Woo hoo! (By the way, I find it funny that spell check underlines hoo, but not woo.) On the way home today, I saw one of those gas pipeline way stations enclosed in a chain-link fence. My first thought was, “ooh, random encounter!” Why? Because I played Fallout3 so much, and several zones in Fallout3 had similar way stations. This thought got me to remembering other stupid game-related observations I’ve made while driving home.
When we were playing WoW, I would see bumps in the landscape and think “ooh, chest!” because at first glance they looked like the treasure chests in WoW.
When we were playing Lord of the Rings Online, I would see bushes out in otherwise grassy fields and think, “ooh, raspberries!” because they looked like the raspberry bushes in game.
And my favorite. When we were playing Hellgate:London, I would see raised manhole covers on the side of the road and think, “ooh, treasure passageway!” because they looked like…well, the openings to treasure passageways.
It’s not that I just think these things look similar, it’s that I actually think for a split second that I’m looking at a real one from whichever game and could harvest/go into it. Too much immersion in my gaming? I wonder.~H