidewalk near my apartment and thought "Great, just 300 more and I can upgrade my palace, but will the jeweler take bread in exchange?" (thanks to Nile Online)

Any time I see blocks, Legos, Jenga bricks, or anything of the sort I immediately think of Tetris and how I could stack them together so a really tall one could go in vertically and knock off four rows of them.

Thanks to Gran Turismo I have trouble seeing cars without thinking "if I dropped in a sport transmission and upgraded the tires I could probably get that thing to do 90 around a corner, and a little engine tweaking could get it up to 170 on the freeway."

And finally, the NHL 2K series has me unable to watch hockey without thinking every one-timer shot and wraparound is supposed to go in the net and I'm surprised and disappointed when it doesn't.

I feel like I should be able to levitate and have a small degree of telekenesis.
Somehow, I feel like that stems from a certain few Valve games...

After playing Oblivion as a Marksman, I started to think a bow is easy to fire. WRONG.

Cod4 for making me think Shooting is easy its not oh and making me feel that getting shot doesnt hurt a few seconds and ill be right... No paintbally to the thoart and i was on red HP rolling on the ground...

*eagerly awaiting a Zombie apocalypse*

My perception isn't all that altered, though lately I've been making a lot of silly WoW references in my daily travels; 'Hhm, I wonder how much mana this smoothie recovers?'.
We have these diamond shaped paper weights at my job and my immediate thought when I saw them was "Chaos Emeralds?" I keep imagining that if I held them all at once I could be invincible but, alas, we don't have all seven colors.
It comes and goes. D&D references are more common.

I can't help but wonder if I'm just being a coward every time I see a near-impossible edifice to climb, distance to jump, or height to fall and decide that it's not safe.

xitel:
After playing Oblivion as a Marksman, I started to think a bow is easy to fire. WRONG.

Crossbows, on the other hand...

I sometimes start conversations by walking up to someone and saying "rumors."

meatloaf231:

I sometimes start conversations by walking up to someone and saying "rumors."

lol

I keep thinking my leather armband increases my strength.

I forget that drivers in cars are not the same as AI drivers and won't try to run me over.

I always wonder if my car is big enough to roll up the pedestrians into a ball big enough to make a star. I'm usually wrong :(

One way games have warped my perspective: Every time I see a 2x4, I look around to make sure no crazy people are going to leap out of the shadows and beat me with a pipe or other random object (Thanks, Condemned...)

Other than that, some D&D references and the occasional thought that if I punch enough people, I will grow horns. The latter only happens when I haven't slept in a while, though.

Yegargeburble:
One way games have warped my perspective: Every time I see a 2x4, I look around to make sure no crazy people are going to leap out of the shadows and beat me with a pipe or other random object (Thanks, Condemned...)

Other than that, some D&D references and the occasional thought that if I punch enough people, I will grow horns. The latter only happens when I haven't slept in a while, though.

Damn, I could easily acquire that Condemned quirk, though I'd be more scared of those crawling, frail guys. If I go to London again and see a hobo sleeping under a out-folded cardboard box, I might panic.

My most obvious anomaly brought on by video games were slight OCD in my childhood years, where everything I stepped on gave different amounts of points, and my right foot had to have more, preferably twice as much, when I died. Most often, dark points subtracted points, so I always stepped on such things with my left foot. This would normally be carpets, versus the floor and/or thresholds, as well as any metal details on the floor and colour changes in different floors. Same thing outside, naturally, with the pavement and leafs and... yeah, you get the picture. It was rather extreme at one point.. and you know what they say about OCD.

And no, I had not played Super Mario. My first console was the Sega Mega Drive, with James Pond III. EPIC game.
Second game would come to be Shining in the Darkness. MEGA-EPIC game.

I'm sure I can think of more recent deviations in time, apart from the obvious RPG/DnD-lingo/behaviour.

Onmi:
I forget that drivers in cars are not the same as AI drivers and won't try to run me over.

its sad that the drivers here Actually dont pay attention enough and have nearly run people over

None for me. I have always had destructive urges that I suppressed down.

