I remember when Doom came out -- wow. I got the demo - that allowed a user to play one level, and was hooked. My buddy Ed and I would both play almost all night long, then talk about the game after classes at Del Mar College.
I'd been playing it for about a month - mostly all late nights, when I realized that the game was affecting my brain. I was walking down the hallway at the Del Mar Business Building - where 90% of my classes were taught. I came to a corner, and rather than just casually negotiating the turn, and continuing on to whatever mundane location I was going to, I stopped, leaned my head out and checked for monsters. I was shocked. It's like the sort of realization one might have if they found themselves on a blustery afternoon, and realize they are standing in the bedroom wearing women's underwear. (Unless you are actually of the womanly persuasion. That's probably not as funny as it seemed in my head a second ago.)
Finally, Ed and I were eating lunch one day and I came clean. (Not about transvestitism!) I told him about checking for monsters around the corners and he was shocked! He was doing the same thing!!! Ah, symbiosis. I didn't feel quite so bad or abnormal any more. (Not like either one of us was or is so normal.)
I don't play many games these days. The rigors of work, home life and a nearly 5 year old make it impractical. I don't really miss it - hell, I'm sleepy at 9pm. The pressure of getting up and going to work are a bit different from the choice I made of never having a class before 10am. When I do play, it's usually a benign strategy game, like something from the Command and Conquer genre, or my latest, jigsaw puzzles online. How boring. Nothing like a giant monster coming screaming at you through the CRT, blood dripping from its fangs, making a sound through the headphones that makes you want to scream and run and causes you to pee a little.
Ah, good times.
