Marek

Games associated with other memories?

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Today is the first day this year that it's really been autumn-y, with wind and rain and wearing a sweater again and all that stuff. Suddenly I'm reminded of games I played during this season last year, including Sands of Time and Ragnarok Online. Especially Sands of Time, which I played in a dark December with a candle next to my computer. I'm feeling sort of happily melancholic right now, kind of like how good music will often remind you of the first time you heard it.

So let's talk about this. Do you unconciously associate your game experiences with the state you were in while you played them?

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Interesting question... I'll dig into my own memory.

Ah yes!

Now firstly, I'm not much of a car-fan. Racegames hold _very_ little appeal to me. But somehow, Microsofts Midtown Madness struck a chord. Perhaps it was the cruising aspect where you could just blast through the city. There wasn't very much to do, but they nailed the atmosphere of cruising under a tranquil tone perfectly. Thus, it became the ultimate stressreliever when I was waiting for the phonecall that told me I had passed my highschool exams. Playing that game for distraction, cruising through the city; it's something I'll always remember the game for. I never played it again afterwards, but if I'd do it again I'd feel as if returning to a friend. Sorry for being soppy.

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I don't really associate games with happenings in my life, but I can often remember what song/album I was listening to during a particular part of a game...

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I often associate games or programs with music I listened to while using them. I tend to listen to a very few songs over and over again for long periods of time (I do that less now, but when I was 14 I could listen to the same CD for weeks, and it wasn't even on shuffle), and while I can't recall what music it was, I have "music associative memories" (that sounded intellectual) with for example two different versions of Worldcraft.

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Actually, I do that a lot. But I haven't really thought about it much. In a few cases, I can remember back almost 10 years ago. For example maybe 8-9 years ago I was playing Mordor in the evenings after doing repairs in our old apartement. There wasn't much furniture there, and I think I sat on a tall stack of pillows. I got really addicted to the game and I think I played more than I worked. Afterwards it was never the same because I had a pirated version which couldn't be reinstalled (just copied) and somehow the sound got screwed up after I installed Windows 95.

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Whenever I here the chemical brothers song "setting sun" I think of the Sims, shudder, and then I just have to switch it off. Its quite bothersome.

One fond gaming memory I have was when I was just a tot, maybe 5 or 6, I was on a roll in Super Mario 3. I was so proud of my achievment that I decided to just pause the game so I could show my brother (who was at school or something) where I'd gotten to. I had it paused for a good few hours before my sister switched off.....its a very vivid memory. Good times. Obviously this memory is recalled when playing said game.

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used to happen to me ALL the time, im glad im not the only one ....

... a year or two ago, my computer was in the living room, right next to the tv. so my memories of movies are connected with games. whenever i watch "that thing you do" i remember playing the second level of that POS game, 007:nightfire ... thank god i just borrowed it!

SiN

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Whenever I play Knights of the Old Republic, I think of pepperoni and ritz crackers. When the game first came out, I would stay up until at least three in the morning playing, and whenever I got hungry I'd eat some ritz crackers and pepperoni (which were, at the time, the most accessible things in the kitchen. And by "most accessible", I of course mean "only".)

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Irish folk music reminds me of lightsaber fights as I listened to that while playing Jedi Outcast.

Southish of my house in Belgrade, in a small street that I seldom passed by (at times I had to take that way when going to catch a certain bus that went to my mother's work), almost an access lane for a bigger street, there is a no stopping sign. For years every, but every time I passed by that particular no stopping sign I would think of horses because when I was seven or eight, somebody was driving me that way and we were talking about horses as I carelessly looked through the window and espied that no stopping sign.

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There are many older games with which I associate certain music very strongly. They tend to be RTS games as well as stuff like Diablo 2, because genres like adventure sort of deserve to have their own soundtracks. But almost any Blizzard game has very strong musical associations for me, as do most of the pre-Half Life FPS games I played.

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valadeline4.jpg

The most recent piquant remembrance I had was playing Syberia during that period of depression I went through last year in the fall. I was in lamentation about my not having a life (city, apartment, good job, friends around me), getting sick, and feeling isolated in the rural suburbs. The story in Syberia touched me in a way that nudged me back up from the dumps, and inspired me to re-appreciate what I had with me instead of pining for what I had in the past. Felt like a longtime friend whose shoulder I could cry on, who tells me to let myself into pain and feeling the groundlessness because it's through all these that I'll transcend it all and be good in the aftermath.

In fact, Syberia affected me so much that I wrote an essay about how it helped me, as a way of documenting it. I then wrote that analysis of the game's symbolism of death and rebirth, and felt I had to share it with everyone. I saw things in the game's story that held powerful affirmations for me. This is a strong case where a Video game is absolutely nothing to be scoffed at and dismissed, if it inspires someone, anyone, then it should never be disrespected and sniffed at.

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I associate Dpaint with the Eurythmics.

And I associate Tom Petty with MI2 because I remember we were listening to him when we were on the way home after first buying MI2. Oh, and a hamster. MI2 and a Hamster. The Hamster was in a little cardboard tube that I kept sticking my fingers in to to say hello. We hadn't bought a cage yet because it was a complete case of impulse buying. The hamster lived for four years, which is a record for hamsters. So whenever I play MI2 or DOTT when you freeze the hamster to death, I think of Tom Petty.

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The quote is from the AGS forums. I said I'd put Paris on my list of people to go underneath, because I didn't have a list of places to go underneath. Man, Deadworm, you're such a spam monkey.