Silent Hill 2 & 3 have forever tainted how I feel when in hospitals and schools.

After playing the Thief and Hitman series, I'm always staring at people's houses wondering how I can break in without being seen.

Also, when I'm riding in a car, I always look out the window and pretend everything I'm seeing is an extended level in a platforming game. Then I try to jump over everything with my eyes. Then my eyes hurt.

Games, or rather, the communities around them, make men seem safe and approchable.
There are so damn many creepers out there!

Erana:
Games, or rather, the communities around them, make men seem safe and approchable.
There are so damn many creepers out there!

The moral of the story, Erana, is that you should marry a gamer dude. On the whole, we're just plain better people.

After playing World of Warcraft, I see glowing exclamation points of the heads of people who have a "quest" for me.

Also, after playing GTA IV, I accidentally tried to open my car by smashing in the window with my elbow..........odd..........

Final fantasy, Dragon quest, Disgaea, The elder scrolls and fallout all convinced me that life would be so much easier if we all had stats.

DWing:
Silent Hill 2 & 3 have forever tainted how I feel when in hospitals and schools.

Ditto.. when I visited my dad in the hospital last year I noticed that the hospital had only grated up/barred windows, gritty floors and all over the hallways there were those beds that are made to strap people down and keep them still. I felt pretty dizzy when I noticed the similarity to the Silent Hill hospital...

The Great Fa:
After playing the Thief and Hitman series, I'm always staring at people's houses wondering how I can break in without being seen.

Hah, same here, it's fun to visit people then look for strategic places like windows or pipes wondering if you could escape that way XD

Speaking of which.. after a few quests in Oblivion where I had to follow some NPCs I started following people on the streets in real life trying to see if they'd notice me. Don't get me wrong, I just picked people that were heading my way, I wasn't stalking them. Boredom and too much gaming can do that to me..

I can't watch war films without shouting a better strategies over the top of the action. Through the second half of Full Metal Jacket my recurring thoughts were "Artillery Strike".

It just so happens that I ripped open my hands, trying to climb up a elementary school just the other day.

Apparently I am not the bastard son of Altair and Faith...

Pity.

But I also have that ''hitman effect'', always looking for ways to get in and out without getting unwanted attention. It's real fun to actually try t, but people might thing you're paranoid, which might be the next step of the 'hitman effect''

xitel:
After playing Oblivion as a Marksman, I started to think a bow is easy to fire. WRONG.

LOL
once you get used to them they are alright, 24 caliber is probably the minimum needed for acurate shooting/firing/slinging?.

When i was younger i tied spoons to my hand to be like Wolverine. But that was the film not a game. And "X-men the official game" was shit. Although I made this fireball with cloth, petrol and a lighter and threw it at someone because it looks cool to throw fireballs. There really easy to make as well, and don't burn you :D

Last month I played Solitaire for 6 hours a day for a couple of days. After that I kept instinctual stacking queens on kings in my mind. I'd do it with two things when one was bigger, superior, or darker then the other. It really freaked me out.

If you get into a fight with someone, they don't actually wait patiently while you rifle through the contents of your pockets....=(

PhantomDave:
If you get into a fight with someone, they don't actually wait patiently while you rifle through the contents of your pockets....=(

That's just because reality uses Alone in the Dark's inventory system. It sucks in that game and it sucks in real life.

Videogames made me think that if I went around punching various woodland creatures to death, I'd gain exp and level up.

Actually, I got arrested.

Amarok:
Videogames made me think that if I went around punching various woodland creatures to death, I'd gain exp and level up.

Actually, I got arrested.

What they don't tell you is that all the pointless fetch quests, tutorials, and other random bullshit you have to put up with before life lets you out into the world levels you up to the point where rats and squirrels no longer provide XP. You want to level up, you gotta go pick on something bigger. I believe they call the quest "big game hunting trip".

Amarok:
Videogames made me think that if I went around punching various woodland creatures to death, I'd gain exp and level up.

Actually, I got arrested.

Thats why you should train using bows and athletics, then you could kill woodland critters or what ever from afar and then run