The "bleed over" effectFollow

I don't know if you recognize this, but when I play video games, or read books, I tend to get a bleed-over effect from them, causing me to take on some of the characteristics of the characters from the video game or book. It doesn't happen with movies, probably because they only last for two hours tops, whereas a video game or book session can last almost entire days.

After reading The Lord of the Rings over the course of two weeks in France (actually, I read one book in the car down there, one while at the hotel and one in the car back), I began speaking in the same old language the books are written in. I don't mean Elvish or whatever, but the characters in LOTR have certain old mannerisms, like bursting into singing every now and then, and speaking in a very ceremonial way.

Anyway, the same thing happened after playing Mass Effect 2. Being a huge fan of the first game, I finished the sequel in just about three days of near constant playing. I don't recommend this, by the way. It will mess with your perception of reality something fierce. The point is, I got the bleed-over effect of how conversations were being carried out. Sometimes I found myself staring blankly at people, waiting for a multiple choice box to appear to indicate that it was my turn to respond. I also began to pick up on the idea that no matter who I started talking to, and no matter about what, I could always end the discussion with a one-liner. Unfortunately, this, coupled with the first part of me waiting for the multiple choice box, lead to some interesting debates with my friends and random people at bars.

Now I've gotten a new bleed-over effect, this time from Assassin's Creed 2. I swore I'd never buy it due to Ubisoft's mega hard-on for the "constant internet connection" DRM (which blows super balls of fire, even when you manage to open the right ports), but I eventually succumbed to the promise of sweet graphics and even more details than the first game.

I've just finished the game and after several all-day sessions, I now have a sudden urge to scale tall buildings and insult people in Italian. Pretty funny, if I wasn't living on the fourth floor. Every time I need to smoke, I open the door to the balcony and get the urge to do a Leap of Faith. Only thing stopping me is the lack of a haystack below my window.

So, anyone else get these bleed-over effects?

Edited, Dec 20th 2012 2:25pm by Mazra

You do know that that game is available on both the 360 and the PS3 right?

pick up the witcher, and you'll be passing ham sandwiches to wenches in hopes of sexual favors.

I only had it happen once when playing GTA San Andreas but i use to spend hours on that game everyday for like a year so that would explain it.

Edited, Jul 18th 2010 11:33am by YoGix

I sit in a dark room and eat "power pills" while listening to techno and running away from ghosts, does that count?

I've never had anything that dramatic, but I do recall on several occasions thinking I should hit my sense heading key to see which direction I was going while driving my car.

Ran across this today and thought of your post.