BACK ON TOPIC,

I went through a stage of breaking alarm clocks. So I would set my computer alarm to wake me up instead, because I was going to have to think twice about smashing hundreds of dollars worth of electronic equipment against the wall, no matter how early it was.

Anyway, I would set it to play music as a certain time. Obviously, I chose a song I loved to wake me up.

After about two weeks of using this song to wake me up, even though I would only hear a few seconds of it each time*, I could no longer listen to those songs. They made me feel ill. Seriously. Try it some time. It's a really weird experience to be so irritated by a song you like.

*I would set my speakers to the loudest volume setting so that I had to get up. At 6am each morning, Garbage - I'm only Happy when it Rains would start blaring across my room. I would leap upright, jump out of bed, land on my face, crawl across the floor on my hands and knees, and yank the speaker plug from the wall socket. Then I'd lie across the floor with my head on my arms, still clutching the plug, with one leg tangled around my blanket.

Then I'd wake up.

EDIT: Er, sorry... that wasn't on topic at all. But it's still true, and it's still really weird because I actually physically can't listen to those songs any more... um... I thought we were talking about music :erm:

As regards the uh, ACTUAL topic... yes, yes I do. We used to sit down and complete adventure games together, the whole family. So there's a very nice, homely feel to those games, especially Monkey Island 1 and 2.

Of course, now my family is all broken up and stuff, which is why those games are completely special to me. ;(

And I don't know if you ever played Xquest, but it irritates me because it reminds me of when I used to play it just seconds before being kicked out in the rain/snow/wind to walk to school. I only ever felt like playing it in the mornings, and Mom would make porridge and I hated porridge but she made me eat it for 'energy', and my Dad insisted that I put salt in it instead of sugar because it's healthier, so I'd have to eat salty porridge and tea with no milk, because I wasn't allowed to drink coffee and because my parents had a 'no dairy products' rule. Then, while I was walking to school, crying because I'd been on like, Level 10 of Xquest when they had pulled the plug, I would examine my lunch box and discover my Mom had put in Vegetable Paté on Soda Bread and a stick of celery, and a little bottle of v8 (which is a vegetable drink with 8 different vegetables: tomato, spinach, celery, potato, some other stuff...).

So, even though I liked Xquest as a game, it reminds me of those awful, awful mornings when I realized I was going to have to face salty porridge and school lunch. Oh, and all the other kids in the school would laugh at me because I had a crappy lunch.

Bastards!

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Oh, and all the other kids in the school would laugh at me because I had a crappy lunch.

Bastards!

I hear there's a reunion soon. Are you going?

--Erwin

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Yeah, and I'm gonna bring, get this... Spicy Wedges with Curry Dip, and beer. Then we'll see who gets the last laugh!

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I think my enjoyment of the original Monkey Island games is down to nostalgia.

Yeah, they're fun to play and things, but I still love that feeling of nostalgia I get every time I play them. It reminds me of being a child.

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I think my enjoyment of the original Monkey Island games is down to nostalgia.

Yeah, they're fun to play and things, but I still love that feeling of nostalgia I get every time I play them. It reminds me of being a child.

I'm reminded of being a child on a daily basis. By my colleagues, mostly.

--Erwin

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i could talk about baldur's gate 2. again.

every time when i think that i'm tired i somehow think about baldur's gate 2...

here's the whole story:

once upon a time little ryam bought baldur's gate 2. he played it around 30 minutes but the whole, new d&d complexity scared him and so baldur's gate 2 vanished from his memories.

one day night little ryam was verrrry verrrrrry drunken. this happened somewhere in the first weekend right after the beginning of 9 week lasting austrian summer holidays. and because of the fact that little ryam was 16 years old and little and dumb and naive he decided not to sleep, when he came home around *blackout*. so he started baldur's gate 2 because of *blackout*. then he generated a character and named him Ryam BaCo (i reversed my last name Mayr and made BaCo out of Banana and Coconuts, because of *blackout*). little ryam decided to play as a ranger, because he liked the word affinity, which reminded him to monkeys.

then he entered the first chapter of baldur's gate 2. what a mistake it was! the next thing i remember was that i finished the first chapter of baldur's gate 2 without even knowing that i'm playing a computer game. that was too late! just...too late! i already got addicted to baldur's gate 2. the next 8 weeks i wasn't able to sleep more than 4 hours/day/night because of §$%$§%! baldur's gate 2. oh...and i had to work these 8 months...and went to parties at weekends...this was definitely the biggest phase of self-destruction in my whole life.

just to summarize the whole topic: 8 weeks baldur's gate 2. 5 days working. 2 days party. 4 hours sleep/day. sounds like an impossible lie? i swear: it is not. oh my god it is not.

baldur's gate 2 ruined changed brought a lot of joy to my life and made me to a bioware whore.

another bioware examples:

should i learn for my driving license??? - oh...no...let's play neverneverwinter nights

should i listen to my teacher when he's talking about final exams??? - better not...let's play kotor AGAIN.

could anybody please burn down bioware? please? anybody? they should stop producing games. yes. they should.

and: every time i hear rumors about baldur's gate 3 my body starts...hmmm...shaking...just as he would say to me noooo....oh...noooo...not AGAIN...epic baldur's gate 3 will KILL you. seriously. it will... :gaming:

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I was unemployed last year and I played a lot of games. So I associate games with not having to get up way too early in the morning and go to a crummy job.

I'm sorry. That's a conscious association, not an unconscious one.

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